Prof. Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha

Professor Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha

Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha finished Secondary Music School in Warsaw in 1962 where she studied the piano under Wanda Losakiewicz and theory of music under Aleksander Jarzebski. She graduated from the State Higher School of Music (now the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music) in Warsaw in 1968 (summa cum laude) where she read theory of music under Maria Dziewulska, Zofia Kielanowska, Witold Rudzinski, Stefan Sledzinski and her father, Andrzej Dobrowolski. She completed a post-graduate course under Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1968-1969) and a doctoral course in theory of Music at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw (1973-1975). She attended International Courses on the Kodály Method in Esztergom (1983) and Kecskemét (1985) and Polish-Hungarian Kodály seminars in Zakopane, Cieszyn, Lancut and Gdansk. She obtained her specialisation in theory of music in Cracow under the supervision of Ludwik Bielawski: level 1 in 1983 and level 2 in 1994.
Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha began her teaching career at the Emil Mlynarski State Primary Music School in Warsaw in 1964 where she taught theoretical subjects until 1972. In 1967 she began to teach musical ear training and its methods at the AMFC (mainly at the Department of Composition, Conducting and Theory of Music and the Department of Sound Engineering). In 1995 she began to teach the same subjects at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. She has supervised many master's theses on musical ear training (awards at national competitions) as well as qualification theses at secondary music schools and higher music schools (first-level qualification procedures in theory of music). Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha supervised the first master's thesis in theory of music written by a blind student (1996).

National Solfa Competition Bielsko-Biała, 2001

In 1982-1995 Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha was head of the Musical Ear Training Unit at the Chair of Music Theory, AMFC and also organised and headed the "Musical ear training" specialisation at the theory of music section at AMFC Department I (from 1992). From 1995 she has been head of the Chair of Musical Ear Training seated at the AMFC. She is associate professor of the AMFC in Warsaw (since 1996) and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (since 1995). In 1974-1980 she taught the principles of music, harmony and musical ear training at the J. Elsner secondary music school and was lecturer at the Experimental Instrumental Department for gifted youth (1990-1993, now the Z. Brzewski Secondary Music School), with which she still co-operates). She has taught a great number of outstanding musicians and theorists including Maria Wacholc, Andrzej Chorosinski, Edyta Szczyrba and Ewa Wilczynska. She is consultant of the Ministry of Culture and Art, member of the National Commission for Theoretical Subjects, co-author of teaching programs for primary and secondary music schools. She co-operates with several publishing houses - PWM, WSiP and IPM - and is a consultant at OZMP, COPSA and the Ministry of National Education. She is the editor of several AMFC research bulletins including the Feliks Flis Materials for Musical Ear Training and the series Proceedings of the Intercollegiate Chair of Musical Ear Training. She has reviewed many works on the methods of musical ear training, organised and participated in many research sessions and methodics conferences. She has been the head of a number of research projects and co-operated with the Chair of Music Acoustics and the Chair of Music Psychology, consulted music recordings for tests and handbooks and sat on the juries of solfa competitions. She has lectured at International Music Courses (Lancut), Music Workshops organised by the National Foundation for Children (Zakopane), EPTA Music Workshops (Krynica), and summer courses for teachers. She has given lectures at many colleges in Poland and abroad, given demonstration lessons, taken part in authors' meetings and appeared on radio and television. She has written many works on musical ear training including Dictations in Music, the first Polish musical ear training handbook based on recordings of excerpts from the music literature and the most popular of her works.
Member of SPAM, ISME and RWSA (1993-1995) and a delegate to the AMFC Senate. She has been awarded the Gold Cross of Merit, first class and second class awards of the Ministry of Culture and Art, the Curator of the City of Warsaw. Many times she has been given the award of the AMFC rector.

	Prof. Danuta Dobrowolska-Marucha

HANDBOOKS

• Exercises in Musical Ear Training, MP COPSA, no. 78, Warszawa 1979.
• Materials for Musical Ear Training - exercises in vocal note reading part I, AMFC, Warszawa 1981.
• Specific nature of musical ear training at various departments of the AMFC. Information bulletin for teachers COPSA, Warszawa 1986.
• Dictations in music (textbook and 6 LPs), PWM, Cracow, 1988.
• Exercises in musical ear training. A selection of pieces by Fryderyk Chopin (textbook and 2 audio cassettes), PWM, Cracow 1992.
• Dictations in music - new edition
  part I - textbook and cassette, PWM, Cracow 1994,
  part II - textbook and 3 CDs, AMFC, Warsaw 1999.
  part III - textbook and 2 CDs, AMFC Warsaw 2000.

• Musical ear training for composers, theorists and conductors ZN, AMFC, Warsaw 1989.
• Music academies - demands as to the musical ear qualifications of secondary school graduates In: Problems in the methodics of general music subjects ZN AMFC, Warsaw 1991.
• Why I wrote the "Dictations in music" textbook In: Professor Witold Rudziński's jubilee book on his eightieth birthday ZN AMFC, Warsaw 1993.
• Musical ear training at the rhythmics section In: Professor Witold Rudziński's jubilee book on his eightieth birthday ZN AMFC, Warsaw 1993.
• Folk music in general music subjects In: Oskar Kolberg - precursor of cultural anthropology Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 1995.
• Specific elements in the musical ear training of musicians representing different specialities "Kwartalnik ISME" no. 3-4, Warsaw 1995.
• Musical ear training - a fundamental part of the curriculum for sound engineers In: VIth Sound Engineering Symposium AMFC, Warsaw 1995.
• On the need for specialist musical ear training for musicians representing various specialities - theses for discussion ZN, AMFC, Warsaw 1998.
• New trends in musical ear training for singers in France ZN, AMFC, Warsaw 1998.
• My encounters with the Kodály Pedagogical System In: Following Zoltán Kodály in Poland AMFC, Warsaw 2000.
• Controversies concerning ear training for string instrumentalists In: Man - Music - Psychology AMFC, Warsaw 2000.

Compiled by: The Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music