Karolina Stalmachowska

Oboist Karolina Stalmachowska has performed in leading orchestras in her homeland under the batons of top conductors from Poland and abroad. First oboist of the Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice, she is also active as a chamber musician and has made several albums in that capacity. Stalmachowska was born in Kraków. She attended the Karol Szymanowki Academy of Music in Katowice, studying oboe with Tomasz Miczka and graduating with honors. Stalmachowska's career was helped along by a second prize in the Seventh (2008) National Competition of Wind Instrument Ensembles in Warsaw in the reed trio category and a third prize (the first and second prizes were not awarded) in the Third International Competition for Oboes and Bassoonists in Łódź, Poland. In 2008, she joined the Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice, where she has remained and advanced to first chair. She also performed frequently as a soloist with the Sinfonia Varsovia in Warsaw between 2018 and 2012, appearing under such conductors as Jerzy Semkow, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Paul McCreesh. She has also performed with the AUKSO Orkiestra Kamernalna (the Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy). She has participated in more than 400 concerts, including those during a dozen tours (some as far afield as La Folle Journée in Nantes, France, with the Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestra), and has collaborated with the Polish Radio Choir, Katowice, and the Sinfonietta Cracovia. Stalmachowska received her PhD from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in 2019, and she has taught there since 2012. Stalmachowska has also been visible as a chamber player. She was a member of the LutosAir Quintet from 2019 to 2022, and she plays in a wind quintet with fellow soloists from the Polish National Radio Orchestra, Katowice. Stalmachowska has also collaborated with members of the Silesian Quartet. It is as the leader of chamber groups that she has made an impact on the recording scene. Stalmachowska released her debut album, Jean Françaix: Musique pour le plaisir, on the Dux label in 2021. She returned in 2023 with the Silesian Quartet, performing Joachim Mendelson's Quintet for violin, viola, cello, piano, and oboe.
© James Manheim /TiVo