Dr. Ivona Kaminska Bowlby

Piano Instruction (In-Person & Online), Music History, Piano Pedagogy.

Polish-born pianist, Dr. Ivona Kaminska, is one of the most versatile pianists and artist-teachers of the West Coast. Ivona Kaminska has performed in such concert halls as New York City’s Carnegie Recital Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, the Barcelona Piano Academy, Visconti-Sforza Castle in Galliate, Italy, and more. Described as “one of the most interesting pianists of her generation” by legendary pianist and Chopin Competition Prizewinner, Tatiana Shebanova, Ivona Kaminska specializes in the music of Frederic Chopin and J.S. Bach.

Internationally educated, Kaminska graduated with a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of British Columbia (Canada), holds two Master’s degrees, and a Post-graduate Performance Diploma from the Frederic Chopin Music University in Warsaw, Poland. Among her most prominent teachers are Andrzej Stefanski, Henri-Paul Sicsic, Boris Berman, Tatiana Shebanova, James Cook, and Marek Jablonsky.

Dr. Kaminska regularly lectures on performance issues of the music by Frederic Chopin and J.S. Bach, and was interviewed several times by the Polish music journal, Twoja Muza. Dr. Kaminska has been invited throughout her career to teach and perform in numerous summer master classes and festivals, such as the Barcelona Piano Academy, Spain, the Ashland International Piano Institute in Oregon, Tsar’s Village International Master Courses in St. Petersburg, Russia, among many others.

Equally passionate as an educator and coach for gifted students, Dr. Kaminska’s teaching style combines the best of the Eastern European traditions and the modern pedagogical research of USA. Over the last 20 years her students garnered over 1,000 top prizes in international and regional competitions. Many of them have progressed to prestigious music schools, and are enjoying careers in music.

Dr. Ivona Kaminska is in demand as an adjudicator of local and international competitions, and has served on juries both in North America, as well as in Europe. She has been affiliated with the University of British Columbia, Shoreline College, Cornish College of the Arts, as well as served on the faculty of summer festivals in St. Petersburg, Barcelona, the Amici Music Festival in Malibu, California, among others.

Aside from immersive research and performance of the music by Chopin and Schumann, Dr. Kaminska devoted a large part of her North-American studies to the issues of Baroque Performance Practice on organ, harpsichord, and its applications on the modern piano. During this scholarship, she worked with such eminent authorities in the discipline as George Ritchie, Quentin Faulkner, Igor Kipnis, and Gregory Butler.

Dr. Kaminska is the founder and the Artistic Director of the Chopin Academy of Music, and the Seattle International Piano Festival in Washington State. In 2019 she was elected winner of the competition for the Most Outstanding Artist of Polish Origin on the West Coast, organized by the Los Angeles Office of the Consulate of the Republic of Poland.