Mateusz Baryła (countertenor)

He began popular-music singing lessons with Ewa Gajewska-Kiepura and achieved high placements at many competitions and festivals, including Pro Arte Youth Song Festival and the song festivals in Szczecin and Chodzież. He began formal music training on clarinet with Jan-Mariusz Nowaczyński at the primary music school in Gorzów Wielkopolski while also studying singing with Beata Gramza at the city's music school. At the time he was a third-year solo-singing student of Artur Stefanowicz at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He also studied with Leszek Skrla and Renata Kuczyńska and attended masterclasses with Evghenia Dundekova and Neue Vocalsolisten. He performed at the Gorzów Philharmonic, Gorzów Amphitheatre, the city's Grodzki Cultural Centre, Gdańsk's Old Town Hall and National Museum. In 2013 he participated in the Gdańsk premiere of Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man and a production of Puccini's Suor Angelica. In 2014 he appeared at the Young Talents Concert of the XIV Summer Festival in Hel and sang as a soloist in Charpentier's Te Deum with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra during the Mundus Cantat International Choral Festival in Sopot. He was preparing Unulfo in Handel's Rodelinda for an autumn 2015 production at the Collegium Nobilium Theatre. Alongside Baroque music he performs contemporary classical music and musicals.

Iga Caban (soprano)

At the time she was a third-year undergraduate student at the Vocal and Acting Department of the Academy of Music in Kraków in Monika Swarowska-Walawska's class. She graduated from the conservatory in Poznań, also passing the ABRSM Grade 8 examination with distinction. She attended masterclasses with Marcin Habela and Mariusz Kwiecień, among others, and performed as a soloist at numerous concerts in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poznań, Kraków, Warsaw and Gdynia. She made her debut at Warsaw Chamber Opera as Wanda in Karol Kurpiński's The Castle of Czorsztyn and was preparing further musical projects.

Paweł Jeka (tenor)

A second-year student in the advanced programme at the Lyon Conservatory in Professor Marcin Habela's singing class. He graduated in 2014 from the vocal and acting department of the Secondary Music School in Gdynia, where he studied with Maria Borowska-Gasik. In February 2014, he gave a recital at the Uphagen House in Gdańsk. In December 2014, he appeared with the choir Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu during the Festival of Lights at the Hôtel de Région Rhône-Alpes. In January 2015, he participated in Rossini's Stabat Mater at the Auditorium de Lyon. In May 2015, he gave a joint recital with Bogdan Hołownia at the Polish Consulate General in Lyon for the celebration of Poland's Constitution Day. He initiated and organised the Spring Evening of Song and Opera and Professor Marcin Habela's International Vocal Masterclass.

Maciej Madaliński (tenor)

Born in Warsaw, he studied at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź in Dr Krzysztof Bednarek's class. Previously he studied with Jerzy Knetig at the Fryderyk Chopin State Music School in Warsaw and also with Katarzyna Zachwatowicz-Jasieńska, Grażyna Ciopińska, Dariusz Niemirowicz and Agnieszka Piass. He participated in the first Giulio Perotti International Vocal Competition in Ueckermünde and won second prize at the 2014 Mława–Olsztyn Vocal Competition, making his orchestral debut with the Warmia and Masuria Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under Piotr Sułkowski. An active concert performer and co-organiser, he appeared twice at New Year's concerts of the University of Warsaw Institute of Musicology in 2013 and 2014. In February 2014, he created the Shepherd in the premiere of Magdalena Białecka's opera Wianki during the Student Music Forum in Warsaw, and premiered her song at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. He performed at the Warsaw Centre for Cultural Education and the Old Town Cultural Centre, frequently accompanied by pianist Aleksandra Seredyńska, with whom he had collaborated for three years. His repertoire spans the Baroque to contemporary music, including Handel, Gluck, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, Karłowicz, Moniuszko, Niewiadomski, Chopin, Strauss, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky and von Suppé. His operatic arias include those from L'elisir d'amore, Paride ed Elena, Die Zauberflöte, Lucio Silla and Serse. He was preparing further projects in Warsaw and Łódź.

Marta Osmańska (mezzo-soprano)

She was a second-year student in Barbara Ewa Werner's class at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, having graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Secondary Music School in Szczecin, where she studied classical solo singing with Dr Małgorzata Wieland. She began winning vocal prizes in her second year of secondary school: second prize at the Giulio Perotti International Vocal Competition in Ueckermünde, third at the Maria Stankowska National Vocal Festival in Olsztyn and distinctions at the CEA macroregional auditions in Warsaw and the Franciszka Platówna National Vocal Competition in Wrocław. A Szczecin city scholarship holder, she won the regional Art Olympiad and became a finalist of the 36th National Art Olympiad in music history. She regularly performed at charity concerts, including events for flood victims in Bogatynia, and at concerts promoting her school and city. From 2011 to 2014 she participated in performances of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and also performed in Germany. In 2011 she prepared Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben with pianist Michał Landowski, an experience that accelerated her musical development. Since late 2011 she has performed as a duo with harpist Noemi Hańczyk; they won first prize at the fourth international Malchower Kirchenpreis in 2012. Her repertoire spans Baroque to new music. Romantic music is particularly close to her, although she also enjoys Mozart and late Romantic works. She loves music in all its forms and has a particular attachment to the piano, with which her musical journey began.

Zofia Skowron (soprano)

A second-year student at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz in Dr Kamila Kułakowska's class. She won the Grand Prix at the nationwide auditions organised by the Centre for Artistic Education in 2012. Before university she studied with Izabela Kłosińska at the Fryderyk Chopin Secondary Music School in Warsaw. She particularly enjoys Baroque and Classical repertoire, including opera, oratorio and cantatas, as well as Polish Romantic songs. Interested in historically informed performance, she has worked with the Cameratissima early music ensemble, Collegium Musicum Bednarska Baroque Orchestra (Bach cantatas) and Bydgoszcz Academy Baroque Orchestra (Michael Haydn's Requiem).

Pianists

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  dr Tomasz Lupa

  Born on 11 August 1977 in Jarosław, he graduated with distinction from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he studied piano with Professor Czesław Stańczyk. Since 2005 he has worked as an assistant at the Piano, Harpsichord and Organ Department of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in Professor Jerzy Sterczyński's class; he earned his doctorate in 2012. His awards include: a distinction at the second stage of the International Beethoven Competition in Hradec nad Moravicí, Czech Republic (June 1999); first prize in the duo category with violinist Fatima Aaziza at the fourth Krzysztof Penderecki International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition in Kraków (September 2000); the main prize, a Leopold Kronenberg Banking Foundation scholarship, at the fourth National Competition of 20th-Century Music for Young Performers in Radziejowice (May 2001); recognition in the Young Performers series of the 37th Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk (September 2003); a distinction for his performance of Karol Szymanowski's Étude in B-flat minor, Op. 4 No. 3, at the Edvard Grieg International Competition in Oslo (September 2010); and a prize for best Mozart performance at the International Mozart Competition in Frascati, Italy (May 2012). During the 2013–14 academic year he taught at the Keimyung–Chopin Academy of Music in Daegu, South Korea.

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  Magdalena Holec

  She graduated from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Secondary Music School in Żyrardów in Elżbieta Budnik's piano class and studied at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz with Tatiana Shebanova, Jarosław Drzewiecki and Piotr Kępiński. She participated in national piano competitions and twice won awards at the Masovian Piano Auditions in Sochaczew (2002 and 2006). At the third and fourth International Piano Forum “Bieszczady without Borders” in Sanok, she studied with Jarosław Drzewiecki, Alicja Faryniarz, Irina Rumiancewa and Grzegorz Kurzyński and accompanied singers including Eugenia Rezler and Aneta Kapla. As a pianist-accompanist she participated in vocal courses led by Maciej Witkiewicz (December 2008), Urszula Kryger (February 2011), Piotr Bednarski (February 2013) and Tomasz Zagórski (October 2009). She also worked with Joanna Kurpiowska, Teresa Rosłoń-Esztenyi, pianist Mikhail Voskresensky and chamber music teacher Maja Nosowska-Pasławska. An active accompanist, she took part in the sixth International Brass Instruments Competition in Gdańsk, the seventh and eighth Golden Voices National Vocal Art Competitions in Warsaw, the second and third Giulio Perotti International Vocal Competitions in Ueckermünde, and the second Andrzej Hiolski International Vocal Competition in Kudowa-Zdrój. In July 2014 she was a répétiteur at the third International Vocal Masterclass of Marcin Habela. She has worked with Opera Nova soloist Katarzyna Nowak-Stańczyk and, since August 2014, served as a répétiteur at Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz.