Professor Bożena Betley

Grad­u­ated from the State Higher School of Music in War­saw (now the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music), Depart­ment of Instru­men­tal Stud­ies (flute – diploma with hon­ours), class of H. Bart­nikowski, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, and class of Solo Singing under M. Bojar-Przemieniecka, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor, at the Depart­ment of Vocal Stud­ies. In the period of 1961–69 the 1st Flautist at the War­saw Operetta. From 1969 to 1974 soloist at the Opera and Operetta in Byd­goszcz. Until 1990 soloist at the Great The­atre in Warsaw.

She is a win­ner of numer­ous awards, namely: in 1969 she won the 2nd Prize (the 1st Prize was not awarded) at the Moniuszko Com­pe­ti­tion, in 1970 she won the 2nd Prize and the Sil­ver Cup of the city of Paris (awarded unan­i­mously). In 1979 she obtained the Award of the 1st Degree for her cre­ative con­tri­bu­tion to the real­iza­tion of the record­ings of The Haunted Manor by S. Moniuszko for the Pol­ish Radio and Tele­vi­sion under the baton of Jan Krenz. Her stage debut was the role of G. Verdi’s Aida. In the period of 1974–1978 she per­formed at the Opera Fes­ti­val in Glyn­de­bourne, where she sang parts of Ilia in Idome­neo, the Count­ess in The Mar­riage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte by W.A. Mozart — which were also per­formed in a con­cert form at the Royal Albert Hall.

She was In ten per­for­mances of Travi­ata in Teatro Mas­simo in Palermo. She took part in stag­ing of The Haunted Manor in Ger­man, singing the part of Hanna in The­ater der Stadt Bonn. In 1981 she sang Roxana’s part In K. Szymanowski’s King Roger at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires under the baton of S. Wisłocki. She sang at Audi­to­rium di Napoli in Mont­pe­lier, Staadt­sphil­har­monie Kaiser­lautern, Valen­cia and many others.

Her artis­tic achieve­ments are also CD, tele­vi­sion and radio record­ings, first per­for­mances and Pol­ish songs, and two music films for the BBC: W. A. Mozarta’s Idome­neo - part of Ilia, con­duc­tor J. Pritchard, Cosi fan tutte — part of Fiordiligi, con­duc­tor B. Haitink, record­ings with the Lon­don Phil­har­monic Orchestra.

She started her teach­ing activ­ity in 1989 at Zespół Szkół Muzy­cznych in War­saw, at Bed­narska St. She received an indi­vid­ual award for spe­cial con­tri­bu­tion to the devel­op­ment of artis­tic edu­ca­tion in Poland. Since 1995 she has been an aca­d­e­mic teacher at the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music in War­saw. In 2003 she obtained the title of pro­fe­sor sztuk muzy­cznych. In 2003 she was appointed to the post of pro­fe­sor nadzwycza­jny (Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor), and in 2008 she obtained the post of pro­fes­sor zwycza­jny (Full Pro­fes­sor) at the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music in War­saw, where she cur­rently holds the func­tion of Head of the Chair of Vocal Studies.