Professor Maria Stojek-Kot

Maria Stojek-Kot began her musi­cal edu­ca­tion at the State Music School in Gdy­nia where she stud­ied the piano under Wanda Machul­ska (a for­mer stu­dent of J. Lefeld). She fin­ished this school with hon­ours. When still a pupil she took part in a con­cert of gifted chil­dren at the Music The­atre in Gdy­nia and the Baltic Phil­har­monic. In 1968–1972 she con­tin­ued her musi­cal edu­ca­tion at the Sec­ondary Music School in Gdańsk which she also fin­ished with hon­ours. While she attended this school she was granted a Chopin schol­ar­ship. In 1972–1977 she stud­ied at the State Higher School of Music in Pro­fes­sor Kaz­imierz Gierżod’s class and grad­u­ated with hon­ours. As a dis­tin­guished grad­u­ate she was hon­oured with a per­for­mance at the National Phil­har­monic where she played S. Rachmaninoff?s Piano Con­certo F Sharp Minor. The last step in her edu­ca­tion was a schol­ar­ship at the Moscow Con­ser­va­tory in the class of Pawel Mess­ner (Emil Gilels’s assis­tant). As a schol­ar­ship holder she gave sev­eral con­certs in Moscow. She began to work as an assis­tant in pro­fes­sor Kaz­imierz Gierżod’s class at the State Higher School of Music in War­saw (now the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music). She now works at the Chair of Piano at the FCUM where she is an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor. She has been rewarded for her teach­ing many times:

• Sec­ond Class Award of the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Art, 1979,
• Sec­ond Class Award of the Rec­tor of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music, 1986,
• Third Class Award of the Rec­tor of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music, 1988,
• Sec­ond Class Award of the Rec­tor of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music, 2002.
• She also received the medal of hon­our “Dis­tin­guished for Pol­ish Cul­ture” from the Min­is­ter of Culture.

She has per­formed at home and abroad, e.g., in Hun­gary, Fin­land, Ger­many, France, Roma­nia (among oth­ers at the UNESCO Cen­tre in Busteni), Ukraine and South Korea. She has co-operated with the National Phil­har­monic Cham­ber Stage and the Baltic Phil­har­monic. She has also taught a piano class at the Keimyung — Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in Daegu, South Korea in the sum­mer semes­ters of 2002 and 2005.

She is a con­sul­tant for pri­mary and sec­ondary artis­tic schools at the Min­istry of Cul­ture and National Her­itage and a Min­istry of National Edu­ca­tion Expert for Pro­mo­tions of pri­mary and sec­ondary school music teach­ers. She has con­ducted open classes in Poland and Mas­ter Classes in Ukraine and South Korea. She has been invited to judge audi­tions and competitions.