Duo Vivace

🎶 part of the Stanton Guest House Music Series 🎶

One Mother. One Daughter. Two Exquisite Musical Talents. Our next concert in the Stanton Guest House Music Series is another Mother & Daughter Reunion! This time, acclaimed violinist and Mississippi Symphony Concertmaster, Marta Szlubowska performs with her daughter, the equally talented violinist Julia Kirk.

Starting at 6:00 pm on Saturday, July 24, 2021

Admission $20 per person • includes white wine and entertainment

Seating is limited to 45 per performance.

This event produced by Vizyon Tours & Entertainment Consulting • The Stanton Guest House & Concert Hall is a Natchez INNsider property.

------------

Praised for her “warm lyricism and flawless technique” by Le soir (Belgium) and for her “gripping performance of music by Grazyna Bacewicz” by The Washington Post, Polish-American violinist, Marta Szlubowska is a sought-after soloist, chamber musician, teacher and a concertmaster. Her concerts have taken her to over 15 countries throughout Europe and the Americas. Since 2004, she has been the Concertmaster and Soloist of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in Jackson, Mississippi.

Ms. Szlubowska was the 2019/2020 recipient of the prestigious Artist Fellowship Award from the Mississippi Arts Commission to further her artistic career. She has won numerous awards, fellowships and prizes including 1st Prizes at the Marbury and Yale Gordon Competitions and the 2nd Prize in the Bryan International String Competition.

Ms. Szlubowska has appeared as a soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Bellevue Philharmonic and many others. She has given numerous performances at Tanglewood, Meadowmount and Colorado Music Festivals. In addition, Ms. Szlubowska performed under the baton of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood, as well as Alexander Schneider at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, making her Carnegie Hall debut in 1984.

​

Her passion for solo and chamber music led Ms. Szlubowska to performances with various ensembles such as Szlubowska/Belsky Duo (violin and piano), Mississippi Fine Arts String Trio, Mississippi Orchestra String Quartet, Inaugural Piano Trio, Tango Rendezvous Ensemble, Duo Vivace (with her daughter, violist Julia Kirk,) as well as the Marta Szlubowska Ensemble, a vibrant and exciting ensemble of strings and accordion, showcasing light classical and popular music from around the world.

Recent concert venues where Ms. Szlubowska has been featured include the Polish Museum of America and Sheridian Music Studio in Chicago, Illinois, St. Paul Concert Series in Meridian,Mississippi, Arts and Lecture Series at Millsaps College, Old Capitol Museum and Mississippi Arts Museum in Jackson, Mississippi and many more.

​

A recipient of the prestigious Joseph Maddy Scholarship, Ms. Szlubowska received her Bachelor’s in Violin Performance and Artist Diploma degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her teachers include Janusz Szok, Charles Libove, Berl Senofsky and Charles Treger.

​

You can find more information about Ms.Szlubowska’s concert activities, as well as her recordings, on her website: www.martaszlubowska.com.

------------

Julia Kirk is a young American violist, violinist, and pianist from Jackson, Mississippi. Born into a musical family Julia quickly showed a musical talent that needed nurturing. She began learning piano at the age of 3, violin at 6 and viola at 14. She began her piano studies with her grandmother, a concert pianist, Danuta Szlubowska, and violin with her mother, Marta Szlubowska, Concertmaster of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. She has also studied violin with Mr. Vince Missimino and Dr. Rachel Jordan. 

​

At the age of 8, Julia became the youngest ever Concertmaster of the Mississippi Youth Orchestra. Later, she won the Concertmaster position in the All-State Invitational Orchestra for several years in a row. In the summer of 2013, Julia won an international competition to participate in the inaugural year of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. NYO-USA toured Russia and England that year under the baton of Maestro Valery Gergiev. In the summer of 2014, she received a scholarship to attend an orchestra program at the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, where she won an audition to be the Concertmaster of the Interlochen Philharmonic and Assistant Concertmaster of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. She also was honored to receive the Maddy Summer Artist Award that same year.

​

In the summer of 2015, Julia attended the NYO-USA for a second time and won an audition to be the Principal Second Violinist for performances in Carnegie Hall and on tour to China under the baton of Maestro Charles Dutoit. Julia has been a substitute violinist and violist for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra since 2013. In 2015 she won a full time position in MSO through the national auditions. 

​

In 2015-16, Julia received an invitation and scholarship to study as a Violin Performance Major with a distinguished pedagogue, Prof. Aleksandre Brussilovsky at the Conservatoire de Versailles in Versailles, France. While in France, Julia had an opportunity to perform in Paris numerous times as well as participated in violin workshops at the prestigious Schnittke Academy in Hamburg, Germany. 

​

Julia’s persistent love of viola inspired her to pursue it more seriously alongside the violin. In the summer of 2017, she won the Inaugural International Viola Competition of Mississippi and shortly after attended the Aspen Music Festival and School as a violinist on an orchestra fellowship. This year, Julia received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota where she completed a double major in Conducting and Theatre. Julia was awarded a full scholarship to begin pursuing a Master of Music in Viola Performance at Rice University with Professor James Dunham starting next fall.