Andrzej Ciepliński Plays Jewish Clarinet Masterworks

Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series Co-sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music and Polish Cultural Institute New York In Person: Admission: Free Registration is required. Register Zoom Livestream: Admission: Free Registration is required. Register

Distinguished Warsaw-based clarinetist Andrzej Ciepliński will appear in a rare American recital performing Jewish classical music masterworks. This program will feature Alexander Krein's two suites of "Jewish Sketches" for Clarinet and String Quartet which take inspiration from Yiddish folksong and Klezmer music and Joseph Achron's Kindersuite, a collection of character pieces inspired by Hebrew cantillation for clarinet, string quartet, and piano. The program will also feature a new work by YIVO's own Alex Weiser and selections from Ciepliński's Limanowa project which features recently discovered pre-Holocaust Jewish music found in a small town in Southern Poland. Sergei Prokofiev's beloved Overture on Hebrew Themes completes the program. Ciepliński will be joined by cellist Julian Schwarz, pianist Marika Bournaki, violinists Peter Sirotin and Daniel Kurganov, and violist Colin Brookes. 

The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series is made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Sidney Krum.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About the Performers

​Andrzej Ciepliński is a distinguished Polish clarinetist who has gained recognition from a wide audience, performing as a soloist with such orchestras as: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (NOSPR), Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, Opole Philharmonic, Lviv Philharmonic, Slovak Sinfonietta, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Aukso, Sudeten Philharmonic. He has given concerts under the baton of Krzysztof Penderecki, Elim Chan, John Axelrod, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Marek Moś, Zsolt Hamar, Boon Hua Lien, Tung-Chieh Chuang, Yaron Traub, Christian Zacharias, Boian Videnoff, Paweł Kapuła. In 2015 as a representative of the Polish Radio, he won the prestigious title of The New Talent of The Year at the International Forum of Young Performers in Bratislava, held by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). He is also a laureate of many clarinet competitions. In 2022, the DUX label released the Ciepliński’s debut album, "Irrberge," which includes Claude Debussy's Sonata for Violin and Piano. Continuing the work of his grandfather, a legendary Polish trombonist Juliusz Pietrachowicz, Andrzej Ciepliński is involved in creating new clarinet literature through collaborating with many composers. He also promotes Polish music, his repertoire including all of the clarinet masterpieces by Krzysztof Penderecki and Mieczysław Weinberg. This young and yet acknowledged artist is a graduate from the class of François Benda at Hochschule für Musik in Basel and professor Arkadiusz Adamski at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice where he was awarded the title Primus Inter Pares. Andrzej Ciepliński was awarded the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship for his outstanding achievements.

Born in Seattle into a musical family, cellist Julian Schwarz is already being recognized as a cellist destined to rank among the finest of the 21st century. Mr. Schwarz made his orchestral debut at the age of 11 playing the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 with the Seattle Symphony with his father, Gerard Schwarz, on the podium. Since then, he has appeared with the Seattle, San Diego, Puerto Rico, Columbus (OH), Syracuse, Virginia, Sarasota, Grand Rapids, Omaha, Wichita and Modesto symphonies among others, and performed recitals at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico and in Palm Springs. He also appears regularly on the stage of Bargemusic in New York City playing chamber music and recitals with his regular recital partner, pianist Marika Bournaki. Mr. Schwarz’s recent and upcoming performance highlights include debuts with the Charlotte, Des Moines, West Virginia, Chicago Camerata, Toledo, Amarillo and Washington/Idaho symphonies, The Louisville Orchestra and Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose; return engagements with the Hartford and Boca Raton symphonies and the Northwest Sinfonietta; and recitals in Palm Springs, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia. Internationally, he made his Australian debut with the Queensland Symphony in Brisbane as well as his debut in Hong Kong appearing at the Intimacy of Creativity Festival. He also returned to the Boca del Rio Orchestra in Veracruz, Mexico and made his debut with the Mexico City Philharmonic in June 2016.

Marika Bournaki is a pianist committed to distinctive interpretations of standard repetroire, commissioning works by younger composers, and collaborating with artists from various fields. Marika was featured in the award-winning documentary, “I am not a rock star”, directed by Bobbi Jo Hart and featuring Marika, and her performances can be heard on Radio-Canada, Radio-France, BBC, WQXR in New York City, and Toronto’s Classical 96.3 FM. She has been featured on television networks such as ERT, TF1, France 2, CTV, Global, Radio-Canada, CBC, and Canal+. Marika holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School of Music, in New York.

