Kamil Tokarski, Piano

Biography

Dr. Kamil Tokarski is a distinguished pianist with rich musical experiences throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia. Kamil Tokarski has appeared in solo recitals in Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, The United States, Japan, and Taiwan. A native of Poland, he attended the Arthur Rubinstein School of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland and continued his musical education at the Grażyna & Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź as a piano student of Prof. Tadeusz Chmielewski Prof. Joanna Kaczmarska and Prof. Jerzy Maciejewski at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2008, Kamil Tokarski was awarded the Music Scholarship and a full academic scholarship by the Wasie Foundation to continue his musical education under Dr. Robert Koopmann at Saint John's University in the USA. In 2009, he received the Grand Prix in the Minnesota Music Teachers Association Piano Competition and first place in the Saint Cloud Symphony Competition which was followed by a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Saint Cloud Symphony Orchestra. He was a finalist of the Schubert Club Piano Competition and was awarded second place in the Thursday Musical Piano Competition (Saint Paul, MN). In 2009 and 2010 Kamil Tokarski won first place in the Music Teachers National Association Minnesota Piano Competitions and received an Honorable Mention award in both divisional competitions (Columbia, MO; Sioux Falls, SD). 

In May of 2013, Kamil Tokarski received his master's degree in piano performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Peck School of the Arts, where he studied with Venezuelan concert pianist, Judit Jaimes. A student of Isabelle Vengerova and Rudolf Serkin, Judit Jaimes had a profound impact on Tokarski’s understanding of the aesthetical balance within the musical form. Tokarski began work on his doctorate in piano performance and orchestra conducting at Ball State University in Indiana under Dr. Robert Palmer and Prof. Douglas Droste. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Tokarski appeared as a conductor of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra, performed and recorded harpsichord solo repertoire, and collaborated with Hungarian pianist and composer Istvan Benedekfi, as well as Grammy-winning American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. 

Tokarski graduated with his doctorate in late 2017. Having been deeply involved in exploring the cognitive aspects of playing and learning piano, his doctoral dissertation dealt with the effective memorization techniques of the harmonically complex “Masques” op. 34 by Karol Szymanowski. Tokarski currently lives and works in Taiwan where he operates a teaching and recording studio. Throughout his education, Kamil Tokarski had opportunities to participate in master classes with many world-famous musicians including: Ewa Poblocka, Janusz Olejniczak, Krzysztof Jablosnki Andrzej Jasinski, Pascal Devoyon, Krystian Zimerman, Eugen Indjic, Christopher Elton, Sergei Babayan, and Sean Duggan.