Sarnecka Jadwiga

Jadwiga Sarnecka (* 1877 Sławuta in Volhynia or October 15, 1883 Szorogród in Podolia – † December 29, 1913 Krakow) pianist and composer.

She studied piano in Warsaw with prof. Aleksander Michałowski, and in Vienna with Teodor Leszetycki. Władysław Żeleński and Felicjan Szopski were her masters of composition. Since 1900, he has been active in the Krakow music community. In the years 1900-1910 she performs as a pianist, also performing her own compositions, which she prints initially with her own financial resources, and then with the financial help of Feliks Jasieński in his publishing house. He writes pieces that differ from the existing compositional canon, mainly with quite pessimistic overtones. Initially, it is met with a wave of criticism. However, later on, for his composition, the Ballade for Piano, he receives the 2nd prize at a composition competition organized in Lviv on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Fryderyk Chopin. The winner of the competition was then Karol Szymanowski. She gives interesting lectures at Music Congresses (as one of the few women).

The last public performance of the artist took place in 1911. Her composing oeuvre mainly includes piano works, including 2 sonatas, 7 ballads, variations, fantasies and miniatures, as well as songs to words by, among others, Zygmunt Krasiński, Lucjan Rydel and her own. She dies at a young age from tuberculosis, with which she struggled from an early age. Jadwiga Sarnecka is buried at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków.

An album with piano pieces recorded by pianist Marek Szlezer.