Keys to the world

Music alum wins prize at European piano competition

Performer, recording artist and educator, Polish pianist Anna Kijanowska (MM, music education, 1997), received the Platinum Prize and "Pianist of the Year" at the European Piano Awards 2025. The honor recognizes her recent recording, "21st Mazurkas," featuring works by Chopin based on Polish folk music.

Kijanowska grew up in a small town in Poland. She arrived in the U.S. at age 23 after receiving a scholarship to study with Madeleine Forte, Boise State Professor Emerita of Piano.

"My musical journey has been profoundly rewarding…I grew up in a small town in Poland and first came to the United States as a scholarship student at Boise State."

Kijanowska spoke about her work in an interview for the World Online Music Competitions Organization. "Currently, I am developing an EU-funded project entitled Eco-Music (Eko-Muzyka), an interdisciplinary artistic and educational initiative designed to raise ecological awareness through music, the arts and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. The project treats music as a medium for reflection on the relationship between humanity and nature, as well as on the consequences of human activity in the era of climate crisis."

In addition, Kijanowska received a grant for a project to rediscover and promote the works of overlooked Polish female composers. The initiative, In the Shadow of Fame (W cieniu sławy), "seeks to restore these composers to the concert repertoire and contribute to a more inclusive and historically informed musical canon," Kijanowska said.

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