Magdalena Adamek

Assistant Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano

Coordinator of Keyboard Studies

Department of Music

Contact Info

Courses Taught Include: Piano Ensemble, Accompanying, Advanced Chamber Music, Keyboard Skills I, II, III, Applied Lessons

Research Interests and Expertise: Piano, Chamber Music, Piano Technique, and Polish composers

Visit Dr. Adamek's webpage

Pianist Magdalena Adamek holds Master of Arts in Piano Performance from the Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw, Poland (now the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), and Doctor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Alberta, Canada. Her principal teachers include Professor Barbara Hesse-Bukowska and Professor Jacques Després. She has also participated in masterclasses under renowned pedagogues, such as Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Andrzej Jasiński, Paul Badura-Škoda, Stêphane Lemelin, Kyoko Hashimoto, and Kevin Fitz-Gerald. Currently Magdalena serves as a full-time piano faculty in the Department of Music at Virginia Commonwealth University. As a versatile pianist she has been involved in various collaborative performance projects with the VCU faculty, guest artists, and students. Between 2016—2020, she collaborated with the musicians of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra during the RSO Summer Recital concert series.

Magdalena’s previous teaching engagements include serving as the piano instructor and collaborative pianist at several institutions: The Stanislaw Moniuszko Warsaw Music Society School of Music, The University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, The String Quartet Program at S.U.N.Y Fredonia; Alberta Music Academy, Alberta College Conservatory of Music/Grant McEwan University, and Global Summer Institute of Music in Richmond, VA.

Magdalena is equally dedicated to performing in the solo and chamber music settings. Her performing career includes recitals across Poland, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, France, China, USA, and Canada, with a diverse repertoire that specifically highlights works by Polish composers. In addition to performing, she has presented masterclasses and workshops on numerous performance-related topics including piano technique, elements of artistry in piano performance, performance anxiety, the art of practicing. She has also given workshops and lectures on piano works by Feliks Nowowiejski, Maria Szymanowska, FryderykChopin, to name just a few.

Adamek’s discography includes five compact discs for an independent Polish label Acte Prèalable, with world premiere recordings of the works by Polish composers such as Feliks Nowowiejski, Milosz Magin, Romuald Twardowski, Józef Elsner, and 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.

In addition to the performing and recording projects, Magdalena has authored several articles on the topic of Feliks Nowowiejski and Tadeusz Kościuszko, and a book titled The Unknown Face of Feliks Nowowiejski. The book, published in 2008 by VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller, provides comprehensive review and analysis of the complete piano solo oeuvre by Feliks Nowowiejski.

Magdalena is the recipient of numerous prestigious scholarly and performing awards. She is the recipient of 2nd prize and a special distinction for the best performance of a piano work by Frederick Chopin at the International Milosz Magin Piano Competition in Paris, 3rd prize in the piano trio category at the Kiejstut Bacewicz International Chamber Music Competition in Łódz, 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 the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, Germany. Further awards include 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 Jabłoński Piano Scholarship for the Banff International Keyboard Festival, and a scholarship by Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (awarded twice).

Her artistic projects have been generously supported by Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at University of Alberta, the Polonia Foundation of Alberta, Polish Culture Society of Edmonton, Polish Federation of Women in Edmonton, Polish Combatants Society of Edmonton, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Vancouver, the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association, and the Richmond Music Teachers Association, The Kosciuszko Foundation, Washington Chapter (DC). For more information about the pianist please visit https://magdalenaadamek.wordpress.com/