She completed music studies at two faculties at the Academy of Music in Warsaw: Theory of Music (with a dissertation titled Polska muzyka organowa XVI wieku na tle ówczesnej muzyki europejskiej / Polish 16th Century Pipe Organ Music in the Context of European Music of That Time, supervised by Prof. Jerzy Erdman) and Organ Playing (in Prof. Andrzej Chorosiński’s class), as well as graduate studies in clavichord (Prof. Menno van Delft) and organ playing (Prof. Pieter van Dijk) at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She took lessons in harpsichord playing from Prof. Urszula Bartkiewicz and Prof. Danuta Kleczkowska. She participated in master classes in organ playing and improvisation led by Guy Bovet, Marie-Claire Alain, Peter Bares, Christopher Stembridge, and Władysław Kłosiewicz.
Clavichord
In 2006, Acte Prealable released her début triple album with recordings of melodies collected from the 1768 hymnal of the Poor Clares monastery in Stary Sącz. It constituted the first Polish recording of clavichord music. Maria Erdman teaches clavichord at the Kraków Academy of Music.
She is also an advocate of adding contemporary music to clavichord repertoire. In April 2008, at the concert of the AMFC Composition Department, Maria Erdman played Aleksander Kościów’s clavichord composition Deux Hommages dedicated to her.
Pipe organ
She teaches pipe organ playing at the Frederic Chopin State School of Music in Warsaw and conducts classes in organ and clavichord playing, as well as basso continuo courses as part of Academia Narolense Summer School and Academia Bydgostiensis Summer Methodical Early Music Courses. She collaborates with the International Summer Early Music Academy in Wilanów.
Concerts
Maria Erdman plays concerts at music festivals in Poland and abroad, as a soloist on clavichord and pipe organ, as well as a chamber musician in the basso continuo parts on harpsichord and organ. Her special focus includes early and Romantic music – including Polish music. In 2006, she played a recital at St. Cecilia Hall in Edinburgh, in which she included, among others, Polish organ compositions from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Since 2005, she has been collaborating with Benedek Csalog, a prominent traverso flute virtuoso and a recognised authority in the field of performing early music. In 2006, Maria Erdman was invited to play concerts with Konstanty Andrzej Kulka.
Theory of music and popularising efforts
Maria Erdman combines her on-stage practice with theoretical activity. She edited a publication of selected organ compositions by Mieczysław Surzyński, took part in works on the Italian edition of Fiori Musicali by Girolamo Frescobaldi, and on the publication of Polska Muzyka Klawiszowa z Wydawnictwa Józefa Elsnera na klawesyn lub fortepian (Polish Keyboard Music from Józef Elsner’s Label for harpsichord or piano), edited by Urszula Bartkiewicz. She actively participates in academic conferences in Poland and other countries. Her articles appear in expert magazines (De Clavichordio and Muzyka published by the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences) and popular ones (Ruch Muzyczny and Muzyka21).
Sources: press materials