Maria Wiłkomirska

Maria Wiłkomirska (1904–1995) was a Polish pianist and music educator, sister of a cellist Kazimierz Wiłkomirski (1900–1995), and half-sister of violinist Wanda Wilkomirska (b. 1929) and composer/conductor Józef Wiłkomirski (b. 1926). She was born in Moscow and studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1913 to 1917. After Wiłkomirskis moved back to Poland in 1919, Maria started taking private lessons with Józef Turczyński. From 1915 to 1926, she had been performing in a family Wiłkomirski Trio with her brothers, Kazimierz (cello) and Michał Wiłkomirski (1902–1988) on violin. They debuted at Warsaw Philharmonic Hall in the fall of 1919. After Michal immigrated to the United States in 1927, Maria continued playing in a duo with Kazimierz. In 1945, they reunited Wiłkomirski Trio with a half-sister, violinist Wanda Wiłkomirska. As a soloist, Maria Wilkomirska debuted in 1919. She gave recitals and appeared on stage with various orchestras and chambers ensembles in Poland, Hungary, France, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Denmark, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, Israel, China, and Japan. Maria performed numerous works by Polish composers, such as Frédéric Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Juliusz Zarębski, Władysław Żeleński, Ludomir Różycki, Karol Szymanowski, and Eugeniusz Pankiewicz. In 1952, she received an Order of Polonia Restituta Knight's Cross. In addition to the concert career, Maria Wiłkomirska was a prominent music teacher. She worked as a professor at the Gdańska Macierz Szkolna in the mid-thirties and joined the faculty at the Academy of Music in Łódź in 1945, serving as the head of the Piano Department from 1952 to 1967. Wilkomirska started lecturing at PWSM Warszawa in 1951 and held a piano department's chair from 1964 to 1977. Some of her notable students include Tadeusz Chmielewski, Jerzy Godziszewski, Andrzej Guz, Edwin Kowalik, Zygmunt Krauze, Jerzy Marchwiński, Maciej Paderewski, and Barbara Strzelecka.