Biography
Alicja Smietana is a Violinist, based in London.
Born in a musical family (her father is jazz guitarist Jarek Smietana) she started playing the violin at the age of 5, She later studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków and then joined the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study with David Takeno and Ofer Falk. She also studied viola with Sven Arne Tepl.
In 2009 she joined Kronberg Academy's Young Soloists (Further Masters), where she studied with Christian Tetzlaff.
Winner of numerous competitions and awards she was quickly recognized as one of the most important violinists of the young generation. In 2002 she was invited to play with Kremerata Baltica - a chamber orchestra led by Gidon Kremer. Since then she has played with Kremerata Baltica on number of other occasions. As a soloist she made her international debut performing a Mozart concerto under direction of Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician together with Nigel Kennedy, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Martha Argerich, Ivan Monighetti, Boris Pergamenshikov and others. Attending many international masterclasses she received artistic guidance from many musicians including Hagai Shaham, Dorothy DeLay, Ana Chumachenco, Tabea Zimmermann, Michael Frischenshlager, Erich Gruenberg, Zakhar Bron, Boris Garlitsky, Zvi Zeitlin and Itzhak Perlman. She is a co-artistic director of Nigel Kennedy's Orchestra of Life.
Following her successes she has played concerts and recitals in major venues all over the world including recent appearances at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Berlin Philharmonic.
She is very keen on improvisation and is also performing a lot of experimental music, jazz and contemporary electronic music in venues such as the 100 Club, the Vortex and Ronnie Scotts among others. She has performed with artists such as Wojciech Karolak, Adam Czerwinski, Yaron Stavi, Piotr Baron, Jan Ptaszyn Wroblewski, John Etheridge, Krzesimir Debski, Robert Majewski and others.
She plays a 1740 Camillo Camilli violin and a Jean Pierre Marie Persois bow.
She is a member of Mensa.
