About me
Graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. As a Ministry of Culture and Arts scholarship holder, she has participated in many international competitions and harp courses in France, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Italy.
For many years she has been active as a soloist and chamber musician. Her repertoire includes several solo concerts, many of which were performed for the first time in Poland. The following deserve a mention: Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz’s Concerto, Piotr Moss’s “Espressioni Varianti”, “Remenances” and “Voyage” for two harps and orchestra, Mikołaj Hertel’s “Primavera” and “Athos” – concertos for harp and strings, J.M. Jarre’s “Concerto in China”, prepared by A. Marko, Marcel Grandjana’s “Aria in the classical style”, Stanisław Moryty’s “Koncert na perkusję i harfę” (“Concerto for percussion and harp”, with Stanisław Skoczyński), Witold Lutosławski’s concerto for oboe and harp (with Mariusz Pędziałek), also in the version for flute and harp, Jerzy Maksymiuk’s “Muzyka na flet i harfę” (“Music for flute and harp”) and Marta Ptaszyńska’s double concerto (all with Jadwiga Kotnowska), Bogusław Schaeffer’s concerto for harp, Piotr Moss’s “Cinq pièces” for flute, harp and strings, and Andrzej Panufnik’s “Sinfonia concertante” (with Łukasz Długosz).
As a chamber musician she performs in duets with flute, oboe and soprano, on two harps, with percussion and in the Warsaw Harp Quartet.
She devotes a lot of attention to contemporary music premieres, taking part in festivals such as Warsaw Autumn (Warszawska Jesień), Forum of Young Composers (Forum Młodych Kompozytorów), Poznań Musical Spring (Poznańska Wiosna Muzyczna), Wrocław Contemporary Polish Music Festival (Festiwal Polskiej Muzyki Współczesnej we Wrocławiu), Polish Radio Music Festival (Festiwal Muzyczny Polskiego Radia), Łańcut Music Festival (Muzyczny Festiwal w Łańcucie), Warsaw Music Encounters (Warszawskie Spotkania Muzyczne), and many more.
She has been playing in symphony orchestras for 30 years; she was a harpist in the Olsztyn Philharmonic, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw for several years. She is currently working with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw on a regular basis.
Anna Sikorzak-Olek has made many archival recordings for Polish Radio and Television (including a Mozart concerto and a recital with flautist Kazimierz Moszyński). She has also recorded film and theatre music by Zbigniew Preisner, Maciej Małecki, Paweł Szymański, Piotr Moss, Stanisław Radwan, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Michał Lorenc, Krzesimir Dębski, Paweł Mykietyn, Marcin Zalewski and many others. She collaborates with Wojciech Borkowski, Krzesimir Dębski and Krzysztof Herdzin in recordings and concerts of popular music. She was involved in recording an album of the jazz music of Andrzej Jagodziński and Henryk Miśkiewicz, as well as in recording the works of A. Piazzola in the arrangement of Andrzej Jagodziński for Jadwiga Kotnowska.
Her work has produced several albums. These include a recital with flautist Kazimierz Moszyński (DUX), Grażyna Bacewicz’s chamber music for the harp, an album of 20th century harp concertos recorded with the Amadeus Orchestra conducted by Agnieszka Duczmal (DUX), the music of Ernest Bloch with flautist Katherine DeJongh, “Souvenir” (Beliebte Stucke fur Violine und Harfe) with Jaroslaw Olek, “Sinfonia Concertante” by A. Panufnik for flutes and harp with Ł. Długosz, the music of Zbigniew Preisner: “Trzy Kolory” (“Three Colours”), “Kolędy na Koniec Wieku” (Christmas Carols at the End of the Century), “Requiem” and many others, Paweł Szymański’s “Zaratustra”, a double album with Polish harp concerts by B. Schaeffer, A. Tansman, P. Moss, J. Maksymiuk, M. Popławski and T. Paciorkiewicz (DUX), “Osjan” and S. Moryto’s concerto, which were nominated for a “Fryderyk” award, and the original record of Michael Travlos’s music recorded with flautist Iwona Glinka-Travlos, which was nominated for an ICMA 2018 award.
Anna Sikorzak-Olek is also a teacher. She promotes the teaching of the Celtic harp in Poland.
Thirty years on the harp, more than half my life. The harp has given me the joy of interacting with music and with wonderful people: teachers, composers, conductors, musicians and actors. I have learnt a lot from them and I’m still learning. I am grateful to my teachers – Prof. Krystyna Zabieglińska and Prof. Urszula Mazurek – for their faith in me and for conditioning me, giving me the strength to play and to teach new harpists. It’s a debt that I’m trying to pay back. Thanks to music, I am still in contact with my friends from the Olsztyn Philharmonic, where I played for 10 years. The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra is equally dear to me. That’s where I learnt to do decent work and I was lucky to get to know the world’s largest literature under the baton of great conductors.
It may look like Anna Sikorzak-Olek has little free time, but despite everything going on in her life, she also finds energy for another passion: irises, which she has been painting for years.
And finally, the most important thing – family. Without their support, none of this would have happened.
