Violinist Marta Szlubowska is the former Concertmaster of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in Jackson, MS (2005-2022). She is also a highly-acclaimed soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and a teacher.
A native of Warsaw, Poland, Ms. Szlubowska gave her first public performance at the age of seven at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall. At thirteen, she was chosen to represent Poland on a tour to Great Britain, performing as a soloist with the Szymanowski Liceum Orchestra.
In 1983, as a winner of the Joseph Maddy Scholarship, Ms. Szlubowska came to the United States to study at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance, and an Artist’s Diploma. She earned a Master of Music Degree in Violin Performance, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and served as a teaching assistant of the world-reknowned concert violinist, Charles Treger. Ms. Szlubowska’s other distinguished teachers included Janusz Szok, Charles Libove and Berl Senofsky.
Ms. Szlubowska has been awarded many prizes, including first prize in the Yale Gordon International Concerto Competition, and the Murbury Concerto Competition in Baltimore, MD. She has won second prize at the Bryan International String Competition in North Carolina, as well, as honorable mentions at the Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poland, Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium, and the Sibelius International Violin Competition in Finland.
In the U.S., Ms. Szlubowska has appeared as a soloist with the Mississippi Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Germantown Symphony, Olympia Symphony, Tacoma Symphony, Bellevue Philharmonic, Beyond the South Chamber Orchestra and many others.
Ms. Szlubowska has given numerous performances at the Tanglewood, Interlochen and Meadowmount Music Festivals, as well as the Colorado Music Festival and the Vermont Mozart Festival. She has served on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival, Marrowstone Music Festival, Belvedere Chamber Music Festival, and Utah Music Festival. She has performed under the baton of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood, and Alexander Schneider at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. She has appeared at the prestigious Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and the Community Concerts, Inc. in California.
Ms. Szlubowska has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Judith Glyde, Kevin Kenner, Julius Baker, Gerhardt Zimmerman, Harvey Felder, Alex Klein and many others. She has performed in masterclasses for such world-reknowned violinists as Ruggiero Ricci, Henryk Szeryng, Martin Chalifour, Burton Kaplan, Aaron Rosand and many others.
Between 1992 and 1999, Ms. Szlubowska held the position of Assistant Professor of Violin at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where in addition to teaching she was the 1st Violinist of the Regency String Quartet. Between 1998–2004, Ms. Szlubowska held the position of Concert Violinist of the Tacoma Symphony and later the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and was invited to perform numerous concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of such renowned conductors as Edo de Waart and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.
In June of 2009, Ms. Szlubowska toured Hungary, Austria, and Czech Republic performing as a soloist and as part of the Duo Vivace (two violins) with her daughter, Julia Kirk. Since 2009, Ms. Szlubowska has performed and given many masterclasses in Colombia, Peru and Chile. While performing and teaching in South America, Ms. Szlubowska has been a part of a special project that brings talented young musicians to the U.S. in order for them to receive the education and opportunities they deserve.
Ms. Szlubowska is one of the founding members of the Marta Szlubowska Ensemble, a 7-piece ensemble of professional string players plus accordion performing light classics and popular arrangements from around the world. Other ensembles that she help found are Trio Appassionato (violin, cello, piano), the Mississippi Fine Arts String Trio, and the Ensemble Polonaise (all-in-one-family quartet). Passion for dance music, especially the tango, drew Ms. Szlubowska toward becoming the Concertmaster of the Tango Rendezvous Ensemble dedicated to performing the music of the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla (Alejandro Drago—leader violinist and arranger) between 2011 and 2016.
Ms. Szlubowska has been on the faculty of Millsaps College between 2007-2020 (as a member of the Mississippi Fine Arts String Trio, the Trio-in-Residence) and the Millsaps Conservatory of Music in Jackson, MS, She also taught violin at the University of Southern Mississippi in 2021. Ms. Szlubowska is currently pursuing her solo and chamber career by performing recitals with the Szlubowska/Belsky Duo and Szlubowska /Rollings Duo, being the soloist with the Marta Szlubowska Ensemble, playing 1st violin in the Mississippi String Quartet and teaching online and in person. She has also created so far over 100 performance and teaching videos, which you can view for free on her YouTube channel @musicalmomentswithmarta. If you enjoy the videos please share them with your friends, colleagues and students. You can also find recordings for purchase on Ms. Szlubowska’s website at: www.martaszlubowska.com.