Described by the Washington Post as "stylistically refined" "electrifying" and "brilliant," violinist Peter Sirotin has performed extensively as a chamber musician, soloist, and concertmaster since his debut at the age 14 performing Paganini’s First Violin Concerto with the Kharkiv Philharmonic in his native Ukraine. In 1997 Mr. Sirotin founded with his wife, pianist Ya-Ting Chang, the Mendelssohn Piano Trio, which performed over five hundred concerts in the US, Europe, and Asia, was featured on NPR’s “Performance Today” and WETA’s “Front Row Washington,” as well as recorded fifteen CDs including the complete Haydn Piano Trios on Centaur Records. Mr. Sirotin has collaborated in performance with pianists Ann Schein, Igor Zhukov, Alexei Lubimov, violinists Alexander Kerr and Earl Carlyss, cellist Natalia Gutman, flutist Claudi Arimany, oboist Gerard Reuter, harpsichordist Arthur Haas, guitarist Jason Vieaux and members of the Juilliard, Jasper, Jupiter, Borodin, Daedalus, Parker, Avalon, Miro and Fry Street quartets. In 2012, Mr. Sirotin and Ms. Chang, gave the world premiere of Ching-Ju Shih double concerto for violin, piano and orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. Recently, Mr. Sirotin appeared as a soloist with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, American Youth Philharmonic and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. As concertmaster, Mr. Sirotin’s performances range from Arlo Guthrie Annual Thanksgiving Concert in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Verizon Hall to performances of the Verdi Requiem, Bach’s St. John Passion and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Cathedral Choral Society in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He is currently a Concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and Co-Director of Market Square Concerts in Harrisburg, PA. In addition to active performing schedule, Mr. Sirotin has been teaching privately for nearly three decades. While many of his students won competitions and continued to pursue music professionally in conservatories like Eastman and Juilliard, the most rewarding parts of teaching for him continue to be a deep personal connection to students, and the impact of music on their lives. From 2002 until 2025, Mr. Sirotin has been artist-in-residence at Messiah University where he has co-founded and directed a summer chamber music and composition program for young musicians for 13 years. He was on faculty at Shenandoah Conservatory and Levine School of Music, given masterclasses in US and abroad, and has served as an adjudicator in competitions. Together with long-time chamber music partner, Dr. Michael Stepniak, Dean of the Shenandoah Conservatory, Mr. Sirotin has co-authored a book on the future music training in higher education recently published by Routledge Press and College Music Society. 

Violinist Daniel Kurganov, praised for his “extraordinary fervor, commitment, and technical prowess” (Classics Today), has recently given recitals at venues including Merkin Hall, BargeMusic, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Harvard Musical Association. He worked with the Violins of Hope project in Sion, Switzerland, performing on an instrument rescued from Auschwitz. He runs a YouTube Channel with 80,000 subscribers focused on violin pedagogy and performance, and has recently given masterclasses at the Boston Conservatory, the University of Maryland, and Münster Hochschule. He is also regularly featured in The Strad, and was voted “Best of The Strad 2021.” His studio albums include a 2018 debut with pianist Constantine Finehouse, world premieres by Lera Auerbach and Richard Beaudoin (Orchid Classics, 2021) and the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas on historical instruments (Hänssler Classics, 2023), which earned a 10/10 rating from Jed Distler. Born in Minsk, Belarus, and raised in Chicago, he completed his Master’s at the Zurich University of the Arts under Rudolf Koelman, a protégé of Jascha Heifetz.

Praised as “master of the strong lines,” concert violist Colin Brookes is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he made his solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at the age of 17. A founding member of the award-winning Ulysses Quartet, Colin has taught in the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School, and the undergraduate programs of Yale University and SUNY Stony Brook. Colin has performed regularly with A Far Cry, The Knights, and other critically acclaimed ensembles. Festival appearances include Kneisel Hall, Appalachian Chamber Music Festival, Geneva Music Festival, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Manchester Summer Chamber Music, and Tanglewood. In June 2013, he gave a solo recital with pianist Euntaek Kim for the St. Gaudens Concert Series in Cornish, NH.