Zalesińska was born on 25th February, 1978 in Warsaw. She graduated from the Academy of Music in Łódź (2006), as well as from post-graduate studies at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna (2008) – both with honours. She also studied song performance at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, under Udo Reinemann. She has moreover graduated from art history at Warsaw University.
Lilianna Zalesińska has won vocal competitions in Poland and abroad, including the First Prize in the International Singing Competition in Germany (Cologne/Sankt Augustin, 2011), where she was accompanied by Piotr Szymanowicz. One of her recitals in Germany took place under the patronage of the world-renowned singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She has performed at numerous festivals and music events in Poland and other countries, including the Łódź of Four Cultures Festival, which she opened with the pianist Maciej Grzybowski, 50th Music Festival in Łańcut, Forum Musicum, Adam Didur Festival, Chanterelle Festival in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Rossini Festival, as well as during the Max Reger Tage in Germany, Les Heures Romantiques in France, International Izmir Festival in Turkey, and St. Christopher Festival in Lithuania. She has also performed in Istanbul, as a guest of the Boğaziçi University, during the Polish Days in Vienna, at the Polish Salon in Prague, during the opening ceremony of the Chamber Music Academy in France, and on the Independence Day in Helsinki.
The artist has appeared in concerts commemorating the Haydn Year in France, Chopin Year (two recitals as part of the cycle 200 Concerts for the 200th Anniversary of F. Chopin's Birthday), Mahler Year in Poland (for instance in the Resurrection Symphony conducted by Tadeusz Wojciechowski), and in Wagner Year in Berlin. Her appearance in Vienna was the closing event of the Lutosławski Year in Austria. She also sang in a recital dedicated to Béla Bartók's oeuvre, upon an invitation from the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw. In 2014, on the occasion of the Panufnik Year, she presented the composer's vocal compositions in Poland and Finland, where she was also the first person to perform Roxanna Panufnik's compositions in the country. She gave a recital in Warsaw to mark the 100th Anniversary of Andrzej Panufnik's birthday, in the presence of Lady Camilla Panufnik and her son Jeremi Panufnik.
The artist took part in performances of many contemporary music pieces, also including world premieres, at events organised by the ISCM on the Vienna's stages of Konzerthaus and Haus der Musik (Festival für junge zeitgenössische Musik, Komponistinnen Marathon, Jeunesse Österreich), and others. She opened the Warsaw Autumn festival twice – with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic Orchestra, with Pierre-André Valade and Pascal Rophé as conductors. She was also invited to the SIMN Festival in Bucharest, where she gave a recital as part of the Prestigious Guest concert series. She also sang at the Poznań Music Spring and several times during the Musica Moderna session in Łódź. She performed world premieres of pieces by composers from Poland, China, Belgium, Romania, and Lithuania. She had songs dedicated especially for her composed by, among others, Alicja Gronau, Olga Hans, Monika Kędziora, Artur Zagajewski, and Dai Bo.
Her opera debut was in Ottone by Georg Friedrich Händel, directed by Harry Kupfer (Chamber Opera in Rheinsberg). The performance was dubbed the artistic event of the season. As a result of that success, the singer was invited to sing the lead part in the first staging of Giovanni Balducci's opera Boabdil – