Employees

prof. dr hab.

Monika Wolińska

symphonic conducting

fot. Barbara Piotrowska

Monika Wolińska, who has been awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland with an honorary medal „Meritorious For Polish Culture”, enjoys an active career as a conductor on concert stages of the world.

Her art of conducting was very accurately described by New York critics after her Carnegie Hall concert, pointing out her great sensitivity to the actual sound of the instruments in the orchestra. Her successful Carnegie Hall performance, which ended as a standing ovation and enthusiastic reception by the critics, was at the same time the first ever performance by Polish female conductor.

In 2013 Monika Wolińska received More beautiful Poland award, which is granted to „special people who create beauty, that could be shared with the world”. The award is a part of European Union’s More beautiful Poland in UE program. In 2016 she was awarded with „Success” award — a statue granted by Rotary Club in Gorzów Wielkopolski for promoting Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland and abroad.

Monika Wolińska conducted many orchestras in Poland and many countries of Europe, Asia and America. She has given concerts with Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish National Philharmonic Orchestra, National Polish Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Polish Radio Orchestra, Sankt Petersburg Conservatory of Music Symphony Orchestra, „Moscovia” Chamber Orchestra, National Lithuanian Orchestra among many others.

In 2012 she made her debut CD recording with Sinfonia Varsovia. The album contains the premiere recording of the complete symphonic poems by the great Polish composer Eugeniusz Morawski. The album received excellent reviews and was nominated for Fryderyk 2013 award.

She has made her debut as a conductor in 2004, conducting at Luzern Music Festival where she worked under supervision of Pierre Boulez. For many seasons, she cooperated with Maestro Jerzy Semkow, and in the season of 2007/2008 she was an assistant to Krzysztof Penderecki. Monika Wolińska is also a great promoter of a new music. She performed multiple times at Warsaw Autumn Contemporary Music Festival and Generations Festival in Warsaw. Since 2013 she is an Artistic Director of Wojciech Kilar Contemporary Music Festival in Gorzów Wilkopolski. In 2014 she conducted a world premiere performance of Jan A.P. Kaczmarek’s Universa — Open Opera, composed to celebrate 650th anniversary of Jagiellonian University in Cracow. In October 2014, she conducted an All-Mahler concert with one of the greatest baritones of our times Thomas Hampson, who invited by Monika Wolińska has given a concert in Poland for the first time in his career.

She started her artistic education at the age of six. As a holder of three diplomas in the art of music, she studied violin under Professor Henryk Bałaban, conducting vocal and instrumental ensembles in the class of Professor Janusz Stanecki at the Academy of Music, in Bydgoszcz, as well as symphony and opera conducting under Professor Ryszard Dudek at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, in Warsaw. She also actively participated in master classes led by Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez, Antoni Wit and Gabriel Chmura. She also studied management of culture at Warsaw University, where she graduated in 2015.

Monika Wolińska is also active on field of education being an Professor of Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where she teaches conducting. She is also an author of a book published in 2005 Stanisław Wisłocki — conductor and pedagogue, about great polish conductor Stanisław Wisłocki.

In the years of 2003–2009 she cooperated with the Symphony Orchestra at the Academy of Music, in Warsaw. In the season from 2007 to 2008, she was appointed as a Permanent Conductor of the Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus. In the years 2013–2017, Ms. Wolińska served as Conductor and Artistic Director of Gorzów Philharmonic Orchestra with which she has given many concerts in Poland and abroad, including the first ever performance of the orchestra in National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw in June 2016. In 2015 she has recorded with Gorzów Philharmonics Bronisław Kaper/Jan A.P. Kaczmarek — AN ENCOUNTER — album featuring film music composed by two Academy Award winning composers.

In June 2017, as one of the six participants, she has been chosen among 161 candidates from all over the world to take part in 2017 Hart Institute for Women Conductors program at The Dallas Opera.