Małgorzata Podzielny is a graduate of the Music Education Department in conducting, under professor Maria Oraczewska-Skorek, as well as the Composition, Conducting, Music Theory and Music Therapy Department of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. She completed her Postgraduate studies for Choirmasters in Bydgoszcz and is a grant holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Since September 2002, she has been conducting the ‘Con Brio’ Choir, String Orchestra and chamber ensembles at the Grażyna Bacewicz Primary Music School, in Wrocław. She currently holds the title of Artistic Director of the Vocal Ensemble ‘Rondo’ in Wrocław. For four years she has served as the deputy director of the Sacred Music School at the Theology Department of Opole University and as a lecturer at the Music Education Department of the Wrocław Music Academy. Additionally, Podzielny participates at workshops and seminars as a guest lecturer on the issue of voice emission in boys’ chorus.

This special performance will present an evening of new arrangements of medieval Christmas songs as well as carols and pastorals, sung in Polish houses, in addition to the premiere of Michał Ziółkowski’s Christmas Suite written for children's choir with orchestra accompaniment, a setting of the beloved hymns To the shed hey the shepherds and Over Bethlehem on a dark night.

The NFM also welcomes two artists from the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music for this holiday celebration. Michał Ziółkowski from the composition class of Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil and Aleksander Miśkiewicz, a graduate of the accordion class of Zbigniew and Rafał Łuców. The Karol Lipiński Academy of Music is the only institution of higher education in the Lower Silesia region preparing pupils for artistic careers in orchestras, ensembles, choirs, as educators, and other aspects of music including composition, conducting, music therapy and jazz.

Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator