performers (M)

conductor; b. 1 March 1982 in Warsaw. She graduated with distinction from Bogdan Gola’s class of choral conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She continued her conducting studies with Péter Erdei at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, obtaining an Advanced Diploma in Choral Conducting. She received scholarships from the Balassi Institute, the International Kodály Society, the Hungarian Scholarship Board and (twice) the Foundation for the Kodály Institute. She completed Postgraduate Studies of Choral Conducting and Voice Emission at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, and obtained a doctoral degree in conducting (2013).

The artist developed her conducting abilities at master classes taught by the Norwegian conductor Ragnar Rasmussen during the Cork International Choral Festival (Ireland, 2009), and later at master classes in Split (Croatia). In the same year she also conducted a class of “Common singing” during the International Kodály Seminar in Kecskemet (Hungary) and was one of the twelve conductors participating in Prof. Johannes Prinz’s master class during the European Academy for Young Choral Conductors in Graz (Austria). In the following year she continued her studies under Johannes Prinz in Varese (Italy).

Joanna Maluga has conducted numerous choirs in Poland and abroad, including the Vox Animae Chamber Choir (Croatia), the APZ Tone Tomšič Univerze in Ljubljana (Slovenia), Coro da Camera di Varese (Italy), the Mixed Choir of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (Hungary), the Mixed Choir of the Kodály Institute (Hungary), the Choir of the Warsaw Stage Society, the Mixed Choir of the Fryderyk Chopin State Music Schools in Warsaw and the Boys’ and Mixed Choirs of St Joseph Roman Catholic Parish. In 2009-13 she also conducted a children’s choir and acted as cantor for the Holy Trinity Evangelical Parish of the Augsburg Confession.

Currently she works as a lecturer at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz and is the head conductor of the Chamber Choir of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and the Chamber Choir Varsoviae Regii Cantores, the latter of which she founded herself. She is also the Vice-President and co-founder of VRC (Varsoviae Regii Cantores) Association. As a promoter of Zoltan Kodály’s concept of music education, she collaborates with the Hungarian Institute of Culture. With the choirs that she conducts, Joanna Maluga has won awards in major Polish conducting competitions. She premiered contemporary choral works by such composers as Aleksandra Gryka, Piotr Tabakiernik, Ignacy Zalewski, EunHo Chang, Artur Słotwiński and Kamil Staszowski.

updated: November 2015 (wa)