He is a cellist born in Poland to a musical family who was the first prize winner three times consecutively in the yearly Polish National Cello and Chamber Music competition. He earned his degree with honours at Katowice’s Karol Szymanowski School of Music before taking further studies in the US at the Peabody Conservatory, where he earned two artist diplomas and was awarded the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Scholarship. While at the Conservatory he was a member of the Peabody String Quartet.
He became a member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and was Principal Cellist there for 11 years before becoming a member of the Minnesota Orchestra in 2004.
In 2006 he debuted as a soloist with the orchestra when he performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. He went on to play the world premiere of Cello Concerto No 2: Towards the Horizon by Einojuhani Rautavaara. Also in 2006 he became a member of the conductorless ensemble American String Project.
Other orchestras he has performed with as a soloist include the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Orchesta Sinfonica de Chile, the Silesian Chamber Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
As a chamber musician he has participated as a musician in chamber music festivals in Canada, Europe and the United States and at venues in New York and Washington D.C. He has also performed at many chamber concerts put on by the Minnesota Orchestra and given recitals nationally and internationally with his wife, the pianist Claudia Chen. He has also given music performances with his daughter Katia who is a violinist. In 2008 he and his wife were awarded a McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians.
Recordings he has performed on include The American String Project: 10 Year Anniversary and Beethoven, Sarasate, Shostakovich: Work for Strings by The American String Project, That Kind of Day by TD Mischke and the Lifescapes compilation The Unwind & Renew Collection.
In the field of musical education he has been a faculty member and Principal Cello of Indiana University’s Summer Music Festival. He and his wife own their own Chen Tesarczyk Studios where they teach piano and cello.
He performs here with his daughter….
Sources:
- https://chentesarczykstudios.wordpress.com/bios/
- https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/about/our-people/orchestra-musicians/arek-tesarczyk/
- https://bloomingtonsymphony.org/about/history/soloists/previous-season-soloists/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towards_the_Horizon_(composition)
- https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-orchestra-debut-features-the-old-and-the-new/104109948/
- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/arek-tesarczyk-mn0001704709
- https://www.alibris.co.uk/search/music/artist/Arek-Tesarczyk
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/7206470-Arek-Tesarczyk