ELA TOLAK

Set designer, costume designer, graphic artist. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw

Graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Art, working in the illustration studio of J. Stanny, T. Pągowska’s painting studio and the Set Design Faculty in the studio of A. Sadowski and M. Jarnuszkiewicz, J. Sosnowski’s film workshop and I. Biegańska’s costume studio.

She won the Z. Strzelecki First Prize for her work on The Madman and the Nun by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy), the best set design in Poland. First Prize for best costume in Woody Allen’s God at the International Theatre Festival in Bydgoszcz. In 2017, she won the Prix des P'tits Molières in Paris for the set design for Game of Love and Chance by Pierre de Marivaux, cond. E. Rucińska.

Ela Tolak co-created theatre productions at the Great Theatre in Warsaw and Poznań, Warsaw Chamber Opera, Polish Theatre in Bydgoszcz, New Theatre in Warsaw and Łódź, A la Folie Theatre w Paryżu, Theatre Academy and Music University in Warsaw, Musical Academy in Łodź and others.

With her additional music education and many years of experience as a makeup artist, her productions are full of artistic awareness. She is comfortable with many different art conventions, creating surprising, metaphorical combinations. Her ideas come from her passion, ability to think in abstract terms, openness, free thought, curiosity about the world and sense of humour.

Today, she is also an educator running a proprietary course at the Vocal and Acting Studies Dept. at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and also at the Makeup School where she runs a course titled “They hear you like they see you,” the history of style. She is also a lecturer at the Warsaw Film School.

James Laing has sung for companies including the Royal Opera, London, Classical Opera, the Early Opera Company, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Grange Festival, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera. International engagements have included the Göttingen Festival, the Opéra de Nice and the Dresden Semperoper.

Concert engagements have included performances with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Dunedin Consort, the Hallé, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Netherlands Bach Society, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. North American engagements have included performances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Arion Baroque of Montréal and Tafelmusik in Toronto.

Highlights of 2018 / 2019 included Peter Brødre at the Armel Opera Festival, Daniel Belshazzar for The Grange Festival and Demetrio Berenice for the Royal Opera, London. His current engagements include Peter Brødre for the Icelandic Opera, Daniel Belshazzar for Zurich Opera, Tolomeo Giulio Cesare for Opera North, Not the Christmas Oratorio on tour with Solomon’s Knot, Dixit Dominus with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Israel in Egypt at The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. With Fiori Musicali, he appears in Handel with James Laing and sings Vivaldi Stabat Mater.

His recordings include J. S. Bach Magnificat (Atma CD), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opus Arte Blu Ray / DVD) and Tobias and the Angel (Chandos CD).

The harpsichordist and leader of the ensemble Musica Fiorita, Daniela Dolci (native of Sicily), studied early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, specializing on historical keyboard instruments. Subsequently she went to Amsterdam for further training with Gustav Leonhardt. Her main focus – inspired by the work with Jesper B. Christensen—is the historical basso continuDDo practice, based on 17th and 18th century sources.

Dolci’s diversified practice includes concerts, performance of operas, studio productions for TV and radio as well as studio recordings together with her ensemble and with others (René Jacobs - Bachtage Berlin, H.M. Linde - Moscow Chamber Music Festival; with her ensemble Musica Fiorita in Tallinn and Riga, St. Petersburg, Oude Muzijk Utrecht; International Handel Festival Göttingen, Herne’s Early Music Days, Innsbruck Festival Weeks of Early Music; Tours in Japan, Poland, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay; dance projects in collaboration with baroque dance groups; musicological symposiums et al.) Recordings with the ensembles Dulzainas and Concerto di Viole and also with the cellist Ivan Monighetti are also available.

Daniela Dolci gives great importance to the educational aspect as well. She gives lectures on female composers and on historically informed performance and teaches master classes on basso continuo and ensembles practice – in Leipzig, Riga, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Puerto Madryn und Mendoza (Argentina), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Universities in Potenza, Matera and Bologna). Meanwhile, she also conducts modern formations who like to deepen their knowledge of the Early Music period.

In 2006 she was awarded the honor of „peace ambassador through music” by the honorary citizens of Chiquitos, Bolivia. In 2008 she was awarded the honor of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana by the Italian Republic in appreciation of her efforts to promote Italian culture abroad.

In 2010 she was awarded the Hans Roth Prize in Bolivia.

In 2019 she was awarded the yoeurope award of the European Cultural Foundation PRO EUROPA for her outstanding achievements in the field of early music.