Henryk Kaliński was born in 1954. He is a graduate of the Music Academy in Warsaw, where he studied French horn with Edwin Golnik, receiving a diploma with distinction. While still a student, he won First Prize at the Geneva Competition and Second Prize at the International Music Competition in Markneukirchen (1976). These successes led to numerous invitations to make recordings for Polish Radio and Polish Television. He appeared as a soloist with the Polish Chamber Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk, gaining reputation for his high-caliber performances of highly difficult Baroque parts. In 1979 he represented Poland at the International Horn Workshops in Michigan and signed a contract as a soloist of the Basel Radio Orchestra, with which he still performs. He has developed a fine international career, appearing with numerous chamber ensembles and recording for radio (including drs), television and on various labels. Despite his extensive commitments abroad, he maintains artistic contacts with Poland. He has recorded the complete horn concertos by Mozart with the Polish Chamber Orchestra under the British conductor Howard Griffiths (for the Swiss gallo label). He also performs regularly with Polish symphony orchestras.
Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. For the past twenty years he has championed contemporary percussion music as a performer and teacher. He studied at the University of Iowa and received the Soloists Diploma from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau. He has commissioned and premiered more than one hundred new works for percussion and has performed these pieces on major concert series such as Lincoln Center’s ‘Great Performers’ and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s ‘Green Umbrella’ concerts as well as at prestigious international festivals including Warsaw Autumn, the bbc Proms, the Jerusalem Festival, the Holland Festival, the Stockholm International Percussion Event and the Budapest Spring Festival. He has recorded many of those works for Sony Classical, Wergo, Point, crt and will release a new solo cd with Neuma Records.
From 1984 to 1992, Schick taught at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, directing a seminal percussion programme with James Wood. He has been a guest lecturer at the Rotterdam Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in London. He is Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego and Lecturer in Percussion at the Manhattan School of Music.
Steven Schick is the percussionist of the ‘Bang on a Can All-Stars’. Other important ongoing collaborations include work with pianist James Avery and the percussion group ‘red fish blue fish’.