Piotr Banasik - Biography

A student in the class of professor Andrzej Jasiński, Piotr Banasik graduated with highest distinc-tion from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice in 2006. In 2015 he earned his PhD title and the position of Assistant Professor in his Alma Mater. He has participated in numer-ous master classes, working with such artists as Vera Gornostaeva, Alexei Orlovetsky, Dang Thai Son, Alexis Weissenberg, Arie Vardi and Krystian Zimerman.

Piotr Banasik has won numerous awards and honours in competitions and festivals in Poland and abroad, such as the Medal at the 48th International Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona, the 1st prize at the Young Musicians Festival in Gdańsk (2002), the Grand Prix at the PARNASSOS Inter-national Piano Competition in Monterrey, Mexico, and the 1st prize at the National Chopin Piano Artistic Scholarship Competition in Warsaw (2003). He was also awarded at the 36th Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk. In 2005, the pianist received the 2nd prize at the National Chopin Competition for the Candidates to the 15th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, where he was awarded a number of special prizes in September 2005, e.g. for the best participant who did not qualify to the final round. He received an honourable mention at the Ferenc Liszt International Pi-ano Competition in Wrocław in 2009 and the 1st prize at the National Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2012. He was a holder of the scholarship granted by the Polish Ministry of Culture and Arts.

Since 1998 he has given countless recitals and performed as a soloist of symphonic concerts in many countries in Europe, as well as in Mexico (e.g. Bellas Artes Palace in Mexico City), United Arab Emirates, Canada, USA, Ethiopia, and Brazil. He has cooperated, as a soloist, with the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, the Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra "Amadeus", the NOSPR, Sinfo-nietta Cracovia, Forchheimer Kammerorchester (Germany), Guanajuato Symphonic Orchestra (Mexico), Orchestre National des Pays de La Loire (France), Orquestra Sinfonica do Parana (Bra-zil), Paderewski Symphony Orchestra (USA) and with many philharmonic orchestras in Poland.

Piotr Banasik has made recordings for the Polish Radio, e.g. with the Polish Radio Orchestra and the Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra "Amadeus", and for the Mexican Radio (Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1) with the Guanajuato Symphonic Orchestra. Conducting from the piano, he re-corded Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Karol Szymanowski Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Two years later he recorded the same concert for the Polish Radio with the Polish Radio Orchestra. In 2014, he recorded Aleksander Kulikowski’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the same orchestra. In 2019, his debut solo album, with recordings of Mieczysław Karłowicz’s complete works for piano, was published by DUX Recording Producers.

Apart from his concert activity, Piotr Banasik is greatly committed to didactics, holding a position of Assistant Professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, as well as working with pu-pils in Mieczysław Karłowicz Primary and Secondary State Music School in Katowice, where he heads the keyboard instrument department.