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Krzysztof Zimowski

violin

Born in Wroclaw, Poland, violinist Krzysztof Zimowski began his musical studies at the age of 6. He participated in music schools and programs organized by La Federation International des Jeunesses Musicales (International Federation of Young Musicians). He was Concertmaster of the Weikersheim and Bayreuth Symphony Orchestras (Germany), working with Franz Paul Decker (OSM). In 1976, Mr. Zimowski joined the L’Orchestre Mondial des Jeunesses Musicales (World Youth Orchestra) in Brussels and Paris, conducted by maestro Jean Martinon, with extraordinary participation by maestro Henryk Szeryng. He was also appointed Concertmaster of the State Opera Orchestra in Wroclaw while still a student at the Wroclaw Academy of Music. He graduated in 1977 with a Master’s degree (high honors) in violin performance. During this active career as a student and orchestral musician, Mr. Zimowski continued to be a soloist in high demand throughout Poland, the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia), and Germany. It was during this time that he became more interested in chamber music, forming many ensembles and enrolling in masterclasses with eminent violinist Henryk Szeryng. 

Following this intense period of study, Mr. Zimowski entered the competition circuit, garnering third prize in the Karol Szymanowski National Music Competition (Warsaw, 1977). Bolstered by his success, he took the international stage, entering both the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition (London, 1978) and the 6th J.S. Bach International Violin Competition (Leipzig, 1980). He then enrolled for advanced violin studies at the Morley College of Music in London under the guidance of Simon Goldberg and Perry Hart.

In 1981, Mr. Zimowski joined the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, receiving critical acclaim for his solo appearance in a concert dedicated to the victims of Mexico City’s earthquake. He was appointed joint-Concertmaster and soloist of the Mexico City Philharmonic when they toured Europe, South America, and the United States, the country which would eventually become his home in 1986. He moved to Albuquerque, where he formed the Helios String Quartet, an ensemble-in-residence at the Placitas Artists Series. Mr. Zimowski performed with the Phoenix Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, The Santa Fe Symphony, and Santa Fe Pro Musica. He was also the Concertmaster and soloist of the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque. In October 1986, he began his long association with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, becoming associate Concertmaster in 1995 and Concertmaster and soloist in 1999. He was a featured soloist, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, during the NMSO’s 12-city New Mexico tour in 2001. In the 2009 season, he performed the New Mexico premiere of Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto. He currently serves as Concertmaster of the New Mexico Philharmonic and the Opera Southwest Orchestra. 

Mr. Zimowski has been awarded the Knight’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. The medal was presented to him by Consul General of Poland at the New Mexico Philharmonic concert on February 28, 2015. The Knight’s Cross is awarded by the President of Poland to Poles, who reside abroad, for their distinguished contributions to international cooperation between Poland and other countries. Mr. Zimowski includes the music of Polish composers on every solo performance.

During the summer, Mr. Zimowski performs with the Grant Park Orchestra in the world-renowned Grant Park Music Festival at Millennium Park in Chicago. Along with his wife, Urszula—herself an opera singer—he makes his home in Albuquerque. 

Violin by Antonio Stradivari, 1712, the “Lebrun”

The violin being played by Mr. Zimowski was made by Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, in 1712, at the height of Stradivari’s “Golden Period.” It was probably made for Stradivari’s biggest mail-order customer at the time, King Philip V of Spain, who also ruled over Cremona during that period. Stradivari is known to have made a large number of special-order instruments for King Philip’s court, many of which had special decorative inlays, embellishments, or varnish colors. This 1712 violin has no special decorative inlays but does have varnish with a rare golden yellow hue that Stradivari only used for a few of his instruments.

The original Stradivarius label in this violin was also inscribed in the lower margin, in tiny handwriting, with the words “Presviter Assensio.” Assensio was the name of the Spanish Royal Court’s principal instrument repairman in the 1770s, indicating that this violin was still part of the Spanish Royal collection at that time.

The next documented owner of this violin is the well-known violinist and composer Niccolo Paganini. How the violin made its way from the Spanish Royal Court in Madrid into the hands of Paganini is not fully known, but some reasonable speculation has focused on one of Paganini’s longtime violin students, Felice Pasquale Baciocchi. Before becoming a violin student of Paganini, Felice had married Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Elisa. Napoleon absolutely detested Felice and his poor family background, and tried his best to break up the marriage. Napoleon made such an attempt in the year 1800 by appointing Felice to the position of Assistant Ambassador to the Spanish Royal Court, requiring Felice to set up residence in Madrid. Just as Napoleon predicted, Elisa did not accompany her husband, but remained in Paris. However, much to Napoleon’s dismay, the marriage persisted, and by 1805 Felice and Elisa had moved to the newly acquired French territory of Lucca, Italy, where Elisa, not Felice, was awarded a royal position—”Princess of Lucca.”

