Elżbieta Szczurko

Associate Professor Dr hab. Elżbieta Szczurko completed her secondary music education at the Secondary Music School in Toruń (levels I and II), obtaining diplomas with distinction in both the piano class and in the class of solo singing. She graduated in theory of music at the Department of Composition and Theory of Music at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (diploma with distinction), and at the department of Doctorate Studies, Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw. She was awarded her doctorate in 2007 at the Academy of Music in Kraków, for her dissertation on the works of Antoni Szałowski, written under the supervision of Prof. Dr hab. Zofia Helman (University of Warsaw). In 2016, by the decision of the Board of the Department of Music Creativity, Interpretation and Education of the Academy of Music in Kraków, she was awarded the degree of Doctor Habilitatus. Since 2017 she has held the post of Associate Professor at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. During the years 2008-2012 she was Associate Dean at the Department of Composition, Theory of Music and Sound Engineering. Her research interests focus on issues relating to the history and theory of the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and on the musical culture of Toruń. She participates actively in national and international academic conferences. She is the author of the books Twórczość Antoniego Szałowskiego w kontekście muzyki XX wieku (Bydgoszcz 2008), Antoni Szałowski. Person and Work (Frankfurt am Main 2013), Pasja w twórczości polskich kompozytorów XX i początku XXI wieku na tle historii gatunku [Passion in the works of Polish composers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries against the background of the history of the genre] (Bydgoszcz 2016, awarded a prize by the National Centre for Culture), and numerous articles published in Poland and abroad. During the years 1989-91 she was a member of the vocal octet Renard Ensemble, established and led by Wiesław Lisecki, which specialised in the performance of early music. Together with the Early Music Ensemble Collegium Vocale from Bydgoszcz she recorded a CD of the works of Wacław of Szamotuły and Marcin Leopolita (DUX 0248, 1995), the reissue of which was awarded „Fryderyk 2001” – the prize of the Polish Academy of Phonography. The subjects she teaches at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz include Polish music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; criticism and lecturing; teaching aural skills, and M.A. and licentiate seminars. She is also involved in general music teaching at the Karol Szymanowski Cluster of Music Schools in Toruń (during the years 1994-2002 as head of section of general music subjects and the solo singing class). Until 2016 she was the head of the team of the Bydgoszcz Academy teaching staff involved in the work of the Inter-University Chair of Aural Training. She combines research and didactic work with editorial, organisational and journalistic activities. During the years 1992-2004 she was co-editor of the journal “Canor”, devoted to interpretations of early music. She collaborates as editor with Peter Lang – Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften (Frankfurt am Main) and the Bydgoszcz Music Academy Press. Until 2016 she was Vice-President of the “Canor” Foundation for Early Music in Toruń. Currently she is a member of the Board of that Foundation, as well as honorary member of the “Paideia” Culture Society in Toruń. She gives introductory lectures to concerts of classical music organised by regional cultural institutions. She has been the recipient of a number of awards, such as the Silver Cross of Merit (2001), decoration of Meritorius Cultural Activist (2001), the Medal „Fryderyk Chopin Year 2010” of the Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship, Medal of the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz on the occasion of the Academy’s 40th anniversary (2014), as well as a number of individual prizes of the Rector of the Academy.