Maria Wiłkomirska

Biography

Born in Moscow, Wiłkomirska was the daughter of violinist Alfred Wiłkomirski; her half-sister Wanda was a violinist, her half-brother Józef was a conductor, and her brother Kazimierz was a cellist. From 1913 until 1917 she studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Nadezhda Briusova and Boleslav Yavorsky; in 1920 she moved to Warsaw where she became a pupil of Józef Turczyński. She held positions as an instructor in Kalisz, Gdańsk, and Łódź, and in 1951 began teaching at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Wiłkomirska formed a piano trio with Wanda and Kazimierz and toured in Europe and Asia.