One of Elisa’s first acts as Princess in 1805 was to establish a court orchestra, appointing the almost unknown but very talented 23-year-old Genovese violinist Niccolo Paganini as her concertmaster. One of her next unofficial acts was to begin a torrid love affair with Paganini that lasted almost 10 years. During those years, Paganini also dutifully gave violin lessons to Felice, and Felice serenely endured his wife’s infidelities. By 1814, Paganini had had enough of his institutional duties, and wanted to tour more as a soloist, so he created a scandal by which he could make his exit. He showed up to lead a court concert dressed not in appropriate concert attire, but in a French military uniform, at a time when Napoleon and the French army were suffering devastating losses and the fate of the empire seemed clear. Princess Elisa sent a note to Paganini commanding him to change his clothing immediately, but Paganini instead left the stage to enter a waiting coach he had prepared, containing all of his belongings. He was never seen at the court again. It is suspected that this 1712 Stradivarius violin was also in Paganini’s prepared coach, whether it should have been there or not.

It seems probable that Paganini used this Stradivarius as his “second violin” for the rest of his life. Part of Paganini’s touring and recital career utilized a gimmick of coming on stage and pretending to break the two middle strings, the D and the A, and then pretending to make the best of it by playing “improvised duets” using only the highest and lowest strings, the E and G. At some point he would “accidentally” break the highest string, leaving only the G-string to improvise on, which he would of course use to thrill his audiences, but which also inadvertently established a tradition of very high singing passagework on the G-string as a legacy of virtuoso violin playing that survives to this day. Interestingly, an uncommon feature of this 1712 Stradivarius is that in more than 300 years only two of the four pegs have ever required refitting in the peg box, the E and the G. This really only makes sense if the violin had been played primarily in this two-string configuration for roughly 35 years.

A few months before his death in 1840, Paganini instructed his Italian attorney to hide his remaining instruments from French authorities who were trying to collect on his large casino debts. It is likely that the attorney was successful in laundering these instruments, which helps explain why this 1712 Strad is not commonly referred to as the “ex-Paganini.”

In 1893, this violin was purchased by a famous Parisian violinist, Vincenzo Sighicelli, who is believed to have kept it until his death in 1905. By 1914, the violin was in the possession of a very wealthy retired Parisian attorney, Mr. Charles Lebrun, for whom the violin became officially named. In 1922, it was sold to famous Swiss architect Otto Senn, who kept it in his collection in Basel until his death in 1993. In 2001, it was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London, achieving one of the highest prices ever paid for a violin at auction, and becoming the most expensive instrument in Europe.

In 2008, the violin was purchased by its current owner, an anonymous American violinist, and longtime “Friend of Krzysztof.” The owner hopes that the joy of making music on that violin is one that can be shared not only with Krzysztof, but with all of Krzysztof’s other longtime friends. 

—Anonymous Owner

Violin by Antonio Stradivari, 1712, the “Lebrun”
Violin by Antonio Stradivari, 1712, the “Lebrun”
Krzysztof-Zimowski-concertmaster-bw (640x427)

Meet the Musicians

FIRST VIOLIN
Carmelo de los Santos
Karen McKinnon Concertmaster Chair
Sarah Tasker •••
Assistant Concertmaster
Ana María Quintero Muñoz
Heidi Deifel 
Olivia DeSouza
Maia Lorenzo Gallegos
Juliana Huestis
Barbara Rivers
Nicolle Maniaci
Barbara Scalf Morris

SECOND VIOLIN
Rachel Jacklin •
Carol Swift •••
Julanie Lee
Lidija Peno-Kelly
Megan Lee Karls
Liana Austin
Sheila McLay
Jessica Retana
Jocelyn Kirsch

Brad Richards

VIOLA
Laura Chang
Kimberly Fredenburgh •••
Allegra Askew
Christine Rancier
Laura Steiner
Michael Anderson
Lisa DiCarlo
Joan Hinterbichler
Laura Campbell

CELLO
Amy Huzjak
Carla Lehmeier-Tatum
Ian Mayne-Brody
Dana Winograd
David Schepps
Lisa Collins
Elizabeth Purvis

BASS
Joe Weldon Ferris •
Mark Tatum •••

Katherine Olszowka
Terry Pruitt
Marco Retana
Frank Murry

FLUTE
Valerie Potter
Esther Fredrickson
Noah Livingston ••

PICCOLO
Esther Fredrickson

OBOE
Kevin Vigneau
Amanda Talley

ENGLISH HORN
Melissa Peña ••

CLARINET
Marianne Shifrin
Lori Lovato •••
Jeffrey Brooks

E-FLAT CLARINET
Lori Lovato

BASS CLARINET
Jeffrey Brooks

BASSOON
Stefanie Przybylska •+
Denise Turner +
Zoe SirLouis •++
Avery Dabe ++

HORN
Peter Erb •+
Allison Tutton
Maria Long
Andrew Meyers
Katya Jarmulowicz ••••

TRUMPET
John Marchiando
Brynn Marchiando
Sam Oatts ••

TROMBONE
Aaron Zalkind
Byron Herrington

BASS TROMBONE
David Tall +

TUBA
Richard White

PERCUSSION
Jeff Cornelius
Kenneth Dean
Emily Cornelius

HARP
Carla Fabris •

Principal •
Associate Principal ••
Assistant Principal •••
Assistant ••••
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