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I have been playing guitar since age 10 and
lute since age 19. I come from a musical and very religious
family that includes many decorated Polish war heroes.
I first studied guitar and renaissance lute with Barbara
Polasek at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich,
Germany, and then went on to the Royal Academy of Music in
London to study guitar with Hector Quine and Michael Lewin
and renaissance lute with Robert Spencer. Besides getting
Division V With Merit on the guitar and Division V With
Distinction on the renaissance lute, I made it a point to
take and pass the highest examinations in Harmony,
Orchestration and Aural Training in an endeavor to do away
with the misconception that guitarists know nothing about
music apart from their own repertoire. For this same reason,
I also took phenomenology of music courses held by the
famous Romanian conductor, Sergiu Celibidache.
I have taken many masterclasses with such people as Oscar
Caceres, Betho Davezac, David Russell, William Kanengiser,
Benjamin Verdery, Phil de Fremery, Pat O’Brien, Roland Dÿens
and Eliot Fisk on the guitar, Paul O’Dette, Hopkinson Smith,
and Jacob Lindberg on the renaissance lute and Toyohiko
Satoh on the baroque lute.
I have arranged many pieces for guitar ensemble, primarily
for the Hense guitar quartet in Munich, Germany. They have
recorded three of my transcriptions of music by Manuel de
Falla (Miller's Dance, La Vida breve and Hommage a Debussy).
Edition Margaux in Berlin has published my arrangement for
guitar quartet of Golliwogg's Cake-Walk by Claude Debussy.
Mel Bay is publishing a BCD of mine entitled An American
Christmas for the 2003 season and one called A Scots Tune
with transcriptions from the Margaret Wemyss Lute Book in
2004. I am also a co-contributor to Arranging Concepts for
Classic and Fingerstyle Guitar to be published by Mel Bay
later on this year.
I teach and perform on guitar and lute in the Seattle area.
I have a studio in my home, give individual lessons through
the Gene Nastri School in Mukilteo, and teach beginning folk
guitar in groups through the Lynnwood, Everett, and
Recreation programs.
Mary
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