Biography

Joanna Krauze has performed both as a soloist and a chamber musician in Poland, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Canada. She has won main prizes in several piano competitions, including two special prizes and the title of the Finalist in the 10. International Bach Piano Competition in Würzburg, one of the largest piano competitions devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2017, she won the second prize in the Sterndale Bennett Prize Piano Competition, which takes place at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2016, she also received the Mark James Piano Prize from the prestigious London Philharmonia Orchestra to support her musical development. As the winner of Harriet Cohen Bach Prize 2016 from London’s Worshipful Company of Musicians, one of the oldest music institutions in England, Joanna was invited to join their “Yeomen” programme, which supports a selected group of young artists in England. She also won the first prize in the 1st International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Rzeszów and was awarded a Special Prize for the best performance of a work by Chopin in the 15th International Chopin Festival in Sochaczew, a Special Prize in the 16th Piano Competition in Żagań and a Special Prize in the 2nd Piano Competition in Piotrków-Trybunalski in Poland.

Joanna has been a holder of several scholarships. Her music studies in Switzerland have been generously supported by various Institutions, among others by the Swiss Confederation and their “Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship”. She has also been supported by the National Frederic Chopin Institute in Warsaw and their “Young Talents” programme. In 2016, she was selected by the Royal Academy of Music in London to be a full-scholarship holder at the “International Mendelssohn Academy” in Leipzig. In 2013, Joanna received a full scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland and Mount Royal University in Calgary to participate in the “Morningside Music Bridge” programme in Canada, where she received the Stuart Holland Memorial Award – a special prize for the selected pianist.

Currently, Joanna is studying for her Master’s degree in Organ Performance at the University of Arts in Zürich, under the guidance of Andreas Jost, developing her second musical passion which is organ playing. At the same University, in 2022, she obtained a Master of Arts in Specialized Solo Performance, being a piano student of Konstantin Scherbakov. In 2020 she also received her Master’s degree in Piano Pedagogy at the Music Academy in Basel, being in the piano class of Ronald Brautigam and Adrian Oetiker. In 2018 she obtained a first-class Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied under the guidance of Tessa Nicholson. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Joanna was selected three times to be a recipient of Greta Parkinson, Doris Ethel Blake and Francis Simms discretionary prizes for chosen students. In the academic year 2016-2017 she also studied as an Erasmus scholarship holder at the University of Music and Theater in Leipzig, under the guidance of Gerald Fauth. She received a diploma with distinction from the Zenon Brzewski Secondary School of Music in Warsaw in the piano class of Elżbieta Karaś-Krasztel.

Joanna has developed her passion for music by participating in piano and organ masterclasses with renowned pedagogues, such as Michael Bouvard, Pascal Devoyon, Christopher Elton, Pavel Gililov, Krzysztof Jabłoński, Andrzej Jasinski, Kevin Kenner, Robert Levin, Joanna MacGregor, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Yevgeny Sudbin, Dang Thai-Son and Arie Vardi.

Musicians’ Company Award: Harriet Cohen Bach Prize 2016

Page Updated: Sept 2023