Harmonies Across Years: Temporal Duo’s Award-Winning CD “Beyond the Horizon”
- WOMCO
- Aug 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 15
Temporal Duo – Monika Kucharczyk & Łukasz Dębski’s album"Beyond the Horizon" was awarded the Diamond Prize in the Best CD Album Category of the 2025 Season 3 Best Classical Musicians Awards.
When and why did you form your duo, and does playing music together hold a special meaning for you?
First of all, we would like to thank you for the award in such a prestigious competition as the Best Classical Musicians Awards. In a sense, one could say that the Diamond Prize is the crowning achievement of our long-standing collaboration. It's hard to believe that 18 years have passed since our first meeting! It all started with a happy coincidence in 2007 — Łukasz was already employed at the university and was an accompanist in Prof. J. Kotyczka's oboe class. Monika was a candidate for studies at the Academy of Music in Krakow, and after successfully passing the exams, she was accepted to study in first place among many candidates. This opened the way for us to work together, which resulted in many student successes. Among the most important achievements of that time was the Third Prize at the Fourth Academic Competition for Oboists and Bassoonists in Łódź - no Second Prize was awarded at that time, and we were the only winners and the highest-ranked ensemble from Poland. After this success, we were nominated to represent Poland at the prestigious 20th Lions European Music Competition in Maastricht. We were the first winners from Poland in the history of this competition, taking third place among the 15 countries delegated to the competition. Currently, our mission is to bring beauty and joy through unique interpretations. We share our passion with a wide audience and create unique musical experiences that will remain in the hearts and souls of our listeners.
Your CD album Beyond the Horizon features works by many composers for oboe and piano. What inspired the title, and how does it reflect the overall concept or direction of the album?
Beyond the Horizon is a reflection of our souls, emotions, and desire to share our passion. The diversity of the pieces stems from a desire to show the different kinds of beauty that can be found both in “romanticism” and in the enigmatic end of the world (the piece “Wait”). It was our great dream to record Poulenc's Sextet together with our friends, and the fulfillment of this dream is sharing this success with them. One more question can be asked—why is our ensemble called Temporal Duo? One of our favorite pieces is Britten's Temporal Variations—it couldn't be left off our album. Hence the inspiration for the name of our duo.
Would you like to share your experience participating in our competition and anyone you'd like to thank?
Of course! We would like to thank many people. First of all, we would like to thank our mentors, who guided us during our studies in 2007-2012. I cannot fail to mention Prof. Jerzy Kotyczka and Prof. Arkadiusz Krupa, who taught the class together. At that time, Prof. Krupa was an assistant in the oboe class. They are not only fantastic teachers, but also incredible personalities who shaped our musical sensitivity and diversity, which we are now able to express and share with the audience. Our concerts attract crowds and end with standing ovations. It's all thanks to what we learned from the Professor!
In addition, we would like to thank the co-creators of our album - the DUX label, our wonderful friends who recorded the Sextet and Romantic Sonata - Wiesław Suruło - flute, Piotr Lato - clarinet, Damian Lipień – bassoon, Tadeusz Tomaszewski – French horn, and the composers who agreed to have their compositions included on the album – Francesco Bottigliero, Mateusz Bień, and Peter-Jan Wagemans. In addition, we would like to thank the school administration for the opportunity to record the album in the magnificent concert hall of the Józef Świder State Music School in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, as well as the tuner, who was constantly available during our recordings.
