Gabriela Glapska is considered to be one of the most interesting and versatile pianists of her generation. Her main interests are chamber music and piano accompaniment, but she is also an active soloist.

 

She started her musical education at the age of 6 and learning piano a year later. In 2006, she began her higher musical education under the tutelage of Prof. Ewa Pobłocka in the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where she graduated with the distinction, receiving her Master’s Degree in 2011. In 2011 she was also selected through an internal academy competition to perform a concerto with orchestra in the Bydgoszcz Philharmonic Hall and gave a debut in the Pomeranian Philharmonic playing Andrzej Panufnik’s Piano Concerto. After graduating from the University, Gabriela worked as an accompanist and vocal répétiteur for the Bydgoszcz Academy of Music.

 

In 2016, Gabriela was awarded the Victoria Doctoral Scholarship which allowed her to come to New Zealand and begin her Ph.D. degree in music with the major performance component at Victoria University of Wellington. She studied there under the supervision of Dr. Jian Liu and Prof. Donald Maurice, recently completing her doctorate focused on Polish-Jewish composer and pianist -- André Tchaikowsky -- and his compositional output. 

 

During her studies in New Zealand, Gabriela was awarded the Postgraduate Scholarship in Classical Piano Performance for both 2017 and 2018, and won the Wellington International Student Excellence Award within the Creativity category.

 

Gabriela is an active soloist and chamber musician, with a strong interest in contemporary music. Gabriela has been the resident pianist for the annual Nelson Composers Workshops since 2017 and a pianist for the 44th International Viola Congress held in Wellington in 2017. As an advocate for the performance of new compositions, she has collaborated with many award-winning composers on both solo and ensemble projects as well as with Wellington-based contemporary ensemble STROMA. Gabriela also collaborates with soprano Barbara Paterson presenting less-known American and Polish repertoire as well as non-standard projects. Recently, their performance of the one-act opera “La Voix Humaine” by Francis Poulenc in the {Suite} Gallery in January and February 2020 has received excellent responses and reviews. The second season of “The Human Voice” took place within the New Zealand Festival of the Arts in late February 2020 at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts. Later in 2022, they will present Olivier Messiaen's "Harawi" in its entirety at University of Canterbury in Christchurch.

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In September 2020, Gabriela has been selected as one of the 24 creatives from around New Zealand for the new development project launched by New Zealand Opera — 6:24 Voices of Aotearoa.

 

Currently, Gabriela works as a rehearsal pianist for the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

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In August 2019 she was invited to join TrioNique, New Zealand’s only professional flute sax piano trio with whom she performs concerts, composers workshops, and community projects across New Zealand. After successful South Island tour for the Ryman Healthcare in February 2021, trio received excellent reviews and continues to bring music to diverse audiences.

 

In June 2020, after working for a year on various concert projects with violinist Monique Lapins and cellist Ken Ichinose, they launched the Ghost Piano Trio. Hailed as “extraordinarily dynamic and impactful [with] infinitely varied playing” (Peter Menchen - Middle C), the trio have quickly gained a reputation as one of the most refreshing and enjoyable chamber groups in New Zealand. Most recently, the trio toured nationwide for Chamber Music New Zealand’s Music Up Close series, a tour where their performances were described as possessing “elan and unfailing attention to musical detail” Leon Gray - Tauranga Musica. The trio has focused on exploring a new approach of the greatest music written for piano trio as well as the discovery of less-known contemporary treasures of the piano trio repertoire.

 

Gabriela has performed extensively in Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Belarus, and New Zealand.