Silesian Guitar Octet


Silesian Guitar Octet is the only performing octet in the world that has a stable structure. The Octet consists of professors, graduates and students of Musical Academy in Katowice, Poland.

The octet

The musical group was created in 2001 by Franciszek Wieczorek. In the beginning there was an idea to put together as many guitars as possible and at the same time not to create a guitar orchestra. Originally, each of the guitarists should have his or her own part. Later on, the number of guitarists has become eight.
The group received first prize at the international festival INTER ARTIA 2008.
The Silesian Guitar Octet has recorded for BBC WORLDS television and Polish Radio.
The first album of the group, entitled OCT.OPUS, was nominated to win the Polish music award FRYDERYKI in 2009. The second album of the group, The XXth Century, was released in January 2011.
The Silesian Guitar Octet has appeared in numerous concerts in Poland as well as in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Austria, Greece, Italy and in the UK.

Members

There are very few pieces which are originally written for an octet. Because of this, Franciszek Wieczorek has had to carry out the transcription of many beautiful pearls for the orchestra music.
The groups core repertoire consists of works by J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, P.I. Tchaikovsky, E. Grieg, M. Ravel, J. Turina, G. Gershwin, A. Khachaturian, L. Bernstein, L. Brouwer, R. Dyens and many others.

Discography