Maria Szymanowska

Szymanowska’s childhood in Warsaw was consumed by music-making in the home. Her father, Franciszek Wołowski, a wealthy brewery owner, and her mother, Barbara Lanckorońska Wołowska, a descendant of an ancient Polish aristocratic family, were leading patrons of the arts. Together, they encouraged the young Szymanowska’s interest in music. At the age of eight she began her musical studies in piano with the well-known Warsaw pianist, Antoni Lisowski, and at 15 she pursued studies in theory and composition with the pianist and composer Tomasz Gremm. Szymanowska had ample opportunity to acquaint herself with contemporary performance and compositional styles, and she took advantage of the informal lessons these visiting artists provided to resident musicians. By the age of twenty-one she was an active participant in public and private concerts in Warsaw and the rest of Europe. In 1810, after presenting a series of concerts in Warsaw and Paris, she married Józef Teofil Szymanowski. Within a period of two years she gave birth to three children. Ten years later, in 1820, the marriage foundered and Józef petitioned for a divorce; Szymanowska retained her maiden name and the custody of their children and resumed her professional career. The publication dates of her works indicate that they were published immediately after she composed them, and illustrate the marketability of her keyboard works as teaching pieces and solo concert works.