Tomasz Pokrzywinski
Baroque Cello

Tomasz Pokrzywinski was born in Warsaw into a musical family and music has been an essential part of his life since he can remember. At the age of seven he started playing the cello. He soon realised that his musical interests are much wider and began exploring different areas and styles. That is why today he finds himself working not only as a cellist, but also as a sound engineer/producer, arranger, composer, bassist and workshop leader.

While he was still studying sound engineering at the F.Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw he met Jaap ter Linden and fell in love with baroque cello. He started attending early music courses and masterclasses and began performing with period-instruments ensembles in Poland. In 2005 – after graduating from the Warsaw Academy – he moved to London to study baroque cello with Alison McGillivray at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The 2006/07 season has been very successful for him – he was selected to participate in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Experience Scheme and also appointed as a principal cellist for the Britten Pears Baroque Orchestra and a member of the European Union Baroque Orchestra.

Apart from early music he is very happy to be involved in cross-arts, cross-genre and trans-cultural projects and performs with African, Latin-American and eastern-European folk musicians as well as visual artists and contemporary dancers.