The Fifth International Stretto Piano Festival is pleased to partner with Steingraeber Piano and The Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music for this event, presenting a Steingraber 130SFM upright piano with narrow keys for the performers.
Steingraeber was the first piano manufacturer to place pianos with narrow keys in its showroom, a leader in innovation and hand-crafted piano technology.
PROGRAM
Works by Fryderyk Chopin and George Crumb
Performers:
Jadwiga Mglej
Veronika Zalewska
Aleksandra Dąbek
Aleksandra Hortensja Dąbek was born on October 1st, 1996, in Cracow, Poland. She graduated with distinction from the Academy of Music in Cracow, where she studied piano under the guidance of Professor Ewa Bukojemska and period piano. In 2023, she earned the title of Doctor of Musical Arts after successfully defending her doctoral thesis on the piano works of Franciszek Mirecki. Currently, she is an assistant at the Piano Department at the Academy of Music in Cracow.
Aleksandra began her musical education at the age of seven, studying at the Public School of Music of the 1st grade in Krzeszowice under Beata Zając. Later, she continued her studies at the Władysław Żeleński State Secondary School of Music in Cracow, where Olga Łazarska played a crucial role in her development. From 2012 to 2015, she refined her skills in the piano class of Professor Wojciech Świtała.
She is a laureate of numerous prestigious international piano competitions, including Chopinowskie Interpretacje Młodych (2019, 2nd Prize), 7th International Chopin Competition in Budapest (2016, 3rd Prize), International Piano Competition "Debut" in New York (2016, 2nd Prize), 2nd International Piano Competition in Karlovac, Croatia (2015, 3rd Prize), XXI International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Children and Youth in Szafarnia (2013, 1st Prize and special prizes for the best performance of Chopin's Mazurka and Karol Szymanowski's Preludium), XX International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth in Szafarnia (2012, 3rd Prize, Special Prize from the Consul of the Republic of Poland in Navarra, the Basque Country, and La Rioja, and Prize for the best performance of Chopin's Mazurka).
Aleksandra has also participated in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Andrzej Jasiński, Tobias Koch, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Dimitrij Bashkirov, Dimitrij Alexeev, Kevin Kenner, Fumiko Eguchi, and Krzysztof Jabłoński.
She has performed in numerous prestigious Polish and international festivals, including Chopin and His Europe, the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, Muzyka w Starym Krakowie, Wawel o zmierzchu, Chopin au Jardin, Lato z Chopinem in Busko-Zdrój, Duettissimo!, the Abu Dhabi Festival, and Chopinowskie Interpretacje Młodych. Aleksandra has also been invited to perform at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, taking part in Saturday recitals at Chopin’s birthplace in Żelazowa Wola and performing at the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw as part of the Młode Talenty series. She closed the 58th season of the Chopin Concerts at the Łazienki Królewskie in Warsaw.
In 2016, she made her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Ehrbar Saal in Austria. Aleksandra has performed with the Orchestra of the Świętokrzyska Philharmonic, the Silesian Chamber Orchestra, and has played a series of concerts with the Emirates Youth Symphony Orchestra in Dubai.
In 2018, she released her debut album Chopin. Schumann. Aleksandra has been the recipient of various prestigious scholarships, including the National Foundation for Children Scholarship, the Sapere Auso Foundation Scholarship, the Yamaha Foundation Scholarship, the Mount Royal University Scholarship in Calgary, the "Młoda Polska" Program Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
In 2025 and 2022, at the invitation of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, she performed a series of concerts as part of EXPO 2025 in Osaka and EXPO 2020 in Dubai.
Jadwiga Mglej (born in 2001) is a pianist and a second-year master’s student in the Contemporary Music Performance program, as well as a co-founder of the Contemporary Music Performance Research Group “New Wayve.” She currently studies piano under Dr hab. Milena Kędra and Dr Martyna Zakrzewska.
She discovered her passion for contemporary music during the 1st Summer Courses of New Music for Performers in Bydgoszcz. Since then, she has been expanding her repertoire to include works from the 20th and 21st centuries.
She has refined her piano skills during numerous masterclasses led by, among others, Mariola Cieniawa, Adam Kośmieja, and Yukiko Sugawara.
Born in 2006 in Oleksandriia, Ukraine, Veronika Zalevska is currently studying under Professor Marek Szlezer at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków.
She began playing the piano at the age of five. In 2021, after winning First Prize at the Henryk Neuhaus Piano Competition in Kropyvnytskyi, she continued her musical education with Professor Serhii Riabov at the Mykola Lysenko State Music Lyceum in Kyiv.
In 2022 Veronika moved to Poland, where she pursued her artistic development in the class of Bogusława Kos at the Witold Lutosławski State Music School of the First and Second Degree in Nysa. During this time, she also studied under Dr. Hubert Salwarowski from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.
She has participated in piano masterclasses led by renowned artists including Marek Żebrowski, Paweł Motyczyński, Wojciech Świtała, Marc Laforet, and Stefan Stroissnig.