MA Izabela Helińska

Graduate of the R. Bukowski State Secondary School of Music in Wrocław in the piano class of Prof. Krystyna Puchała-Kajdasz. She completed her studies at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław at the Faculty of Instrumental Studies in the piano class of Jan Kubica (1994) and in the harpsichord class of Prof. Marta Czarny-Kaczmarska (1998). In 2000 she completed Postgraduate Studies in the Management of Cultural and Educational Institutions at the Academy of Music in Wrocław.

She took part in the Master Piano Courses in Duszniki-Zdrój in the classes of Professors Viktor Mierzhanov, Tatiana Shebanova, and Włodzimierz Obidowicz, as well as in Early Music Courses in Kraków in the harpsichord class of Prof. Jacques Ogg. She twice participated actively in the National Methodological Course for piano teachers of first- and second-level music schools in Olsztyn, led by Prof. Jan Kadłubiski. She has also participated in courses, seminars, and piano workshops organized for teachers and students of music schools, led by, among others, Aleksei Orlovetsky, Stefan Kutrzeba, Andreas Henkel, Prof. Andrzej Jasiński, and Prof. Adam Pikula.

As a pianist-accompanist she was repeatedly invited to collaborate at the National Violin Workshops in Oleśnica as well as the National Methodological Courses for teachers and students of wind instruments, held in Białystok (1995) and Koszalin (1997).

She is employed as a lecturer at the Academy of Music in Wrocław, where she worked as pianist-accompanist with instrumentalists from 1996 to 2000, and since 2005 with conductors at the Faculty of Music Education. From 1999 she was employed at the F. Nowowiejski State Primary and Secondary School of Music in Zgorzelec, where she served as the school’s director from 2004 to 2009. In 2000 she began cooperation with the Johann Adam Hiller Music School in Görlitz. On her initiative, the International Polish–German Piano Competition Görlitz/Zgorzelec was established, which this year was held for the ninth time. She has initiated and taken part in numerous Polish–German projects in cooperation with the Meetingpoint Music Messiaen association in Görlitz, the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden, the Görlitz Theater, and other cultural institutions on both sides of the Nysa River.

The students and graduates of her piano class are laureates of interschool and international competitions as well as graduates of music academies in Poland. Since 1994 she has been teaching at the Secondary School of Music in Wrocław, where she currently serves as Head of the Keyboard and Accordion Section. She has frequently performed with her students at regional and national auditions and competitions, where she has received awards for outstanding accompaniment.

In addition to her pedagogical work, she maintains an active artistic career as a pianist, harpsichordist, and accompanist, collaborating with instrumentalists, vocalists, and orchestras. She realizes projects and performs concerts both in Poland and Germany. As a harpsichordist she has worked with the Wrocław chamber orchestras Leopoldinum and Wratislavia, performing, among others, at the Chamber Music Festival Evenings at the Arsenal and recording with the Leopoldinum Orchestra and soloist Ewa Podleś for Polish Radio and Television. Since 2004 she has collaborated with violinist Vasilij Tarabuko, concertmaster of the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie in Görlitz, performing, among other projects, the concert cycle Beethoven’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin and appearing in René Harder’s play Children of Music, or What It Means to Play Wieniawski.