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 Acad­emy of Music in War­saw in 1983. She also worked under Oleg Krysa and André Gertler dur­ing mas­ter courses in inter­pre­ta­tion in Weimar. She is a prize-winner of many vio­lin and cham­ber music com­pe­ti­tions in Poland and abroad, e.g., in Lublin (The Young Vio­lin­ists Com­pe­ti­tion), Cra­cow (The Con­tem­po­rary Music Com­pe­ti­tion), Gorizia (The Lip­izer Com­pe­ti­tion), and Bres­cia and (Città di Brescia).

She per­forms as a cham­ber musi­cian in Poland and abroad. She was a co-founder of a string quar­tet which in the period of 1986–2004 gave con­cert with the soprano singer Ste­fa­nia Woy­tow­icz. She coop­er­ated 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.

For a num­ber of years she has been coop­er­at­ing with cel­list Piotr Hausen­plas in a string duo calledOTTOCORDE.  She per­forms with Edward Wolanin and Grze­gorz Gor­czyca (pianists), Lech Napier­ała, and her for­mer vio­lin stu­dent Bar­tosz Cajler. Together with Bogu­miła Gizbert-Studnicka (harp­si­chord) and Natalia Reichert (viola) she has per­formed in Ensem­ble St. Stanis­las since 2009.

Since 1983 she has been con­nected with the Romuald Traugutt Phil­har­monic, a group of artists founded by Tadeusz Kaczyński pre­sent­ing pro­grammes of patri­otic con­tent which used to be for­bid­den. For her spe­cial mer­its she was awarded the Traugutt Phil­har­monic Golden Medal in 1993.

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 in War­saw, Miodowa Street. Her for­mer stu­dents (e.g. Bar­tosz Cajler, Alek­san­dra Kuls, Alek­san­dra Bucholc, Quar­tetto Qual­ità, Trio Con­cọr­dia) have won top prizes at many com­pe­ti­tions in Poland and abroad.

From 1996 on pro­fes­sor Mag­dalena Szczepanowska has also taught at sum­mer and win­ter mas­ter courses: in Nowy Sącz, Bałoszyce, Kudowa Zdrój, Łań­cut and Koło­brzeg. She is invited to give lec­tures, work­shops and con­sul­ta­tions for music school teach­ers from dif­fer­ent Pol­ish cities.

She also runs edi­to­r­ial activ­ity, she is an author of the edi­tion of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Fan­tasies for Solo Vio­lin and a pub­li­ca­tion enti­tled Scales, Pas­sages and Dou­ble Stops for Vio­lin; cur­rently she has been work­ing on the edi­tion of vio­lin and piano pieces by Emil Mły­narski, together with Lech Napierała.

Mag­dalena Szczepanowska has sat on the juries of many vio­lin and cham­ber com­pe­ti­tions, many of which she has co-organised her­self. She holds the func­tions of Con­sul­tant at the Artis­tic Edu­ca­tion Cen­tre and Expert for Pro­fes­sional Advancement.

For her teach­ing activ­ity she has received awards such as:

·         Badge “For Mer­its as a Cul­ture Activist”

·         Medal Glo­ria Artis (2003)

·         Award of the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and National Her­itage (2007, 2010 2012)

·         Diploma of the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture (2004)

·         Medal of the National Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee (2007)

·         Award of the Direc­tor of the Artis­tic Edu­ca­tion Cen­tre (1993, 2001, 2004)

·         Award of the Rec­tor of the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw (2002).

After the suc­cess of her stu­dents at the 12^th Inter­na­tional Com­pe­ti­tion TALENTS FOR EUROPE Com­pe­ti­tion 2008 in Dolný Kubín, Slo­va­kia (four first places in four cat­e­gories, two Grand Prix awards) she was hon­oured with the title of Teacher of the Year.

Since Jan­u­ary 2012 she has also been pro­fes­sor at the Acad­emy of Music in Cracow.