Piotrowska-Bogalecka, Maria
She graduated in choral conducting and music education from the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice before completing postgraduate studies in music theory at the Music Academy in Cracow. She also studied at the Kodály Institute of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, and has participated in masterclasses in Poland and internationally, including with Eric Ericson in Haarlem, the International Kodály Seminar in Kecskemét, and Studium Chorale Masterclass for Choral Conductors in Maastricht.
She was awarded the 1st Prize and Edmund Maćkowiak Special Award at the 11th National Choral Conductors’ Competition in Poznań. She has received several bursaries from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship, and Mayor of Chorzów. In 2009 she received the Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship Award. She is the founder (2007) and artistic director of the Contento Core Vocal Ensemble. In 2012, she obtained a PhD in choral conducting, and in 2014 published the book Decorum et varietas. Psalms in vocal and vocal–instrumental music of the Polish baroque. Currently she is assistant professor at the Chair of Choral Conducting of the Music Academy in Katowice.
She was the coordinator of the KoChAM Music Academies’ International Choir Festival in 2015, and was the Silesian region curator for the Singing Poland government programme, organised by the National Music Forum in Wrocław (2015–17). Since 2017, she has been the choirmaster of the Polish Radio Choir, becoming its artistic director in 2018.