prof. dr hab. Anna Rutkowska-Schock

She began her piano education in the class of Prof. Helena Furmanowicz-Kurzyńska in Wrocław. As a pupil and student, she was a laureate of many national piano competitions and a finalist of the European Chopin Competition in Darmstadt in 1992. In 1996, she was a prizewinner at the Estrada Młodych of the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, and in 1997 she received a scholarship from Prof. Madeleine Forte to study at Boise State University in Idaho (USA), where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance, graduating Magna Cum Laude. She completed her master’s degree in the piano class of Prof. Grzegorz Kurzyński at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław.

In 2003, at the International IBLA Grand Prize Music Competition in Sicily, she was awarded the prize for best chamber pianist. As one of the main laureates of this competition, she took part in numerous concerts in the USA (performing multiple times at Carnegie Hall, Yamaha Hall, New York University, Radford University, and the University of Arkansas) and in England. She has served as official pianist at international music competitions in Rome (2004), Peru (2005), Slovakia (2006, 2008, 2010), Sicily (2004–2015), Budapest (2022), as well as at several dozen national competitions, including the Wanda Wiłkomirska National Violin Competition of Polish Music in Częstochowa (2019–2022). She is currently the official pianist of the Australian Flute Festival, where in 2019 she gave a recital with flutist and composer Ian Clarke, and in 2023 she performed with numerous Australian flutists.

To date, she has received dozens of diplomas of recognition for outstanding piano performances at national and international competitions. She has also served as a juror at several editions of the IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition in Sicily and at the International Piano Competition in Surabaya (Indonesia, 2011).

In the summer of 2006, she participated in the two-month Summer Academy of Music, organized by the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara (California, USA), having been invited following auditions at The Juilliard School in New York. There she honed her chamber music skills under Prof. Anne Epperson and Jonathan Feldman. In 2007, she served as artistic director of the American Music Festival in Wrocław.

Since 2016, she has been a member of the Australian chamber ensemble The Hourglass Ensemble, with which she has performed in dozens of concerts across Poland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia. The ensemble focuses on the promotion of contemporary Australian chamber music, as well as performing major works of the classical and romantic repertoire. Each project culminates in a concert at the Sydney Opera House. So far, she has performed across Australia at venues including Brisbane Cathedral, Wesley Music Centre in Canberra, the Polish Consulate, Mosman Art Gallery, the Sydney Conservatorium, the Independent Theatre, and multiple times in the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House. The ensemble collaborates with distinguished musicians such as flutist Ewa Kowalski and violinist Alexandra Osborne (concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra). In 2024, the ensemble was nominated for the Australian Art Music Awards (APRA AMCOS, category: Performance of the Year) for its performance of Exoplanet by Australian composer Andrew Ball.

In June 2022, Rutkowska-Schock appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at the International Festival of Piano Chamber Music in Puerto Rico (San Germán), organized by the Puerto Rico Center for Collaborative Piano. She later joined the festival’s board of directors.

She has collaborated with musicians from nearly 40 countries, performing on five continents. Her discography includes five CDs, four of which feature French repertoire. In addition to her concert activity, she has delivered lectures at international piano conferences in the USA (New York, 2005), Indonesia (Surabaya, 2011), and Puerto Rico (San Germán, 2022).

Currently, Anna Rutkowska-Schock holds a professorship at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław and teaches at the Ryszard Bukowski Secondary School of Music in Wrocław. She holds the academic title of professor in Musical Arts. In 2017, she was awarded the honorary distinction Meritorious for Polish Culture by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.