Andrzej Grabiec

Professor Andrzej Grabiec, concertmaster of The American Sinfonietta since its inception in 1991, is an award winning solo and orchestral artist who captured the prestigious concertmaster position of the Polish State Radio and Television Orchestra at the age of 22. He has been a soloist throughout Europe since the tender age of eleven. Prior to assuming his current position as Distinguished Professor of Violin at the University of Houston School of Music, Andrzej Grabiec was Concertmaster with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He recently recorded the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto to great acclaim with The American Sinfonietta on the Summit label.

Mr. Grabiec began studying violin at the age of 7. Since his first full recital at age 11, he has performed as a soloist in symphonic concerts and recitals in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Great Britain, East and West Germany, West Berlin, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, and his native country, Poland. He was a prize winner at the Fifth International Henry Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznan, Poland, in 1967, and the International Jacques Thibaud Violin Competition in Paris, France, in 1969.

He completed his formal studies in 1972 with highest honors at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, where he became professor of violin. He has been invited to direct master classes in the United States, Canada, Austria and Poland. Grabiec was soloist and concertmaster of the Polish National Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and leader of Capella per Musica da Camera, a chamber orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television. Between 1979 and 1985, Mr. Grabiec was engaged by the Pueblo Symphony Association as concertmaster of the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Mozart Festival Chamber Orchestra, which he founded. He was also an artist-in-residence at the University of Southern Colorado. Grabiec made his highly successful Carnegie Hall debut recital in May of 1984. In 1985 Grabiec was appointed professor of violin and director of strings and orchestral studies at the School of Music of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, where he was also first violinist of the Fairmount String Quartet. Simultaneously the Wichita Symphony Orchestra engaged him as concertmaster.

In 1986 he was selected by the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, to become concertmaster of the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra, principal violin faculty, as well as soloist and chamber musician in many summer concerts of this annual international festival. In 1986, Grabiec was concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Rochester, New York, and since 1990, a founding member, soloist and concertmaster of the American Sinfonietta, an ensemble comprised of some of the most outstanding musicians in the United States. Grabiec joined the distinguished faculty-performers of the Sarasota Music Festival in Sarasota, Florida, in 1992, and in the fall of 1995 assumed a position of professor of violin at the Moores School of Music of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. In 1996 the American Sinfonietta offered him the position of artistic director of the American Sinfonietta Performance Academy. Since moving to Houston, Grabiec has become artistic co-director of the Virtuosi of Houston, a 45-piece orchestra comprised of some of the most outstanding young musicians in the metropolitan Houston area. Grabiec has performed as a violin soloist throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. He is also a regular participant of several summer festivals, such as Sarasota Music Festival in Florida, Texas Music Festival, Bellingham Festival in Washington, and Music Fest in Aberystwyth, Wales, in Great Britain.