600 words bio

Ignacy Gaydamovich is a cellist with a career that spans multiple continents. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Hartt School Symphony Orchestra (West Hartford, CT), the Manchester Symphony Orchestra, the National Radio and TV Orchestra of Tirana (Albania), the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Conservatory Music in the Mountains Orchestra (Durango, CO).

He has performed solo cello recitals internationally, with appearances in Panama and Lithuania. His recitals with piano have brought him to venues such as the House of Rachmaninoff Festival in Ivanovka, Russia, the National Library in Panama City, Oizumi Hall in Tokyo, the American Christian University in Beirut, and the Allegro Vivo Music Festival in Horn, Austria.

Gaydamovich has performed chamber music in venues including the Qingdao Westin Hotel Hall in China, the Nippon Bank Hall in Fukuoka, Japan, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Hall in Poland. In the United States, his solo recitals have included appearances at the Viva Bach Peterborough Music Festival (NH), the Abbott Public Library (Marblehead, MA), and the Boston Public Library. He also regularly performs historically informed recitals on period instruments at the Frederick Collection of Historical Pianos in Ashburnham, MA, collaborating on several occasions with pianist Jiayan Sun.

He has held teaching positions at Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Texas Christian University, and most recently at Stetson University in DeLand, FL. He currently serves as an Associate Professor of Cello at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) in Johnson City, TN. His festival teaching includes engagements at Orfeo Music Festival (Vipiteno, Italy), the Qingdao International Classical Music Festival and Competition (China), Cellofest (Panama City), and the Vivace Vilnius International Music Festival (Lithuania). He has also presented masterclasses at the Crane School of Music (NY), the University of Mississippi (Hattiesburg), and the Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, Poland).

His awards include the Grand Prix and prizes for solo and chamber music at the Allegro Vivo Festival (Horn, Austria, 2005), and Third Prize at the K. Bacewicz International Chamber Music Competition (Łódź, Poland, 2004). He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Hartt School, Graduate Performance Diplomas from the Longy School of Music and The Boston Conservatory, a Master of Music degree from Texas Christian University, and a Master of Arts degree from the Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. His principal teachers include Terry King, Rhonda Rider, and Jesús Castro-Balbi, Kazimierz Michalik and Andrzej Bauer.

Outside of music, Gaydamovich is an amateur cyclist and participates in local criterium and road races.