Ignacy Gaydamovich, cello

Cellist Ignacy Gaydamovich is an active soloist, recitalist, teacher, chamber musician, and a recording artist, whose interests span all styles of playing from historically informed performance practice of music of the past, to giving premieres of contemporary works. His latest CD features cello works by Lukas Foss recorded for the first time in history.  Gaydamovich regularly performs in Europe, Lebanon, Japan, and the United States and is a recipient of multiple awards from Austrian, American, and Polish institutions. Most recently, together with pianist Jiayan Sun, he gave a historically informed performance of romantic music at the Frederick Piano Collection. In 2012 he gave the Albanian premiere of the Korngold Cello Concerto with the National Radio and Tv Orchestra of Albania in Tirana. He gave the American premiere of Cellotronicum for cello and computer by Michal Talma-Sutt, commissioned and premiered a solo work by Alexander Barsov and appeared on a crossover CD Cosmospir. He is a founding member of the Atlas Piano Trio and the principal cellist of the Boston Chamber Orchestra. He collaborated with pianists Janusz Grzelazka, Judith Gordon, Vyacheslav Gryaznov, Mohamed Shams, Cihan Yücel, and Rasa Vitkauskaite; with violinists Arkady Fomin, Fernando Vizcayno, and Gary Capozziello; as well as with cellists Jesus Castro-Balbi and Christopher Adkins.

A passionate teacher and organizer, Gaydamovich has been a frequent guest at the Conservatory Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado. He presented masterclasses at the first middle-east orchestra program in Beirut, as well as at festivals in Japan, Poland, Lithuania, and at several American colleges and schools. He served on the cello faculty at the Texas Christian University, Mount Holyoke College, and most recently held the Visiting Assistant Professor title at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, as well as organized the first Amherst Cello Camp in June of 2017 and is the director of Amherst Art Academy. 

Gaydamovich was born into an artistic family and he spent his formative years in Poland studying piano, cello, and composition. There he also devoted his time as a music director of the Dzien Smierci Mozarta theater and produced a play for light and shadow after Britten’s Suite No. 1. After winning several prizes at international competitions in Austria and Poland, he moved to the United States to continue his graduate studies. There his interests expanded to include conducting.

In addition to performance and pedagogical work Dr. Gaydamovich is the author of a dissertation about Alfred Schnittke’s Cello Sonata No. 1, and cello method Beyond the Octave that expands upon the work of Janos Starker, and has lectured on historically informed performance practices relating to the classical cello repertoire. In his spare time, he likes to make arrangements and transcriptions. Thanks to Chabner Family Foundation Gaydamovich is playing on a modern copy of an Amati The King 1566 cello made by Wojciech Topa in 2005, and plays exclusively on Prestans Strings by Presto. Gaydamovich has received degrees from F. Chopin Music Academy, Texas Christian University, Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music, and the doctorate from the University of Hartford. He has studied with Terry King, Jesús Castro-Balbi, Rhonda Rider, Andrzej Bauer and Kazimierz Michalik. To find out more, visit www.gaydamovich.com