Lidia Kaminska
Accordion virtuoso Lidia Kaminska thrills and delights audiences with her energetic and captivating performances. Throughout the United States and Europe, her chamber music, concerto and solo performances explore the complex and expressive range of the accordion as an instrument of classical music.Ms. Kaminska began playing the accordion at the age of eight. At the age of eleven she was competing in international competitions in Bulgaria and Germany, and by twelve she was giving solo performances in Holland, Austria, and Germany, as well as her native Poland. After receiving her Masters degree from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland, she came to the U.S. in the year of 1999 to study at the University of Missouri Kansas City. At the age of 25 she became the first (and only) person in the United States to ever receive a Doctorate in Accordion Performance.
The seven-time winner of national and international competitions and recipient of numerous additional awards and honors, Ms. Kaminska took First Prize in the 2002 Accordion Teachers Guild International Competition, Orlando, Fl, and recently she received Special Prize in New York City's International Tango Music Competition with the Argentine tango ensemble Tango Lorca. Her repertoire includes a broad range of classical, contemporary, and avant-garde music. She has researched and performed the works of Astor Piazzolla extensively.
Possessing a special interest in new music, Ms. Kaminska premiered new works by Julia Alford Fowler, Paul Rudy, and performed at the World Premiere of the BalletX. She has appeared with the contemporary music ensembles the New Ear and the Musica Nova. She has also collaborated with dancer and choreographer Jorge Laico for the Kansas City Ballet, and with Mathew Neenan for BalletX. She was featured as a soloist with the Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland, the Strings of Lodz, The Concord Chamber Orchestra, the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra.
Recently Ms. Kaminska conceived her first album, Breaking Boundaries, as a part of her mission to change the perception of the accordion from parlor entertainment to serious classical instrument.
"Behind perfect technique, musicianship, and presentation ... Lidia Kaminska has in her a great power that influences the audience immensely."
Prof. Bogdan Dowlasz,
Dean of the Lodz Academy of Music, Poland
From: Resume (2006)