Employees

prof. dr hab.

Bożenna Sawicka

choral conducting, ear training

Bożenna Sawicka graduated from the Department of Music Education at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (Professor Henryk Wojnarowski’s class 1975), the Department of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory (Music Theory Section 1979) and the Postgraduate Choirmaster Studies at the Bydgoszcz Academy of Music.

She began her professional career as a music school teacher in Białystok where she taught general music subjects, first at the State Secondary Music School then at the Białystok Branch of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. In 1979 she began to co-operate with the Medical Academy Choir in Białystok.

She has been the artistic director and conductor of the choir since 1991 and with it she has won many prizes, e.g., at: the Chamber Choir Competition, Olsztyn 1990 — 2^nd prize, “Legnica Cantat” 1998 — award for the best rendering of the work of a contemporary Polish composer, the International Orthodox Church Music Festival, Hajnówka — first prizes in the secular choirs category in 1993 and 1996, the International Choir Contest, Karditsa (Greece) 1995 — 2^nd prise in the romantic music category.

Together with the choir she has also taken part in such festivals as: “Europa Cantat”, Autun (France) 1992 and 1997, “Europa Cantat”, Herning (Denmark) 1994), the 18^th World Choir Festival “Zimryia”, Jerusalem 1998 and seminars (Autun, Herning).

On Bożenna Sawicka’s initiative and with her as conductor the complete performance of H. Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas was staged for the first time in Białystok with soloists from the Warsaw Chamber Opera and the FCAM Białystok Branch Orchestra (November 1995). Together with the Białystok Medical Academy Choir Bożenna Sawicka has also made many recordings for Polish Radio II (1991) and Polish Television (1992).

Since October 1998 she has been Full Professor and she currently holds the function of Dean of the Department of Pedagogical and Instrumental Studies in Białystok. The Minister of Culture and Art awarded her for her pedagogical and artistic achievements in 1993.