PROF. BARBARA ŚWIĄTEK-ŻELAZNA
A magna cum laude graduate of the Academy of Music in Kraków in the class of Professor Wacław Chudziak, she continued to study the flute at the Conservatoire National Supérier de Musique de Paris with Professor Gaston Crunelle.
Established soloist flutist of the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra in Kraków, Świątek-Żelazna is a winner of Polish (Katowice, Łódź) and international (Vienna, Helsinki, Utrecht) competitions.
A member of the Baroque Trio with Elżbieta Stefańska and Jerzy Klocek, she formed the Warsaw Harp Trio with Urszula Mazurek and Zdzisław Polonek, she was a soloist of the Kraków Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kazimierz Kord and a long-term member of the MW2 ensemble.
Gracing many stages as a soloist and chamber musician and performing as a soloist with all Polish orchestras, she has participated in many prestigious Polish and international music festivals. She has also made numerous recordings for the Polish Radio and TV and foreign broadcasters, run flute masterclasses in Poland and abroad (Belgium, Ukraine), sat in juries of international (ARD in Munich ARD, Lviv and Chernivtsi) and national (Dąbrowa Górnicza, Łódź, Sieradz, Kraków) flute competitions.
Cooperation with Polish and foreign composers, notably with Krzysztof Meyer, Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Adam Walaciński, Bogusław Schaeffer, and Krešimir Fribec, resulted in a wealth of musical works dedicated to her. The initiator and artistic director of the International Flute Competition in Kraków, she has received a great deal of decorations and honours, including the Medal of the Commission for National Education, the Gloria Artis Golden Medal for Merit to Culture, the Knight’s Cross and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Poland Reborn, the Prize of the Minister of Culture and Art, the City of Kraków Prize, the RE and RA Robinson Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Ars Quaerendi Prize from the Parliament of the Małopolska Region in the Master – Student category for outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of culture. She also received the prestigious Orfeusz Prize awarded by the critics of the SPAM for the most stimulating artistic event of the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music and the directions of artistic pursuits.
Holder of the title of Professor of the Academy of Music in Kraków, Barbara Świątek-Żelazna ran the Woodwinds, Percussion, and Accordion Department, and in 1999–2002 was the Rector of the Academy of Music in Kraków.
In 2019, she received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater.