Prof. Aleksandra Paszek-Trefon

Poland

Aleksandra Paszek-Trefon graduated from the Music Education faculty of the Katowice Music Academy under the supervision of Professor Jan Wojtacha. In 1987, she began working at the Cieszyn branch of the Silesian University, where in the years 1998-2003 she was director of the Music Ensemble department in the Music Institute. Since 2003, she has worked at the Katowice Music Academy, lecturing in subjects such as Choir and Conducting. Since 2012, she has led Choir Conductor faculty. She received her music professorship in 2014. Her artistic achievements include numerous Polish and international prizes, awarded mainly for her work with the Music Institute Choir of the Cieszyn branch of the Silesian University. She has won seven individual conducting prizes, including four abroad. The ensembles she leads have recorded their own CDs, of which two published via Katowice Polish Radio ‘O Gwiazdo Betlejemska’ (1999) and ‘Canzonetta’ (2000) received a ‘Golden Disc’ award. Under her baton, the Music Academy Choir, together with the chamber orchestra AUKSO, recorded an album entitled ‘Kilar/Moś/AUKSO’, which received a Fryderyk award in 2015 in the category ‘Symphonic and performance music album of the year’. She is the author of many artistic and interdisciplinary projects, including the poetry and music spectacle ‘Pater Noster’ in cooperation with Krzysztof Kolberg, dedicated to the Holy Father John Paul II on the 25th anniversary of his pontificate. She is the initiator and artistic director of the International I LoVe Contemporary Music Festival and the Józef Świder Silesian Music Schools Choir Festival. She also founded the Dirigere e Cantare National Vocal Competition for Conductors as a part of the Youth Music Forum. She is the founder and organiser of the National Music Academy Choirmasters Forum. In 2014, she was the co-author at her home university of the only Choir Conductor specialisation in Poland, under the subject Composition, Conducting and Music Theory. The awards she has received include the Honourable Golden Trophy of the Polish Choir and Orchestra Association (1997), The National Education Committee Medal (1998), the Silesian University Dean’s Awards (1996, 1997, 2001), the Katowice Music Academy Dean’s Award (2006), and the Honourable Golden Award for Services to the Silesian Voivodship (2014).