Kaczyńska, Olivia
is a choral conductor and music educator. She graduated from the Faculty of Music Education at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, specialising in the direction of vocal and vocalinstrumental ensembles. She continued her training at the Carl Orff Music Education Centre in Warsaw and at Kodály seminars in Poland and Hungary. She formerly taught music subjects in the Faculty of Humanities at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. Since 2006 she has worked as a choral conductor at the John Paul II Primary School in Łazy. Until August 2026 she also taught music there and led musicianship classes based on the Kodály and Orff approaches. She completed a doctorate under the supervision of Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, where she now teaches. She has cooperated with the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences on publications devoted to folk music. She devised the educational programme Muzyka źródeł (Folk Music Roots) and coauthored the music textbook Nuty, smyki i patyki. With Alicja Szeluga, she prepared two volumes of the choral songbook Śpiewajmy! (Let’s Sing!), intended respectively for one- and two-part equal-voice choirs and published by the National Forum of Music. She subsequently worked with Izabela PolakowskaRybska on Śpiewajmy przez cały rok (Let’s Sing All Year Round), available online through the Singing Polonia programme.
An exceptionally active choral conductor, Kaczyńska founded and directs the Animato Children’s Choir at John Paul II Primary School in Łazy, with which she takes part in the Singing Poland choral educational programme. The choir has won numerous competition prizes and performed at Warsaw Philharmonic in 2016 and 2018, Łódź Philharmonic in 2017, and National Forum of Music in 2016 and 2018.
At the same school she also directs the younger Primus Children’s Choir, which prepares the youngest pupils for their eventual progression to Animato. Since 2022 Primus has repeatedly received Gold Band distinctions in Singing Poland competitions. For many years Kaczyńska has also conducted the Effatha Choir at St Stephen’s Parish in Raszyn.
Her other cooperations have included the Canto mixed choir and the Passionate Chamber Vocal Ensemble at the Piastów Municipal Cultural Centre; the Dominanta Children’s Choir at the Natolin Cultural Centre in Warsaw; the Sempre Youth Choir and Mrokowiacy Senior Choir at the Lesznowola Community Cultural Centre.
As an arts facilitator, she organises concerts, leads numerous workshops for choirs, conductors and teachers, and advocates for the arts. In 2018 she received the Minister of National Education Award.