Slawomir Grenda

Double bassist Slawomir Grenda was born in 1968 in Poland. He attended the Karol Szymanowski Music School in Katowice, where he was instructed by Prof. Edward Piwowarczyk and Waldemar Tamowski. He continued his studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland with Harold Robinson, concluding his American studies with a Master of Music degree in 1993. He was accepted at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. During this period, he studied with solo double bassist Prof. Reiner Zepperitz. From 1994 to 1995, Slawomir Grenda was solo double bassist at the Berlin State Opera, and became solo double bassist with the Munich Philharmonic in 1996.

Slawomir Grenda has won a number of competitions, among them the 1990 International Competition in Geneva, the Polish Student Competition and the B. Ciechanski Polish National Competition, the Yale Gordon String Competition in Baltimore, the International Competition in Kromeríz (Czech Republic) and the Performers of Connecticut Competition. Slawomir Grenda has made frequent appearances as soloist with various orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center in Washington. He has also performed his own transcriptions of violin and cello compositions at a vast number of concerts in Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. As a chamber musician he has appeared in conjunction with the Cape & Islands Chamber Music Festival. He plays regularly with pianist Ivana Švarc Grenda and has recorded a CD with her. Slawomir Grenda gives master classes at the International Summer School in Hvar (Croatia) and in Spain.