Dr. Monika Stefaniak - Conductor, music theoretician, pedagogue, cultural manager
Dr. Monika Stefaniak is an active conductor and conducting pedagogue. Her main mentor and teacher was Prof. Jerzy Salwarowski, and she has studied under the guidance of such outstanding conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Eötvös, Leonid Korchmar, and Gabriel Chmura. She was finalist and laureate of the audience award in International Conducting Competition in Chisinau (2011) and finalist of Ionel Perlea International Conducting Competition in Slobozia (2021). She has also been accepted to participate in other prestigious competitions in Besançon, London, Trento, Taipei.
She performed with Congress Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Catania Festival Orchestra, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonic and Opera Society in Plovdiv, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Toruń and Słupsk chamber orchestras, Baltic State Opera in Gdańsk National Symphonic Orchestra of Polish Radio and philharmonic orchestras in Częstochowa, Kalisz and Szczecin. She conducted Sinfonia Varsovia and Beethoven Academy Orchestra.
She gained the Doctorate in Conducting from Academy of Music in Kraków in 2008 and she became a member of Conducting Faculty in Poznań Music Academy for 8 years where she lectured in composition, conducting, theory of music and rhythmics, as well as with the instrumental and vocal faculties. From 2005 to 2009 she was Artistic Director of The Gdynia Symphonic Orchestra and from 2007 to 2009 she was Artistic Director of Sinfonietta Gedanensis Youth Orchestra. She created and organized The Gdynia Masterclass for Conductors with The Gdynia Symphonic Orchestra in 2007 and 2008 with Maestro Jerzy Salwarowski and herself as assistant teacher.
She has been a conductor-assistant in Baltic State Opera in Gdańsk for two seasons conducting Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier, Verdi Rigoletto and La Traviata, Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rimsky-Korsakov Mozart i Salieri, Puccini La Boheme and Madama Butterfly, Adam Giselle, Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker, Stanisław Moniuszko Straszny dwór, Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro and Moniuszko Nie taki straszny dwór (education performance).
In 2004 she won the Ministry of Culture of the Polish Government scholarship for outstanding artists of the young generation “Młoda Polska”. She earned the Italian Government scholarship to take part in prestige masterclass “Accademia Musicale Chigiana” in Siena with Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti.
She is co-author of the book “Technika dyrygowania w aspekcie różnic stylistycznych” (Conducting technique in the aspect of stylistic differences) published in 2015 by Poznań Music Academy. She has participated in national and international scientific conferences (“Conductor - educator. Based on Henryk Czyż’s television series “Nie taki diabeł straszny”, “The devil’s not so black” - Oxford Conducting Institute, Conducting Studies Conference 2016; “Bohdan Wodiczko – dyrygent współczesności”, UMFC Warszawa, 2016)
She is a founder of the cultural management company – Monika Stefaniak Management which is organizing significant events on the nationwide cultural map of Poland. In cooperation with Beethoven Academy Orchestra she commissioned and conducted the premiere of Elliot Goldenthal’s Symphony No. 3 for soprano and orchestra on poems by Barbara Sadowska in 2021. Since 2016 she has organized many recordings, concerts and workshops. Dr. Stefaniak teaches private conducting lessons both in person and online.