We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dominika Dancewicz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dominika, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

This past year has brought unexpected new level of “meaningful” to my projects. Although both of my Houston-based performing groups (Duo Dramatique – violin/piano duo, and Axiom Quartet) have been always looking for rich, deep contexts of the programs we present, the outburst of the violent conflict in Ukraine in February 2022 has become an unprecedented trigger. I was born in Poland, and I’ve lived there till adulthood, so obviously I’m still very connected to the history and culture of that country. Poland is historically very traumatized by various wars, particularly by WW2. Having this new violent, unwarranted attack happen just east of our borders has brought forth deeply hidden fears and trauma to everyone I know, myself included. As a Pole, I had to respond strong and fast. With the help of my fellow musicians of Axiom Quartet, my fellow pianist of Duo Dramatique Donald Doucet, and the Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church we were able to react to this tragic war very quickly, and in a meaningful, tangible way. I was very grateful to my fellow musicians of Axiom Quartet, who participated in two concerts we put together right away, in March 2022. We held a neighborhood concert in Houston Heights which raised over $2,000 for Sunflower of Ukraine, the charity supporting civilian services in the first weeks of war. Then we participated in the big fundraising concert at the Holocaust Museum Houston (put together by The Ponce Project), which was a collective effort of dozens of Houston musicians. The concert raised close to $7,000. It felt very meaningful to be able to contribute our talents in a tangible way, thanks to our supporters and fans who came out to hear our music. However, the project that was put together by myself and my Duo pianist Donald, in collaboration with the Palmer Church in April 2022 will remain in my memory as the most haunting experience. I was very grateful to the Music Director of the church, Brady Knapp, who offered the space for Duo Dramatique for the Ukraine Fundraiser concert. We decided to create a performance that would embrace my own experience as Eastern European in Houston in the context of the current war in Ukraine. Together with Donald we created a program including music from Poland, Ukraine (of course), Czech Republic, Estonia and Germany, to paint an artistic landscape of what seeking freedom (either spiritual or literal) in music means. Since our artistic model is to always talk to the audience, we narrated the event (often choking up), as we guided our audience in the journey through various artistic expressions. The event was very moving, meaningful and raised substantial amount of money which we contributed to Episcopal Relief and Polish Red Cross, to aid the country in absorbing refugees from Ukraine.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m a Houston-based violinist, performer, educator and mentor. My main creative outlets are two professional ensembles: Axiom Quartet (string quartet) and Duo Dramatique (violin and piano duo). I’m the founding member of both groups, and between them I perform dozens of concerts every season. I’m also an adjunct Professor of Violin at the University of St. Thomas, and I have a huge private violin studio. I’m a classically trained musician, but I strive for creative and inclusive approach to performance not avoiding any genre of music. I brand myself as “passionate” performer: during each concert I pour the passion and love for music straight onto the listener. I believe that my passion is contagious, and the short stories I tell our audiences help them understand and receive our performances better, even if music itself may appear difficult. I design most of our concerts as “stories”, where there are verbal introductions to each work with threads of connection between the pieces and their history, meaning and context. Through my various artistic projects I simply try to transmit that strong passion for music, give people knowledge about its connection to our everyday lives. Was it always easy?
Certainly not. I arrived in the United States from my native Poland back in 2001, and I started with absolutely nothing. I was doing my Master’s Degree at Rice University, not knowing the language very well, trying to deal with school and slowly building my connections and friendships that would eventually build my career here. The single most important thing in developing my career (apart from being a great professional) was strengthening these connections with people.
I foster that quality also in my teaching. I’ve been an educator for over 20 years, and the single most important thing I focus on in my one-on-one lessons and classes is building rapport, trust and respect. My violin studio is very diverse – I teach kids from age 6, intermediate and advanced middle and high school students, college students, as well as adults. Adults are particularly fun to teach – most of them come to me because they want to learn something new and challenging, or they want to return to the violin which they might have learned decades ago. I love to help them open up, accept the difficulty of learning something very challenging later in life, I encourage the grit, perseverance and dedication that learning the violin requires. Most of my adult students inevitably become friends. It happens when you get to witness one another’s vulnerabilities, when you get to see how we raise from failures, grow stronger and become better musicians. I find those experiences extremely rewarding and I know that my students/clients appreciate the outlet, which their regular jobs do not provide. I am certainly very proud of these strong connections I grow with my students, as well as my fellow musicians and artistic collaborators.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am pretty active on social media. I use Facebook and Instagram, I do not use Twitter or TikTok. I am a fan of using socials as a marketing tool, as a platform to share info about my events, as well as video and audio files from my performances. Recently I discovered the power of reels – I think they are a very valuable tool for musicians in particular, since we operate with sound and movement. I am not in favor of sharing too many details of my private life, but sticking to professional info. I think sharing videos and photos from performances proves to be an effective way of staying in touch with fans and supporters, Occasional fun photo from a trip or important life event is a good way to keep people engaged, as well. I think social media are changing rapidly just like our lives are changing in current situation, so there are probably things I would do differently now as compared to 5 years ago. I love being creative on reels, and I love the exposure my work can get now. If I can give any advice to musicians and other creatives out there – be congruent in your content, stick to your craft, don’t confuse your audience by displaying several different fields of arts in one profile (rather, create several different profiles for each), deliver high quality content, don’t bombard your viewers too often, but post regularly. It’s a fleeting thing, this social media world, you can easily disappear if you stop posting, so having healthy distance to it all, not getting obsessive about posting, taking care of your own needs before the social media is still a good measure. Stay present in reality!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

This is an excellent question. I’m glad to try to express how many professional musicians feel. I know that there are exceptions to this, but a lot of non-creative people believe that artists perform their art as a hobby, or as an activity second to their “real job”. That’s not true. Most of us are professionals, who went to school to study our craft for years, if not decades. That’s particularly true for musicians, whose craft must be absolutely stellar in order to achieve the level that can provide any kind of career. I have been a professional musician since I graduated from Music Academy in Krakow (Poland) in 1995. I’ve toured, performed all over Europe, Asia and United States, I decided to obtain a second and third degrees in violin performance in the US after my Polish schooling, and I finally settled in Houston. I perform and teach full time, often spending 12 or 13 hours/day out of my home rehearsing, performing concerts and teaching classes. Despite of all that, when I walk into a store or a business with my violin case on my back, the first question from a random person is: are you with the symphony? I’m frustrated when I hear that question. To an average person the only viable career in music performance has to be with an orchestra. When I answer; no, I can feel the immediate dismissal as if not being with an orchestra canceled me as an artist. I would love for the average person to understand that creatives forge their own ways of being viable in the community. I consider myself lucky to perform in ensembles I’ve created myself (with the help of my musician friends), to be my own boss, to create projects that are truly our own, to not have to answer to anyone but ourselves. That is a lot of artistic freedom and a huge source of fulfillment and joy. Does it have challenges? Yes, many. We have to get our own work and funding, we have to keep our own schedules. We have to be very careful not to overwork ourselves (which is a struggle for me!), we need to be active in our communities to stay relevant. But we do all this with joy and a deep sense of importance. I have stress the good luck of living in a diverse and open city like Houston, which makes the opportunities for independent artists like myself much plenty and relatively easy to find. So – next time you see a musician on your street or in your grocery store, do not ask them if they are with the symphony. Ask them simply what they do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blondviolin.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blondviolin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blondviolin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominikadancewicz/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@blondviolin1/videos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/blondviolin-productions-houston

Image Credits
Pin Lim, Mark Chen, Rahim Quazi