Biography
Magdalena Adamek holds a Master of Arts in Piano Performance from the Frederick Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, Poland) under tutelage of widely respected interpreter of Chopin’s music, Professor Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, and Doctor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Alberta, under supervision of Professor Jacques Després. Dr. Adamek also worked under the guidance of such renown pianists as Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Andrzej Jasinski, Paul Badura-Škoda, Stęphane Lemelin, Kyoko Hashimoto, and Kevin Fitz-Gerald. She has led an active performing career giving performances across Poland, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, France, China, USA, and Canada, with repertoire ranging from the classical period to the contemporary music. Her long-term artistic project involves promoting piano music by Polish composers, for instance Chopin, Moniuszko, Szymanowski, and post-romantic composer Feliks Nowowiejski. Over the past few years the artistic project concerning Nowowiejski involved world premiere recordings of Nowowiejski’s music for piano solo, doctoral essay devoted to Nowowiejski’s music for piano solo (“Piano Works by Feliks Nowowiejski.”), presentations, and book The Unknown Face of Feliks Nowowiejski: The Piano Works, published by VDM in Germany.

 

Dr. Adamek has been a recipient of numerous prestigious scholarly and performing awards including Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, Dissertation Fellowship, Mary Louise Imrie Graduate Award, FS Chia PhD Scholarship, Beryl Barns Memorial Graduate Scholarship, Harriet Snowball Winspear Graduate Prize in Performing Arts scholarship (University of Alberta), and also Marek Jablonski Piano Scholarship for the Banff International Keyboard Festival and a scholarship by Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (awarded twice). Her projects have been also supported by Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, The Polonia Foundation of Alberta, Polish Culture Society in Edmonton, Polish Federation of Women in Edmonton, Polish Combatants Society of Edmonton, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Vancouver, and Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association.

 

Magdalena Adamek has been a laureate of the 2nd prize and a special distinction for the best performance of piano works by Frederick Chopin at International Milosz Magin Piano Competition in Paris, 3rd prize in the piano trio category at Kiejstut Bacewicz International Chamber Music Competition in Lódz, Poland, 3rd prize at the National Piano Competition in Warsaw, and distinction at the National Chamber Music Competition in Warsaw. She also represented Poland at the II European Piano Forum at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin.

 

Magdalena Adamek’s discography includes five compact discs for an independent Polish label Acte Prčalable with works of such composers as Feliks Nowowiejski, Milosz Magin, Romuald Twardowski, Jozef Elsner. The latest recording project involves a CD Romantic Central Europe, which was made in collaboration with the Wirth Institute of Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta.Magdalena Adamek’s performances have been broadcast on CBC, Polish National Radio, Radio France, and ABC Radio Classic FM.

 

Since June 2005 Magdalena Adamek has served on the Board of the Marek Jablonski Endowment Fund, which supports young musical talents in Alberta.

 

Between 2066 and 2011 she taught piano and chamber music, and served as collaborative pianist at the University of Alberta.  Currently she is Piano Instructor at Alberta Music Academy and Alberta College Conservatory of Music (Grant McEwan University) in Edmonton.

 

In addition to performing, Magdalena Adamek has been in demand as adjudicator and workshop presenter, both locally and provincially.