ANNA PIETRZAK

Artist’s website

Anna is a laureate of over a dozen guitar competitions in Europe. She has performed as a soloist as well as with chamber music ensembles and orchestras in Poland, Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Spain, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, and Slovakia. In 2017 she made her Canadian debut with the Toronto Concert Orchestra under the baton of Kerry Stratton.

She received her PhD degree from the Academy of Music in Wroclaw in Poland where she studied with prof Piotr Zaleski and Marek Zieliński. Anna’s certification also includes a graduate degree from the Conservatory of Music in Piraeus in Greece in the guitar program of Costas Cotsiolis. She perfected her skills in master classes held by renowned guitarists like Aniello Desiderio, Joaquin Clerch, Carlo Domeniconi, Pavel Steidl, Ivo and Sofia Kaltchev and Peter & Zoltan Katona.

She has released three albums which received positive reviews from the press. The Albums are: ‘La Catedral – 20th Century Guitar Music’, the crossover ‘GITANA Electric – Eclectic’ and ‘Farewell’ where she performs in a duo with her brother Łukasz Pietrzak.

FERGUS KWAN

Fergus Kwan is a concert pianist, composer, and writer who resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia, majoring in Piano Performance. Currently a student of Dr. Corey Hamm, Fergus has also studied with Dr. Henri-Paul Sicsic and has participated in masterclasses with many master-teachers, including Prof. Jon Kimura Parker, Dr. Henry Kramer, Ilana Vered, and Nelson Goerner.

As an avid performer of classical music of all periods from pre-Baroque to current, Fergus has won awards including Best Performance of a Work by Chopin (awarded by The Vancouver Chopin Society) and Best Performance of Jordan Nobles’ “The Architect’s Dream” (awarded by the Architecture of Music Competition). He is also a winner of the Canadian Music Competition, Pacific International Youth Music Competition, Architecture of Music Competition, and Vancouver Westcoast Music Society (formerly known as Vancouver Women’s Musical Society).

Fergus’s compositional works include multi-part pieces titled “Athena’s Message,” “After Gymnopedie,” and “after hours,” many of which have been performed at various events including the UBC Premiere Concert, UBC Composers Concert, and the Chabad Concert for Seniors.