Professor Magdalena Szczepanowska

Mag­dalena Szczepanowska was born in War­saw in a fam­ily of musi­cians. Her father was her first vio­lin teacher. She con­tin­ued her stud­ies under Jan­ina Jarzęb­ska, Tadeusz Wroński and then Pro­fes­sor Wroński’s for­mer stu­dents, Stanisław Kawalla and Mag­dalena Rezler, and grad­u­ated with hon­ours from the War­saw Acad­emy of Music in 1983. She later per­fected her pro­fi­ciency as a vio­lin­ist at mas­ter courses in inter­pre­ta­tion in e.g., Weimar and Glas­gow, where she worked under the super­vi­sion of Oleg Krysa and André Gertler. She is the win­ner of many vio­lin and cham­ber music com­pe­ti­tions in Poland and abroad, e.g., in Lublin (The Young Vio­lin­ists Com­pe­ti­tion), Kraków (The Con­tem­po­rary Music Com­pe­ti­tion), Gorizia (The Lip­izer Com­pe­ti­tion), Bres­cia and Vercelli.

She per­forms both as a soloist and in var­i­ous cham­ber orches­tra for­ma­tions. She co-operates with pianists Edward Wolanin and Grze­gorz Gor­czyca, cel­list Piotr Hausen­plast and also her own for­mer stu­dent Bar­tosz Cajler. She was one of the founders of a vio­lin quar­tet which per­formed for many years with the singer, Ste­fa­nia Woj­tow­icz. She has also worked with the National Phil­har­monic Cham­ber Ensem­ble under Karol Teutsch, the War­saw Cham­ber Opera (recitals, cham­ber con­certs), The War­saw Music Soci­ety and the Pol­ish Com­posers’ Asso­ci­a­tion. As rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Min­istry of Cul­ture she has rep­re­sented Pol­ish vio­lin and cham­ber music at many con­certs and fes­ti­vals abroad.

Mag­dalena Szczepanowska is pro­fes­sor of the vio­lin class at the Depart­ment of Instru­men­tal Stud­ies of the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music in War­saw where she was offered the posi­tion of assis­tant when she was still a stu­dent. She also teaches the vio­lin and cham­ber music at the State Music School Com­plex no. 1 in War­saw (mainly at the Zenon Brzewski Sec­ondary Music School). Many of her stu­dents have won top prizes at vio­lin and cham­ber com­pe­ti­tions and sev­eral of them have been awarded fel­low­ships by the Min­is­ter of Culture.

From 1996 on pro­fes­sor Mag­dalena Szczepanowska has also taught a vio­lin and cham­ber music class at sum­mer and win­ter mas­ter courses: at the Inter­na­tional Courses in Music Inter­pre­ta­tion in Nowy Sącz in 1996–2005 and also at the Sum­mer and Win­ter Music Acad­emy in Bałoszyce (2003, 2004, 2005) and the Mas­ter Course in Kudowa Zdrój in 2004. She was invited to teach at the Zenon Brzewski Inter­na­tional Music Courses in Łańcut in 1999. She con­ducts sem­i­nars, lec­tures and con­sults at the Artis­tic Edu­ca­tion Cen­tre and is an Expert for Pro­fes­sional Advancement.

Pro­fes­sor Mag­dalena Szczepanowska has sat on the juries of many vio­lin and cham­ber com­pe­ti­tions and audi­tions, many of which she has co-organise her­self (The “Janko Muzykant” Vio­lin Audi­tions — 5 edi­tions; the Sochaczew Cham­ber Encoun­ters — 3 edi­tions; and the DUETTINO Children’s Duet Com­pe­ti­tion — 3 editions).

She has been awarded sev­eral prizes for her teach­ing: Min­is­ter of Cul­ture Diploma (2004); Award of the Rec­tor of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw (2002); Award of the Direc­tor of the Artis­tic Edu­ca­tion Cen­tre (1993, 2001, 2004).

In 1983 Mag­dalena Szczepanowska began to co-operate with the Romuald Traugutt Phil­har­monic, a musi­cal estab­lish­ment founded by Tadeusz Kaczyński group­ing musi­cians which spe­cialised in pro­grams con­vey­ing patri­otic con­tents, then banned. She was awarded the Golden Traugutt Phil­har­monic Medal in 1993.