was founded in 1978 by a group of students from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. It developed its skills at master courses conducted by the members of such quartets as LaSalle, Amadeus, Juilliard, Smetana and Berg. The Quartet's repertoire includes over 250 pieces of chamber literature, of which almost two hundred are by 20th-century composers. The Silesian Quartet has premiered around 40 works by Polish and foreign composers, many of which have been dedicated to the Quartet. It has performed at the 'Warsaw Autumn','Poznań Musical Spring', the Polish Contemporary Music Festival in Wrocław, the Penderecki Festival in Lusławice (Poland) and Cracow, the Szymanowski's Music Days at Zakopane (Poland), the Berliner Musiktage, 'Time of Music' in Viitasaari (Finland), 'Inventionen' in Berlin, Lerchenborg Musikdage (Denmark), 'Musicorama' in Hong Kong, Festival de Saint-Denis in Paris, the Contemporary Music Festival 'Melos-Ethos' in Bratislava, 'Wien Modern', 'Romaeuropa', Musikhost in Odense (Denmark), Musikbiennale in Berlin.
The Silesian Quartet has given over one thousand concerts in Poland and has also performed in many European countries, as well as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Israel and Hong Kong.
Its discography includes complete string quartets by Aleksander Tansman (on Etcaetera label), Karol Szymanowski and Igor Stravinsky (Partridge), works by Henryk M. G-recki (Olympia, the 1995 'Fryderyk' Award), Krzysztof Penderecki (Wergo) and Zygmunt Krauze (Thesis). The ensemble's recent recordings include the String Quartet by Stefan Wolpe (for cpo), the chamber version of Chopin's Concerto in E minor Op. 11 (for the Belgian label RŽcital, with Kornelia Og-rek), the piano quintets by Johannes Brahms and Juliusz Zar«bski (for Polskie Nagrania, with Paweł Kowalski), a selection of Mozart quartets, 'Miniatures' and 'The Magic of the Fugue' (for Polish Radio Katowice). The recording of string quartets by Szymanowski and Lutosławski for cd Accord won two prestigious awards in 1998: the 'Record of the Year' in a poll of the Studio magazine and the 'Fryderyk' Award.
In 1992 the Silesian Quartet launched an annual chamber music festival in Rybna (near Tarnowskie G-ry, Silesia, Poland), held under the motto 'The Silesian Quartet and its Guests'.
The ensemble has won awards at the unesco International Composers' Rostrum in Paris for the recording of quartets by Eugeniusz Knapik (1984) and Aleksander Lasoń (1988). It is also recipient of the Polish Composers' Union Prize (1994), the Artistic Prize of the Katowice Province Governor (1988) and the City Mayor (1992). In 1999 the ensemble was awarded with the Gold Cross of Merit.