Cracow Guitar Quartet

The beginnings of the quartet's history date back to 1993, when Joanna Baran and Jadwiga Wołek founded a guitar duo called Alirio Duo. Despite the successes the duo achieved in Poland and abroad, the artists decided to expand its lineup, wanting to enrich their repertoire with new sounds and compositions written not only for guitar, but also for other instrumental ensembles. Therefore, in 2006, the duo transformed into a guitar quartet when Łukasz Dobrowolski and Oskar Koźlowski joined them.
The repertoire of the Cracow Guitar Quartet mainly consists of dance pieces from various eras, from the Renaissance to modern times, including not only classical music, but also Latin American music. Compositions by Michael Praetorius, Johann Sebastian Bach, Astor Piazzolla, Fryderyk Chopin, and popular Brazilian dances by Celso Machado.
In 2009, the Cracow Guitar Quartet won the 1st prize at the 12th International Guitar Competition in Ile De Ré in France, and is considered by music critics to be one of the best guitar quartets in the world.

Jadwiga Wołek and Joanna Baran are graduates of the Wrocław Academy of Music, where they also completed Postgraduate Master's Studies in chamber music under Prof. Piotr Zaleski. They honed their skills by participating in masterclasses led by Alirio Diaz, Pavel Steidl, Simon Standage, Philippe Villa, Raphael Smits, and Michael Troster.
Performing as Alirio Duo, they won numerous awards in competitions held in Poland and Germany, including in Koszalin, Kielce, Gdańsk, and Przemyśl, where they twice took 2nd place in the International Chamber Music Competition. They are also two-time finalists of the International Guitar Duo Competitions in Nuremberg-Bubenreuth (1996) and Cologne (1999).
Currently, both guitarists combine their artistic activities with teaching, leading guitar classes in primary and secondary music schools, Jadwiga Wołek in Nowy Targ, and Joanna Baran in Krakow.

Łukasz Dobrowolski is a graduate of the guitar class at the Academy of Music in Krakow and musicology at the Jagiellonian University. He also participated in masterclasses led by guitar virtuosos such as Abel Carlevaro, Jorge Cardoso, Eduardo Fernandez, Gerhard Reichenbach, and Marco Socias.
He was a scholarship holder at foreign universities (University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Universidad de Granada) and The Robert Anderson Research Charitable Trust in London.
As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed in Europe, Canada, and the United States, playing repertoire from various eras. However, his main interest is in music from Spanish and South American cultures. His doctoral dissertation, prepared at the Institute of Musicology at the Jagiellonian University, is dedicated to guitar concerts by Joaquin Rodrigo.

Oskar Koźlowski graduated from the guitar class at the Academy of Music in Krakow and improved his playing technique during masterclasses with Piotr Zaleski, Andrzej Mokrzy, Gerhard Reichenbach, and Abel Carlevaro.
Before joining the Cracow Guitar Quartet, he co-founded the guitar trio Concentio and the band Brazil Brazil, performing bossa nova repertoire. He collaborated with Łada Gorpienko, a Ukrainian singer, actress, and dancer, as well as with Lidia Jazgar, a vocalist from the Galicja band. He is also a member of the guitar duo String Thing, which includes his own compositions inspired by Balkan music and jazz.