Alicja Smietana

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Alicja Smietana (born 9 August 1983 in Kraków, Poland) is a Polish-British violinist, violist, arranger and composer. She comes from a musical family—her father is jazz guitarist Jarek Śmietana—and began playing violin at age five. She studied in Kraków with Mieczysław Szlezer, then moved to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno and Ofer Falk, and viola with Sven Arne Tepl. In 2009 she joined Kronberg Academy’s Young Soloists program.

She has won numerous awards and performed with many famous artists. Her international debut as a soloist was a Mozart concerto with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner. She has collaborated with Gidon Kremer, Nigel Kennedy, Yuri Bashmet, Martha Argerich and others, and she is active in improvisation and contemporary music, performing in venues ranging from jazz clubs to major concert halls such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Berlin Philharmonic.

Alicja is also an accomplished arranger and has directed orchestral projects, including helping to create Nigel Kennedy’s Orchestra of Life in 2008 and leading Extra Sounds Ensemble since 2013. She plays a 1740 Camillo Camilli violin and a Jean Pierre Marie Persois bow.