Violinist and teacher, especially dedicated to the performance of chamber music. For 25 years, he played the violin for two leading Polish chamber orchestras of international repute – Jerzy Maksymiuk’s Polish Chamber Orchestra and Yehudi Menuhin’s Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra (1978 – 2003). As a member of these orchestras, he performed throughout the world at the most prestigious concert halls in more than 2500 concerts, also as a soloist. The artist has also collaborated with the Menuhin Festival Orchestra, Grzegorz Nowak’s Sinfonia Helvetica and Kwartet Varsovia.
The violinist can boast an impressive discography of more than 130 albums containing some of the masterpieces of chamber and symphonic music. A great number of these releases have been given awards in Poland and abroad.
He has been a member of the Prima Vista Quartet since 1996, with which he also works as a manager in charge of all its concerts and recording projects. The Quartet plays more than 60 concerts annually, in Poland as well as in such countries as Germany, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France, the United States, Canada, Japan, China, South Korea, North Korea, Malaysia (including Borneo), Indonesia (including Bali), Singapore and Argentina. The ensemble has recorded 17 CDs, of which three have received the Fryderyk music award and two have achieved the status of Gold and Platinum records. For the last 18 years, the members of the Quartet have participated, as professors, in numerous chamber music master classes organised in Japan (Tokyo, Toyama, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Fukuyama), China (Kunming, Chengdu, Shenzhen), South Korea (Suwon University, Ewon Cultural Center) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). In 2010 – 2014, Józef Kolinek conducted a chamber music class during the National Piano Workshops in Krynica Zdrój and, in 2016, master classes in Oberlin in the United States, Cape Town in South Africa and Tokaj in Hungary.
Józef Kolinek was a jury member of the Karol Szymanowski International String Quartet Competition in Katowice in 2014. He has been a creator and an artistic director of well-known chamber music festivals, such as the Summer Musical Evenings in the Church-Garden (Letnie wieczory muzyczne w Kościele-Ogrodzie) in Podkowa Leśna, the Music in the Historic Places of Chełmno (Muzyka w zabytkach Chełmna) in Chełmno nad Wisłą, the Music in the Colours of Autumn (Muzyka w barwach jesieni) in Ożarów Mazowiecki and the Four Seasons (Cztery pory roku) at the Czartoryski Palace in Sieniawa. He also serves as vice-president of the Stanisław Moniuszko Music Society in Warsaw.
He has graduated with distinction from the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź, where he studied violin with Prof. Zenon Płoszaj and from the Warsaw School of Economics, gaining an MBA diploma. He has been a winner of the National Competition for Young Violinists in Lublin and the Zdzisław Jahnke National Violin Competition in Poznań.
In recognition of his artistic and organisational activities in the field of chamber music, Józef Kolinek has been given the award ‘For the Merit to Culture’, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage’s Individual Award and the Gloria Artis Medal.
