prof. UWM Paweł Skrzypek
Pawel Skrzypek - pianist and piano teacher - began work at the UWM Music Department on October 1, 2004 at rank of the academic professor. He is graduate of the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (diploma with honours at 1977), All-Polish Postgraduate Piano Master Studies in Warsaw (1979) and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, great Britain, where in 1979-1983 he completed four years postgraduate master studies under distinguished Polish pianist and tutor Professor Ryszard Bakst. He started his academic work in 1989 at the Karol Szaymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where for four years (1989-1993) he joined the Piano Department lead by Professor Andrzej Jasiński, and where on January 9, 1992 he conducted his doctorate (1st degree qualification). On October 1, 1992 he was nominated adjunct at the Academy in Katowice. 2nd degree qualification (assistant professor - "dr hab.") he obtained at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań; qualification was officially granted by the RWSA on March 25, 1996. In 2004 he obtained the rank of academic professor at the Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski in Olsztyn. Up till today the UWM is his so called "first place of employment". From 2006 he also cooperates with the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw at the rank of Professor UMFC.
During his studies at the Academy of Music in Warsaw he received the Frederic Chopin Society Scholarship, the Diploma of Recognition of the Young Stage at the Festival of Polish Pianists in Słupsk, he was a member of the Polish National Team in the 1980 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and he won first prizes in the piano competitions in London (the First British Chopin Competition) and Birmingham (Dudley National Piano Competition) as well as he received the "Worshipful Company of Musicians of London" medal for the achievements in the field of piano playing. After return from England, from 1984 simultaneously with concert activity he started the intensive pedagogical work and within a scope of nearly 30 years he received many awards for achievements in that field. Among them were two Prizes of the Minister of Culture in 1998 and in 2008, as well as - also twice - Prizes of the Director of Center for Artistic Education (1992 and 2011) plus several smaller awards, diplomas and medals. Right after return from England he started his pedagogical work at the Frederic Chopin State School of Music in Warsaw, where from 1992 through 2004, for 12 years he directed the Piano Department (the "Head of Piano Department"). On September 1, 2004 he became the Director of this renowned, the oldest music school in Poland. He works at that post till today. Beside the Academy of Music in Katowice he worked also with some other schools: Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wroclaw and State High Schools of Music: Władysław Żeleński in Kraków and Karol Szymanowski in Płock. Since 2006 he was the President of EPTA-Poland - the Polish Piano Teachers Association, a branch of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA). In the beginning of 2013, due to obligations connected with development of the Frederic Chopin School in Warsaw, he resigned from the EPTA post. Pawel Skrzypek serves as the promotor of piano doctorates (the first doctorate promoted by him was concluded in October of 2012 at the Academy of Music in Poznań) as well as member of jury in many piano competitions, also in role of the chairman of the jury. Since 2012 he chairs the juries of All-Polish Piano Competitions for High School Students organized by the Center for Artistic Education. For more than 20 years his students win prizes in Polish and international piano competitions.
Pawel Skrzypek has been invited to courses in interpretation both in Poland and abroad. He conducted such courses in countries like Maleisia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Algiers and Tunesia. From 1990 for 20 years he was regularly invited to schools and universities in the USA, where he conducted piano master courses in numerous of schools on the West Coast including such renowned institutions as the University of California in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is a founder, director and faculty member of one of the biggest piano courses in Poland - the Warsaw Piano Workshop, as well and founder, artistic director and faculty member of the international master piano cours - the Gold Country Piano Institute in Nevada City, California, USA. The faculty of the GCPI directed by Pawel Skrzypek included such famous, worldwide recognized piano tutors as Lee Kum-Sing from Canada, John Perry from USA, Thomas Hecht from Singapore and professors Mark Ray and Graham Scott from Great Britain.
Since his return from postgraduate studies in England in 1983 Pawel Skrzypek combined his intensive pedagogical work with concert activity. He performed as soloist in all of the philharmonic halls in Poland, he appeared in many piano festivals both in Poland and abroad, he is active also on the field of chamber music collaborating with famous Camerata String Quartet and renowned tenor Leszek Świdziński. Pawel Skrzypek gave concerts in almost all countries in Europe, and beyond Europe - in Canada, Northern Africa (Algiers, Tunesia), South-East Asia (Maleisia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea) and United States of America. He recorded for many television and radio stations, among them for the Polish Radio (where he did many archive recordings), Polish Television, BBC, I Chanel of Russian Television, Californian recording company PianoDisc and National Public Radio Washington.