persons' index (S)

harpsichordist and teacher; b. 26 June 1964 in Przemyśl. In 1988 she graduated with honours from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, where she studied harpsichord with Władysław Kłosiewicz. In 1990 she obtained the diploma of the Conservatoire National de Region de Rueil-Malmaison after studies with Huguette Dreyfus. She participated in numerous masterclasses dedicated to the interpretation of baroque music: at the Musicale Academy in Siena as well as in Innsbruck, Villecrose and Kraków.

She is the winner of numerous competitions, including the 1st Wanda Landowska National Harpsichord Competition in Kraków (2nd prize), Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk and International Harpsichord Competition in Paris (finalist).

In 1991-2017 she was associated with the Warsaw Chamber Opera as a harpsichordist and a chamber music player, as well as a conductor. She conducted numerous performances, playing on harpsichord and chamber organ, including St. Mark Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach, a series of concerts "Songs and Arias – works of the 18th-century Polish composers", works by Antoni Milwid, Marcin Żebrowski, Marcin Mielczewski’s Opera Omnia, as well as the operas Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, Tetide in Sciro by Domenico Scarlatti, and Rinaldo by Georg Friedrich Handel (as Władysław Kłosiewicz's assistant). As the artistic director, she also recorded six albums with instrumental and vocal-instrumental music of the 17th century, including Opera Omnia by Marcin Mielczewski and a CD with works of a Polish baroque composer Damian Stachowicz. In addition, she participated in numerous concerts and festivals of the Warsaw Chamber Opera, playing basso continuo in operatic works such as: Orfeo, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi, L’Euridice by Jacopo Peri, Satiro e Corisca by Tarquinio Merulo, Imeneo, Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare by Georg Friedrich Handel, Alceste by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Tancrede by André Campry and Jephte by Michel Montéclair. With Jean-Claude Malgoir, she prepared and performed in France the operas Catone in Utica by Antonio Vivaldi and Il Ritorno d’Ulisse In Patria by Claudio Monteverdi. In 2015-2017 she was the artistic director of the Opera and Baroque Department of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. 

In 1991-2011 she was a member of the early music ensemble Il Tempo, specializing in instrumental and vocal-instrumental music from early Baroque to Classicism. With the ensemble, she recorded several albums and participated in numerous concerts and major early music festivals in the country and abroad, including in Bruges, Brussels, Utrecht, Moscow, New York, New Brunswick, Rome and Berlin.

As a chamber musician she collaborated with, among others, Agata Sapiecha, Simon Standag, Marek Coudl, James Oxley, Anna Radziejewska, Małgorzata Wojciechowska, Artur Stefanowicz, Olga Pasiecznik, Marta Boberska, Dorota Lachowicz, Jan Stanienda, Antoni Biruly, Grzegorz Lalka, Tytus Wojnowicz, Essentia Musica Musica and New Art Ensamble.

In 2003 she recorded her first solo album with works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (CD Accord), and in January 2007 – a double album with Georg Friedrich Handel’ Harpsichord Suites HWV 426-433 (Pro Musica Camerata Foundation). In 2012 her third solo album with Inventions and Sinfonies by Johann Sebastian Bach was nominated to the Fryderyk Award. She also recorded Polonaises and Fantasies by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (2014)  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Three Piano Concertos KV 197 and Joseph Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in D major Hob. XVII:11 (2014) with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra as well as Concerto for harpsichord by Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz with the Polish Radio Orchestra (2016). The album Antonio Caldara: Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, recorded under her artistic directrion, won the Fryderyk 2018 Award in the category "Album of the Year – Early Music", as well as the Feniks 2018 Award of the Association of Catholic Publishers. In 2019, she recorded Johann Sebastian’s Bach 6 Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1014-1019 (Chopin University Press).

Since 2003 she has been teaching harpsichord and classes with vocalists at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Białystok. In 2012-2016 she was the deputy dean of the Department of Instrumental and Educational Studies in Białystok and the coordinator of the  Concert Office. Since 2016 she has been the head of the FCUM Inter-faculty Department of Early Music. She also lectures at numerous courses and seminars dedicated to the interpretation and performance of early music, including the International Summer Academy of Early Music in Wilanów (since 1993).

Lilianna Stawarz is a president of the “Dramma Per Musica” Baroque Art Lovers Society. Since 2014, in cooperation with the Royal Lazienki Museum, the society presented first performances in Poland of Agrippina and Orlando by Georg Fridrich Handel, Farnace by Antonio Vivaldi and Semiramide riconosciuta by Leonnardo Vinci. Lilianna Stawarz is also a cofounder of the “Dramma Per Musica” Baroque Opera Festival.

In 2005 she was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit by the President of the Republic of Poland.

updated: 2020 (ac)