Hanna Banaszak

Hanna Banaszak set out on her artistic path in the late 1970s. She often emphasises that she is interested in making each successive performance more diverse and credible. Already at the start of her career, she caught the interest of contemporary poets and composers, including Jerzy Wasowski, Wojciech Młynarski, Andrzej Trzaskowski, Jonasz Kofta, Jeremi Przybora and Jerzy “Duduś” Matuszkiewicz, as well as Jerzy Satanowski, Jan “Kanty” Pawluśkiewicz and Zbigniew Preisner. Her interpretations have modernised the poetry of Jan Kochanowski, and her repertoire features works by poets like Iosif Brodsky, Wisława Szymborska and Tadeusz Różewicz. She has performed music by Mozart, Vivaldi, Chopin, Mangione, Corea, Metheny, Davis, Gershwin, Ellington and many others. Banaszak is the winner of many accolades, including the Wiktor, Kreator, Bursztynowy Słowik, Prometeusz and Złota Tarka. In  2013, she received the prestigious Honorowy Złoty Mikrofon award from the Polish Radio, and in 2014, the Order of Polonia Restituta from the President of the Polish Republic Bronisław Komorowski. Hanna says: “Awards and splendours, although they appeal to my vanity, are of secondary importance. The most interesting and at the same time most difficult thing for me is pure creativity, challenging myself without copying myself or other models. That’s why I like to set myself increasingly difficult goals.”