ON SUNDAY 19 May, the Polish pianist Mariola Cieniawa gave a recital at Cairo's historic Manasterly Palace. Born in Gorlice, a southeastern city in Poland, Cieniawa graduated from the Music Academy in Cracow. She pursued her post-graduate studies in Warsaw and soon started earning prizes at prestigious competitions. Cieniawa won the first prize and the special award in the first edition of Karol Szymanowski Piano Competition in 1983. She was granted the Frederic Chopin Artistic Scholarship for two consecutive years, 1983 and 1984. Her international appearances brought her third prize at the International Piano Competition in Palm Beach, Florida (USA), the seond prize at the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Palma Majorca (Spain, 1990) and the third prize at the Chopin Piano Competition in Uoln (Germany, 1991). Recently, in 2007, she was awarded the Mosty Starosty, a prestigious recognition given to artists by the head of the local southeastern district of Poland for an outstanding contribution to promoting art and bringing values of the district to the wider audiences. Cieniawa has given numerous concerts in Poland and internationally; she has recorded for the Polish Radio, Polish Television and Polish Records. Her recital in Cairo included compositions by Mompou, Granados, and Albeniz as well as two Polish composers: Chopin and Szymanowski. It took place in the context of the International Music Centre (IMC). Since its foundation in 2002, the IMC, with help from the Cultural Development Fund, has been attracting audiences to remarkable musicians hand-picked by Ramzi Yassa, the internationally renowned Egyptian pianist and IMC's artistic director. Among the remarkable pianists it brought to the Manasterly Palace this season is Andrei Gavrilov from Russia.
