POPOWA-ZYDRON Katarzyna

 
BACKGROUND
Nationality            Poland
Jury Chair of International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, Warsaw, Poland
Head of Piano, Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland
 
Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron is an internationally acclaimed Polish pianist of Bulgarian origin. A former student of Alexander Jenner at the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, and a participant in masterclasses with Suzanne Roche, Dieter Zechlin and Gyorgy Sebok, she was also among the finalists and winners of some prestigious national and international competitions.
 
She is a regular performer in Poland and abroad. Her repertoire includes compositions from the baroque to the present day, with particular emphasis on the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, Bartok and others. She is known for premiering Polish modern music. She has also performed as a chamber musician with renowned soloists and ensambles. Her concerts and recordings ( for Accord Musidisc, CD Accord, Art Records and Fryderyk Chopin Institute) have been enthusiastically received by critics and audiences:
 
„It is that highest art of striking the listener at the heart that Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron has mastered to absolute perfection...” (Marcin Gmys, about the ACD 189-2/2013 CD ACCORD)
 
„I received the distinct impression that Popowa-Zydron was less of a performing artist but had become or had been transformed into a perfect conduit or channel for the spirit and music of Schubert speaking directly through her.” ( Michael Moran's blog: 73rd International Chopin Piano Festival, Duszniki 2017)
 
Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron is a professor at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where for a number of years she was also Head of the Piano Department. She frequently gives masterclasses, conducts seminars and courses for piano teachers at home and abroad. She has frequently been on juries, judging national and international competitions. She is President of the I. J. Paderewski Music Society in Bydgoszcz, the organizer of the Paderewski International Piano Competition and the Paderewski Piano Academy, one-of-a-kind summer courses in piano playing with a symphonic orchestra.
 
Her pupils and students have won awards in numerous competitions, are busy performing, and some of them are successful teachers, also abroad. Among her former pupils are Krzysztof Herdzin, Rafal Blechacz, Pawel Wakarecy, Katarzyna Borek, Radoslaw Kurek, Michio Nishihara Toro, Michal Szymanowski and others.
 
For her artistic and pedagogical achievements ,Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron has received a number of awards, including those of national significance.