Krzysztof Chorzelski

Biography

Krzysztof Chorzelski was born in Warsaw in 1971 and enjoys a diverse career as a performing musician that has taken him all over the world. In 1992 he won the Wronski Solo Violin Competition in Warsaw and has performed as a recitalist and concerto soloist in Europe as well as made several radio recordings for the Polish Radio and the BBC.

In 1991 Krzysztof moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music with Grigori Zhislin and later Felix Andrievsky. In 1996 he became the viola player in the Belcea Quartet. As a member of the Belcea Quartet Krzysztof has won major international prizes at competitions, such as Osaka, Bordeaux and Banff. The quartet’s performances regularly take him to the world’s most prestigious halls, such as London’s Wigmore Hall, where the quartet had a five-year residency, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Theatre de Chatelet in Paris, Berlin Philharmonie, as well as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Since 2001 the Belcea Quartet has an exclusive recording contract with EMI Classics. Their recordings are highly acclaimed by critics and have received the  Gramophone Award, the Midem Award, the Diapason D’Or and the German Critics Chamber Music Recording of the Year Award.

Krzysztof is a viola professor at the Guildhall School, where the Belcea Quartet are also Quartet in Residence. He also returns regularly to his native Warsaw to teach at the Chopin Academy and the Elsner Music School. Krzysztof also gives regularly viola and chamber music masterclasses in Poland, Romania and Colombia. Krzysztof is a frequent guest at international festivals such as the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Spannungen in Heimbach, Germany, the Oxford International Chamber Music Festival, the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina, USA and the Moscow Chamber Music Festival “Vozvroshchenya”. He also works as a chamber music partner with Quatuor Ysaye, Ensemble Les Dissonnances, the Razumovsky Ensemble and artists such as Stephen Kovacevich, Piotr Anderszewski, Polina Leschenko, Andrew Zolinsky and Natalie Clein and Katya Apekisheva.

In 2006 he was invited by the Alban Berg Quartet to perform as a guest violist in a series of concerts celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s birth in the Konzerthaus, Vienna. Krzysztof also studied conducting with Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music and has recently founded a chamber orchestra based in London called the Metamorphosen Ensemble. His recording of Ittai Shapira’s Violin Concerto “Concierto Latino” with the London Serenata Orchestra and the composer as soloist will soon be released on the Champs Hill Records label.