Tomasz Golka

Tomasz Golka (born 1975) is a Polish-American conductor, composer and violinist. Golka is the son of pianist Anna Karczewska-Golka and trombonist George Golka. He is the great-grandson of Max Stern. His younger brother Adam Golka is a pianist. Career Golka was born in 1975 in Warsaw, in Poland. His family emigrated to Mexico when he was young. He completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and became an American citizen in 1996. He studied conducting under David Effron at Indiana University and later under Markand Thakar and Gustav Meier at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University. In 2003, Golka won first prize at the Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico City. From 2003-04, Golka was a visiting professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and served as a conductor for the Ball State Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, Golka was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival. His work at Tanglewood included conducting a performance of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with composers Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, and John Harbison as narrators. From 2007