Professor Elżbieta Tarnawska

She is a final­ist of the 9^th Inter­na­tional Chopin Piano Com­pe­ti­tion in War­saw in 1975 and a lau­re­ate of the Inter­na­tional M. Long-J. Thibaud Com­pe­ti­tion in Paris in 1977.

She stud­ied in the St. Peters­burg Con­ser­va­tory in the class of Prof. L. Uman­skaja and the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw in the class of Prof. Regina Smendzianka.

She com­pleted her Post-Diploma stud­ies under the direc­tion of:

• Prof. Wik­tor Mierzhanow from the Moscow Conservatory,
• Prof. Monique Haas in Paris (French gov­ern­ment scholarship),
• Prof. Eugene List in New York (the Ful­bright For­eign Scholarship).

Post­grad­u­ate stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Mary­land, USA, in the class of Prof. Dr. Nelita True.

Prof. Elż­bi­eta Tar­nawska per­formed recitals as well as con­certs with orches­tras in all Phil­har­monic Halls in Poland. She gave con­certs in Bel­gium, Ger­many, Switzer­land, Nor­way, Por­tu­gal, Spain, the Czech Repub­lic, Slo­va­kia, Rus­sia, Roma­nia, Lithua­nia, Hun­gary, Cuba and the United States.

Her most highly acclaimed con­certs in the United States include per­for­mances in the fol­low­ing places:

• The Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity in Wash­ing­ton D.C.
• The Peabody Con­ser­va­tory of Music in Baltimore
• Uni­ver­sity of Maryland
• Iowa State University
• Geor­gia State University
• The Catholic Uni­ver­sity in Wash­ing­ton D.C.
• Utica Uni­ver­sity in New York State
• William Pater­son Col­lege in New Jersey
• Seton Hall Uni­ver­sity in New Jersey
• Hamil­ton Col­lege in New York State
• Jer­sey City State Col­lege in New Jersey
• The Lyceum– Alexan­dria Recital Series in Virginia
• The Dum­b­ar­ton Con­cert Series in Wash­ing­ton D.C.
• The Strath­more Hall Arts Cen­ter in Wash­ing­ton D.C.
• The Pol­ish Embassy in Wash­ing­ton D.C.
• The Pol­ish Con­sulate in New York City
• The Kosciuszko Foun­da­tion in New York City
• The Pol­ish Insti­tute of Arts and Sci­ences in New York City

Upon her return to Poland in 1992 she embarked on a career in teach­ing, while con­tin­u­ing to give con­certs. She often per­formed and gave lec­tures as well as mas­ter classes in music schools.

Prof. Elż­bi­eta Tar­nawska took part in many fes­ti­vals, includ­ing the Pol­ish Piano Fes­ti­val in Słupsk, the Inter­na­tional Chopin Fes­ti­val in Duszniki Zdrój, the Liszt Fes­ti­val at the Catholic Uni­ver­sity in Wash­ing­ton D.C., The F. Chopin Fes­ti­val in Karlove Vary and Mar­i­anske Lazne, in the Inter­na­tional Lau­re­ates’ Fes­ti­val in War­saw and Katow­ice, in the Mozart Fes­ti­val at the Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw and in the Inter­na­tonal Fes­ti­val “Chopin in the Col­ors of Autumn” in Antonin.

She per­formed under the baton of the fol­low­ing con­duc­tors: Jerzy Katlewicz, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Antoni Wit, Bogusław Madey, Tadeusz Stru­gała, Andrzej Markowski, Tomasz Bugaj, Marek Pijarowski, Józef Wiłkomirski, Tadeusz Woj­ciechowski, Zyg­munt Rychert, Jerzy Sal­warowski, Jerzy Swo­boda, Ste­fan Mar­czyk, Witold Krzemiński, Zdzisław Szostak, Adam Natanek, Szy­mon Kawalla, Ryszard Dudek, Ste­fan Strahl, Karol And­bild, Zbig­niew Goncerzewicz.

The pianist has also been active in other fields, such as:

• record­ing CDs and mak­ing archival radio and TV recordings;
• writ­ing and pre­sent­ing music pro­grams for the Pol­ish Pub­lic Tele­vi­sion, (years 1976–1977);
• par­tic­i­pat­ing as a juror in many piano com­pe­ti­tions in Poland, Spain, the Ukraine and in sev­eral edi­tions of the Inter­na­tional Chopin Com­pe­ti­tion in New York.

Prof. Elż­bi­eta Tar­nawska has been work­ing at the Chopin Music Acad­emy (presently Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music) of since 1993 as a pro­fes­sor at the Depart­ment of Piano, Harp­si­chord and Organ, and in 2005–2008, as Prorec­tor for For­eign Coop­er­a­tion and Stu­dent Affairs.

Elż­bi­eta Tar­nawska is also pro­fes­sor of G. and K. Bacewicz Acad­emy fo Music in Łódź and vice-president of the Coun­cil for Artis­tic Edu­ca­tion at the Min­istry of Culture.