In 1996, she graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Katowice, under Andrzej Jasiński. She honed her skills at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin under Klaus Hellwig. She participated in master classes led by artists such as Lee Kum Sing and John Perry and also benefited from an encounter with Krystian Zimerman, and his artistic guidance.
She has won numerous national and international piano competitions. In 1993, she placed second at the 1st Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz, part of which was a performance at Lincoln Center in New York. The following year, she was a finalist at the 46th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, and in 2002, she won first prize and the Audience Award at the 17th Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza. She has been granted scholarships from the Fryderyk Chopin Society, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Marshal of Silesia Office. She was nominated for a Polityka Passport Award.
Bilińska has performed at many prestigious festivals in the country and abroad, including the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, the Chopin International Forum in Wrocław, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Warsaw Music Encounters, Internationale Preistrager - Junge Meister Interpreten in Landshut, Festival du Vigan in Paris, Festival de Musique Classique et Moderne in Issoire, and Festival Chopin à Paris. She has given recitals and symphonic concerts in most of the philharmonic halls in Poland. She performed in Austria, Argentina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Slovakia, the United States and Japan. On 18th October, 2003, she made her debut at Carnegie Hall with a recital in the main hall of Isaac Stern Auditorium.
She has been recorded by the Polish Radio and Polish Television. Her phonographic body of work includes: the Japanese composers piano concertos (IMC 1994), Sergei Rachmaninov’s Preludes, Etudes-tableaux, Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 36 (DUX, 2003), Ludwig van Beethoven’s II and V-Piano Concerto, recorded with the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra - both albums were nominated for the Fryderyk Award (Polish Radio, 2003, 2004), Krzysztof Penderecki’s compositions recorded with violinist Patrycja Piekutowska - Pizzicato Supersonic Award in Luxembourg (DUX, 2005), Fryderyk Chopin’s compositions, works by Polish contemporary composers for violin and piano - Pizzicato Supersonic Award (DUX, 2006), Krzysztof Penderecki’s Zmartwychwstanie/ Resurrection piano concerto with the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer - Pizzicato Supersonic Award and MIDEM Classical Award in Cannes (DUX, 2007), and Alexander Tansman: From Trio to Octet (the Alexander Tansman Association for the Promotion of Culture, 2008).
Beata Bilińska is an associate professor at the Academy of Music in Katowice. She also leads master courses in Poland and abroad.
Artist's website: www.bilinska.pl.
Author: Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska, Polish Music Information Centre, Association of Polish Composers, December 2006, update: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Association of Polish Composers, July 2010, transl. GS, January 2015