Photo: Zbigniew Ratajczak
Joanna Zathey
Joanna Zathey, pianist, was born in Wrocław in the musicians’ family. She studied in the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań with professor Grzegorz Kurzyński, where she received a diploma with honours. In 2005 she completed postgraduate studies on chamber music in professor Dora Schwarzberg’s class in the Accademia di Musica in Pinerolo (Italy).
She developed her piano and chamber music skills under the guidance of professors such as: Werner Bartschi, Bruno Canino, Nelson Goerner, Paul Gulda, Włodzimierz Obidowicz, Maria Szwajger – Kułakowska, Andrzej Tatarski, Pierre Amoyal, Ana Czumaczenko, Robert Kabara, Herman Krebbers, Roman Totenberg, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Wen Sin Yang.
Joanna is a highly soughtafter accompanist at international master classes and competitions. She also conducts piano workshops. Since 2015 she has been co-operating as a pianist accompanist with the Sommerakademie in Schloss Heiligenberg (Germany). In 2021 she collaborated as a pianist in International Summer Academy for Young Artists in Marktoberdorf. In 2022 and 2023 she has been invited as piano coaching for young instrumentalists during Møn Summer Festival in Denmark. She takes part at violin competitions together with her pupils and students, having recieved more than 70 honorary awards as a pianist – accompanist.
She has performed in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Holland, Iceland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Turkey and Italy, playing (among other venues) at the Polish Institutes in Paris and Vienna, the Polish Embassy in Prague and in Moscow and at the Wiener Konzerthaus. She also appeared on stage in Reykjavik (Iceland) during the Polish Culture Days in 2006. Together with the flutists Ewa Murawska and Ashildur Haraldsdottir, she recorded a CD entitled “Together in Music” with Polish and Icelandic music (Acte Prealable, 2008).
Since 2011 she cooperates with the violinist Jaroslaw Nadrzycki. Together they appeared in many concerts, among others Ohrid Summer Festival in 2011, the opening recital in the NOSPR new concert hall in Katowice, in 2015, and concerts during The Polish- Russian Youth Music Festival in Moscow, in 2019 as well as at 35th International Music Festival in Izmir, Turkey in 2022. They released by the Orphée Classics label a recording of sonatas for violin and piano by Johannes Brahms (2018).
Joanna gives lectures and conducts workshops for piano teachers devoted to chamber music performance issues. She is regularly invited to sit on juries of national-level piano duets and solo piano competitions for music school students (organized, among others, by the Artistic Education Centre) and other piano competitions.
She was an official competition pianist at the 13 th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań (2006), the 1 st International Violin Competition Karol Szymanowski in memoriam in Toruń (2007), the S. Serwaczyński National Young Violinists Competition in Lublin (since 2014 till last edition in 2023) and the K. Lipiński and H. Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Lublin (since 2015 till last edition in 2024). As a competition pianist, she also collaborates with the International Telemann Violin Competition in Poznan, the National Violin Competition “Like Wieniawski” in Lublin and the Wilkomirska International Violin Competition of Polish Music in Czestochowa. In 2023 she was invited to be a competition pianist at the 19th Khachaturian 120 Anniversary International Violin Competition in Beijing as well as at Khachaturian International Youth Competition in 2024 in Beijing, China. She is also regularly invited to cooperate with violin classes during Winter Music Academy workshops in The Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music.
In 2015 she obtained the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts. She works as a chamber music pianist at the Chair of Stringed Instruments of the I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. She is also employed with the J. Kaliszewska Secondary School of Music at the Associated Music Schools in Poznań (a chartered teacher since 2014), where she co-operates with the violin class and conducts chamber ensembles.
