dr hab. Irena Olkiewicz

Since 1980, he has been teaching double bass at the Instrumental Department of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. Many of his graduates occupy important positions on the Polish and international music scene. They include Roman Ziobro (Stare Dobre Małżeństwo), Kazimierz Cyna (Lower Silesian Philharmonic), Krzysztof Kafka (Wrocław Opera), Damian Kalla (National Forum of Music), Jakub Olejnik (Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław), Karol Kowal (National Philharmonic), Wojciech Bergander (Capitol Music Theater), Paweł Prucnal (National Forum of Music), Michał Waliński (Opole Philharmonic), Roland Grzegorz Abreu Krysztofiak (The Latin Cuban Jazz Quartet), Katarzyna Podwińska (Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz), Paweł Wołkowski (The String Quartet), Satoko Waizumi (Japan), Civan Firat Korkmaz (Turkey), and Biagio Modena (Italy).

Irena Olkiewicz graduated from the Instrumental Department at the State Higher School of Music in Wrocław. Her double bass teachers were Bonawentura Nancka (Bielsko Biała), Edward Krysta (Wrocław), Ludwig Streicher (Vienna) and Franco Muzzi. (Lanciano). From 1978 to 1993, she was the principal double bass soloist at the W. Lutosławski Philharmonic in Wrocław and concertmaster of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra (Egypt). She was also an expert in the double bass class at the Cairo Conservatoire de Musique. She is invited to conduct master classes and judge double bass competitions in Europe, the USA, and China. She gives recitals and lectures on the history of the Polish double bass at venues such as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, and on numerous occasions during the Kontrabasswoche at the Stiftung Kloster Michaelstein, at the University of North Texas in Denton, and in the USA during the International Double Bass Conventions organized by the International Society of Bassists in Indianapolis 2001, Richmond in 2003, Michigan in 2005, Oklahoma in 2007, San Francisco in 2011, Rochester 2013, during the International Double Bass Conventions at the L. Janacek Academy of Music in Brno, Double Bass Festivals and Conferences in Paris 2008, Phoenix 2009, San Francisco 2009, Berlin 2010, Beijing 2012, 2013, 2015, at the University of Goiania (Brazil) 2012 and Banská Bystrica (Slovakia) 2013, 2015. Since 1994, she has been playing in a duo with pianist Andrzej Jungiewicz, with whom she recorded the CD Medytacja Thais. As a soloist, she has performed world premieres of many works by Polish composers, including those dedicated to her: Poemat Loch Ness, Yad Vashem, Harlequin, Mount Everest, and Divertimento Concertante by Benedykt Konowalski, Entrope by Krystian Kiełb, Rondo Flamenco by Krzysztof Zgraja, and Szkice by Grzegorz P. Wierzba. The famous French double bassist Francois Rabbath dedicated a piece for two double basses entitled Embruns to Irena Olkiewicz in the fifth part of Nouvelle Technique de la Contrebasse (2015), dedicated a piece for two double basses entitled Embruns to Irena Olkiewicz, and Irena Olkiewicz's solo performance of Francois Rabbath's Ode d'Espagne, posted on YouTube, was listened to by nearly 30,000 Internet users, leaving many favorable reviews. Irena Olkiewicz has performed many times in duets, trios, and double bass quartets in Asia, Europe, and the US with such outstanding double bassists as Tom Martin, Catalin Rotaru, Thierry Barbe, Eric Hansen, Jeff Bradetich, Gunars Upatnieks, and Song Yi. As a chamber musician, she has also played many concerts with flute virtuoso Grzegorz Olkiewicz, who is also her husband. She has recorded five CDs as a member of orchestras conducted by Grzegorz Nowak in Switzerland and Grzegorz Olkiewicz and Czesław Grabowski. In 1997, together with her husband Grzegorz, she founded the Polish Chamber Orchestra Sotto Voce, with which she has played over two hundred concerts in Europe and Egypt. In 2004, on the initiative of Irena Olkiewicz, the Bassion Polacca Double Bass Quartet was formed, with which she has performed in Europe and the USA.

Irena Olkiewicz is the originator and founder, and since 1994, the president of the Polish Double Bassists Association. In 1996, she began publishing a magazine for double bassists entitled Kontrabasista (Double Bassist) ISSN 1427-664X. She is the initiator and artistic director of new double bass projects such as the World Double Bass Festival, which took place in Wrocław in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2014; the National Winter Double Bass Academy in Pielgrzymowice in 2006; the Wratislavia International Double Bass Competition in 2008; the International Double Bass Symposium at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in 2013 and 2016; International Double Bass Personality Competition, Wrocław 2013 and 2016, Summer Double Bass Academy, Szczawno Zdrój 2017 and 2018, and International Summer Double Bass Academy and International Competition for Creative Double Bassists, Szczawno Zdrój 2019. Since 1992, Irena Olkiewicz has been the first in Poland to organize over two hundred double bass concerts and master classes at Wojnowice Castle and in Wrocław with such outstanding double bassists as Gary Karr, Tom Martin, Francois Rabbath, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Ron Carter, Lars Danielsson, John Clayton, Miloslav Jelinek, Catalin Rotaru, Franco Petracchi, Jorma Katrama, Fernando Grillo, David Walter, Klaus Trumpf, Miloslav Gajdos, Thierry Barbe, Diana Gannett, David Murray, Eric Hansen, Adam Cegielski, Jacek Meira, Tom Knific, Kristin Korb, Rufus Reid, Linda McKnight, Barry Green, John Schimek, Barre Phillips, Song Yi, JunXia Hou, Jeff Bradetich, Petya Bagovska, Esra Gul, Sonia Ray, Hiroshi Ikematsu, Joel Quarrington, Hans Sturm, Antonio Garcia Araque, Ekkehard Beringer, Frank Proto, Carlos del Pino, Peter Askim, Dan Styffe, Petr Korinek, Paul Sharpe, Anthony Stoops, Bassiona Amorosa, and many others. 

In 2000, Irena Olkiewicz received the David Walter Award from the Juilliard School of Music for her work as editor of the magazine Kontrabasista. She has received the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music Rector's Award seven times (1994, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017) she received the Award of the Rector of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław for her pedagogical and organizational achievements. For her new musical idea for Wrocław and the organization of the World Double Bass Festival in 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Wrocław Music Award. She also received the 2004 Wrocław Dwarf Award, granted by journalists from Gazeta Wrocławska. In 2010, she received the honorary badge “Meritorious for Polish Culture.” In 2018, Irena Olkiewicz was nominated by Gazeta Wrocławska in the “Personality of the Year” poll in the field of culture. In the same year, she was also honored with the Gold Medal of the Wrocław Lovers' Society for her cultural activities for Wrocław and the Bronze Cross of Merit awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

"... the role of the ‘Lady with the Double Bass’ was played by Irena Olkiewicz, an excellent double bass player, associated with Wrocław for many years, initiator and current president of the Polish Double Bass Players' Association. Slender and inconspicuous, she has complete mastery over this instrument, which can overwhelm even athletes, drawing from it a full, rich sound, perfectly varied depending on the style of music. In some pieces, the artist was accompanied by pianist Andrzej Jungiewicz. I will remember above all the daring performance of Augustyn's “Cyclical Piece No. 2” (a kind of elaborate dramatic etude for solo double bass), Rabbath's swaying “Ode d'Espagne” and Goerlich's romantic Sonata, in which the double bass sang like a cello... Artur Bielecki