Ivona Kaminska: “Cannons Hidden Amid Flowers”

Ivona Kaminska presents a recital of Chopin’s B minor Sonata, Op. 58 and works by Maria Szymanowska, Karol Kurpinski, and John Field.

Join Ivona Kaminska in a recital presenting Chopin’s B minor Sonata, Op. 58, as well as the music of Chopin’s predecessors within Poland and abroad: Maria Szymanowska, Karol Kurpinski, and John Field, a music that preserved and sustained a spirit of independence in the Polish people for over one hundred and fifty years of occupation, uttered through the poetic voice of the piano.

Polish born pianist Ivona Kaminska was awarded a Master of Arts in Piano Performance and a Graduate Artist Performance Diploma from the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland; a Masters of Music from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as a Doctorate from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has participated in international festivals including the Mozarteum Sommerakademie and in Duszniki-Zdroj. Winner of several solo concerto competitions, and the Contemporary Chamber Music Competition in Warsaw, she has appeared on national public radio in Poland and the USA. Among her distinguished awards are the Stefan Batory National Foundation Merit Award, the Beryl Barnes Music Award, and the Astral Career Development Grant, among others. Among her influential teachers are Andrzej Stefanski, Tatiana Shebanova, Boris Bloch, Mark Clinton, Henri-Paul Sicsic, and Marek Jablonski. In 2004 and 2005 she published articles and interviews in the Polish music magazine, Twoja Muza, in which she presented a comparative analysis of the music education systems of Poland and the United States, and discussed the tradition of Polish piano playing throughout the history of the International Piano Chopin Competition. Equally passionate as a pedagogue, Dr. Kaminska is the artistic director of the Chopin Academy of Music in Issaquah, an adjunct faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, and President of the Seattle International Piano Festival and Competition.