Mleczko Alina
Saxophonist, teacher. She is the first woman to have graduated from the saxophone class at the Music Academy in Warsaw, in the class of David Pituch and Krzysztof Herder. In 1994 she gave a bravura performance at her diploma recital, and in 1995 she made her debut at the National Philharmonic. In October 1996 the American magazine “Saxophone Journal” included her portrait in an issue devoted to the greatest female saxophonists in the world. Alina recorded her first solo disc Wiatr od Morza (Wind from the Sea) while still a fifth-year student. It includes works written especially for her by Polish composers of the younger generation (Paweł Mykietyn, Jacek Grudzień, Maciej Zieliński, Hanna Kulenty). The CDs that followed, Sjesta (2003) and Fiesta (2005), were nominated for the Fryderyk Award, as well as receiving excellent reviews and prizes (Sjesta was awarded a prize by the “Classique” magazine in France, and took the top position on the bestseller list).
As a soloist she performs with numerous philharmonic orchestras in Poland as well as with Capella the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Danish Radio Orchestra. She gives concerts in many countries in Europe and the US. She has performed at festivals such as the Warsaw Autumn, Lutosławski Forum, Two Days & Two Nights in Odessa, Musica Polonica Nova, Wratislavia Cantans, Electronic Music Festival in Prague, and the Latin American Cultural Festival.
She participates in unusual musical projects, such as Adam Jarzębski – The Music of Polish Baroque, where she plays solo parts of her own setting on the soprano saxophone together with early instruments.
Her own music projects include The other side of the coin – jazz and classical music (with pianist Włodek Pawlik). Her latest CD, Alina Mleczko–Saxophone, released in 2010 on the Dux label, contains premiere Polish recordings of sonatas for saxophone and piano by Phil Woods, Takashi Yoshimatsu, Paul Creston and Paul Hindemith.
In 2010 she toured Germany with Sinfonia Varsovia as the soloist in Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra. She teaches the saxophone at the Fryderyk Chopin Group of Music Schools in Warsaw, and holds the post of lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University, Department of Instruments and Teaching in Białystok.
