Jan Pilch, born in 1956, graduated with distinction from the Music Academy in Kraków, where he studied percussion with Józef Stojko. As a soloist and chamber musician he has participated in many major contemporary music feativals in Poland (Warsaw Autumn, Poznań Music Spring, Musical Polonica Nova in Wrocław, Audio-Art in Kraków) and abroad, including those in Dresden, Nuremberg (Musik des XX Jahrhunderts), Salzburg (‘Aspekte’), Amsterdam, Berlin (‘Inventionen’), Munich, Moscow, Kyoto, Sendai and Tokyo.
His interpretation of Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar’s Variants won him the Polihymia Medal at the 1980 Poznań Music Spring. He is a founder and a member of the Kraków Percussion Group, the ‘Muzyka Centrum’ Artistic Association and ‘Mr. Bober’s Friends’ group. He was a member of the ‘Laboratorium’ jazz group and the ‘Crossover Trio’. He also collaborated with the mw2 Ensemble, the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, the Giovanile Orchestra in Lanciano (Italy), the Opera Factory in Zurich, the Chamber Orchestra of Basle, as well as the musical Cats. In 1994–96 he was a soloist of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria.
Jan Pilch has made numerous radio and cd recordings of contemporary music and jazz and has given first performances of works by
K. Moszumańska-Nazar, B. Schaeffer, H. Kulenty and R. Szeremeta. He has given classes at international contemporary music courses in Stuttgart, Schwaz (Austria), Kraków, Kazimierz Dolny and Radziejowice.
Jan Pilch also pursues a teaching career as a faculty member of the Music Academy in Kraków since 1982. Most of the over 25 graduates of his class are active members of the jazz and classical music scene. In 2002 he was appointed Professor.
hob-beats percussion duo was founded in 2002 by Magdalena Kordylasińska and Miłosz Pękala, the students of the Music Academy in Warsaw.
Its repertoire includes works by J. S. Bach, A. Koppel, M. Mika,
E. Kopetzki, A.Ignatowicz-Glińska, P. NNrgĆrd, and A.Masson. It has performed at such events as ‘Musical Soirées in the Old Dziekanka’ , ‘Percussion’ (2002, 2003) and the ‘Crossdrumming’ Festival. In September 2003 it took part in the Contemporay Chamber Music Competition in Kraków and in
a fringe concert during the
6th Science Festival in Wrocław. It has also given performances at the ‘Club of 13 Muses’ in Szczecin, the Kordegarda Gallery in Warsaw, the International Days of Percussion Music in Koszalin and percussion workshops in Żagań. It performed works by Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska at a concert in the ‘Composers’ Portraits’ series, organized by the Polish Composers’ Union.
In July 2004 the hob-beats duo won First Prize and an award from the Warsaw Mayor at the 2nd Mikołaj Stasiniewicz International Percussion Competition in Warsaw.
Members of the duo have worked with such prominent teachers as J. Geoffroy, W. Moersch, D. Berg, E. Sejourne, and R. Flores. Thanks to a grant from the Socrates/Erasmus programme, they spent the academic year 2004/05 at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, where they perfected their skills under the guidance of Gert Mortensen.