Zdzisław Piernik

Polish tuba player. He was the first in Poland to introduce harmonics, glissandos, frullato and multi-sounds into tuba playing. He integrates trumpet, saxophone and trombone bells with the tuba and uses bassoon, flapper and saxophone mouthpieces, and various mufflers. This procedure turns the tuba into an instrument with four different timbres.

As a soloist, he took part in several hundred symphonic and chamber concerts. He has an extraordinarily diverse concert repertoire, from his own transcriptions of works by the old masters to the latest compositions of contemporary music.

Since 1978, he has been the permanent representative of Poland at the International Tubists’ Association in the United States. He performs on stages all over the world (Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Sweden, Japan, Mexico and the United States), where he is valued for his originality and expressive power.

He performs works by composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, Henry Eccles, Johann Sebastian Bach, Benedetto Marcello, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Marian Borkowski, Zbigniew Bargielski, Jan Fotek, Bogusław Schaeffer, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Witold Szalonek, Andrzej Krzanowski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Marek Stachowski, Krzysztof Knittel, Wojciech Kilar, Marta Ptaszyńska, Andrzej Bieżan, Ryszard Klisowski, Benno Ammann, Fernando Grillo, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Elżbieta Sikora. The greatest composers of contemporary music write for him and many of them dedicated works specifically to him.

He took part in the International Music Meetings in Bayreuth (1971-74), as well as in many festivals, such as “Warsaw Autumn” (from 1972), in Witten (1977), Cologne (1977, 1979), Darmstadt, Los Angeles (1978) , Bourges (1978), Stockholm (1979, 1981), Salzburg (1978, 1987), Lisbon (1982), Washington (1983), Metz (1984).

He has made many recordings as a soloist, with piano accompaniment, as well as with symphony orchestras for record companies such as Polskie Nagrania, Pro-Viva, and Sonoton. He also has radio recordings in Germany, Belgium, France, Sweden, Great Britain and television recordings in Munich and London.

In the 1970s, he collaborated with the National Theater in Warsaw, and in the 1980s with the National Theater in Łódź. Since 1983 he has also been working as a teacher.

https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/zdzislaw-piernik