Magdalena Adamek holds a Master of Arts in Piano Performance from the Chopin Academy of Music, Warsaw, Poland, and Doctor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Alberta, Canada. She is currently Contract Instructor in Piano at Department of Music at University of Alberta. Adamek has led an active performing career giving performances across Poland, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, France, China, USA, and Canada, with repertoire ranging from the classical period to the contemporary music. Her long-term artistic project involves promoting piano music by composers, for instance Chopin,  Moniuszko, Szymanowski, and post-romantic composer Feliks Nowowiejski. Over the past few years the artistic project concerning Nowowiejski involved world premiere recordings of Nowowiejski’s music for piano solo, doctoral essay devoted to Nowowiejski’s music for piano solo (“Piano Works by Feliks Nowowiejski.”), national and international lectures and presentations (College Music Society Conference at the University of Colorado at Denver in 2005, The Rough and the Polished symposium at the University of Toronto in 2005, lecture recital at the University of Alberta in 2005), and  book The Unknown Face of Feliks Nowowiejski: The Piano Works, published by VDM in Germany.

Magdalena Adamek graduated in the piano class from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in 2000 under tutelage of Professor Barbara Hesse-Bukowska. In 2006 she completed her Doctor of Music in Piano Performance degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton under supervision of Professor Jacques Després. Dr. Adamek also worked under the guidance of such renown pianists as Halina Czerny-Stefanska, Andrzej Jasinski, Paul Badura-Škoda, Stêphane Lemelin, Kyoko Hashimoto, and Kevin Fitz-Gerald.

She has been a recipient of numerous prestigious scholarly and performing awards including Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, Dissertation Fellowship, Mary Louise Imrie Graduate Award, FS Chia PhD Scholarship, Beryl Barns Memorial Graduate Scholarship, Harriet Snowball Winspear Graduate Prize in Performing Arts scholarship (University of Alberta), and also Marek Jablonski Piano Scholarship for the Banff International Keyboard Festival and a scholarship by Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (awarded twice). Her projects have been also supported by Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, The Polonia Foundation of Alberta, Polish Culture Society in Edmonton, Polish Federation of Women in Edmonton,  Polish Combatants Society of Edmonton, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Vancouver, and Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association.
Magdalena Adamek-Kurgan has been a laureate of the 2nd prize and a special distinction for the best performance of piano works by Frederick Chopin at International Milosz Magin Piano Competition in Paris, 3rd prize in the piano trio category at Kiejstut Bacewicz International Chamber Music Competition in Lódz, Poland, 3rd prize at the National Piano Competition in Warsaw, and distinction at the National Chamber Music Competition in Warsaw. She also represented Poland at the II European Piano Forum at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin.

Adamek’s discography includes five compact discs for an independent Polish label Acte Prèalable with works of such composers as Feliks Nowowiejski, Milosz Magin, Romuald Twardowski, Jozef Elsner. The latest recording project involves a CD Romantic Central Europe, which was made in collaboration with the Wirth Institute of Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta and contains piano works by Carl Czerny, Franz Schubert, Frederick Chopin, and Feliks.

Tanya Prochazka

Born in Melbourne Australia, Tanya Prochazka studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Andre Navarra and in Bloomington, Indiana with Janos Starker, following which she has pursued a career of international performance and teaching. Ms. Prochazka moved to Edmonton from London, England with her family in 1986: she became Professor of Cello and Conductor of the University Symphony and Academy Strings Orchestras at the University of Alberta in 1998. One of Canada's leading cellists, Ms. Prochazka performs repertoire from the Baroque to the present day.  Highlights of her recent career include world premiere performances of concertos by Alfred Fisher and Malcolm Forsyth, performing string quartets in the natural concert halls of the Grand Canyon and leading a very successful tour of Cuba with the Academy Strings Orchestra.  Her CDs include the world premiere recording of the New Goldberg Variations with pianist Jacques Despres as well as several recordings with pianists Stephane Lemelin and Janet Scott Hoyt. Tanya conducts the main symphonic repertoire as well as a opera and large choral and orchestral works.

http://www.tanyaprochazka.com/

Joanna Ciapka-Sangster

A native of Poland, Joanna received her Masters Degree in Music Performance, in 1989, from Academy of Music in Poznan where she studied violin with Bartosz Bryla. Touring throughout Europe and Egypt she performed with various Polish orchestras including: the State Philharmonic Orchestra in Poznan, Baltic State Symphony Orchestra in Gdansk, Pagart Polish Performing Arts Agency in Warsaw and Polska Filharmonia Kameralna Chamber Orchestra in Sopot. She performed with such renowned conductors as Jerzy Maksymiuk, Wojciech Michniewski, Wojciech Rajski and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Joanna has lived in Edmonton since 1992 becoming a faculty member of the Society for Talent Education and member of various chamber orchestras. In 1994, Joanna joined the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) as a core player, after winning a 1^st violin chair at the international audition. In 1995, she also became a core member of the Alberta Baroque Ensemble.

As a soloist, Joanna has performed with ESO and Concordia College Orchestra.

She has been a member of numerous ensembles including: the Arden Ensemble, ECHO, Pro Coro Orchestra and the Polish Folk and Dance Ensemble, Polonez.
Her first love is playing in chamber groups and in 2005, together with her husband jazz composer and saxophonist Kent Sangster, founded the Obsessions Octet.  In 2006, the octet released its debut CD Obsessions to rave reviews.  Obsessions was nominated for a 2007 JUNO Award in the Contemporary Jazz Category and was awarded the Western Canadian Music Outstanding Jazz Recording of the Year Award. In the fall of 2009, the Obsessions Octet recorded their second CD Melodia to be released on March 7^th, 2010.

Joanna also plays in an Obsessions String Quartet and Trio Con Brio. Since 2005 she has been involved in Contemporary Music Project with the Warszynski Trio and in 2007 they recorded the CD Devil’s Dance.

Over the years she has been very involved in Polish Culture Society of Edmonton and in 2008 Joanna joined its Board of Directors.  As a hobby, Joanna hosts Music Corner on CJSR 88.5 FM’s Polish Radio Program (since 2004). She also enjoys gardening, traveling and spending time with Kent and their two kids, Adam and Kaja.