Professor Bożenna Sawicka

Bożenna Saw­icka grad­u­ated from the Depart­ment of Music Edu­ca­tion at the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw (Pro­fes­sor Hen­ryk Wojnarowski’s class 1975), the Depart­ment of Com­po­si­tion, Con­duct­ing and Music The­ory (Music The­ory Sec­tion 1979) and the Post­grad­u­ate Choir­mas­ter Stud­ies at the Byd­goszcz Acad­emy of Music.

She began her pro­fes­sional career as a music school teacher in Białys­tok where she taught gen­eral music sub­jects, first at the State Sec­ondary Music School then at the Białys­tok Branch of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw. In 1979 she began to co-operate with the Med­ical Acad­emy Choir in Białystok.

She has been the artis­tic direc­tor and con­duc­tor of the choir since 1991 and with it she has won many prizes, e.g., at: the Cham­ber Choir Com­pe­ti­tion, Olsz­tyn 1990 — 2^nd prize, “Leg­nica Can­tat” 1998 — award for the best ren­der­ing of the work of a con­tem­po­rary Pol­ish com­poser, the Inter­na­tional Ortho­dox Church Music Fes­ti­val, Hajnówka — first prizes in the sec­u­lar choirs cat­e­gory in 1993 and 1996, the Inter­na­tional Choir Con­test, Karditsa (Greece) 1995 — 2^nd prise in the roman­tic music category.

Together with the choir she has also taken part in such fes­ti­vals as: “Europa Can­tat”, Autun (France) 1992 and 1997, “Europa Can­tat”, Hern­ing (Den­mark) 1994), the 18^th World Choir Fes­ti­val “Zim­ryia”, Jerusalem 1998 and sem­i­nars (Autun, Herning).

On Bożenna Sawicka’s ini­tia­tive and with her as con­duc­tor the com­plete per­for­mance of H. Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas was staged for the first time in Białys­tok with soloists from the War­saw Cham­ber Opera and the FCAM Białys­tok Branch Orches­tra (Novem­ber 1995). Together with the Białys­tok Med­ical Acad­emy Choir Bożenna Saw­icka has also made many record­ings for Pol­ish Radio II (1991) and Pol­ish Tele­vi­sion (1992).

Bożenna Saw­icka has been a pro­fes­sor of the of the Instru­men­tal and Edu­ca­tional Stud­ies in Białys­tok. She was dean of the Depart­ment of Instru­men­tal and Edu­ca­tional Stud­ies. The Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Art awarded her for her ped­a­gog­i­cal and artis­tic achieve­ments in 1993.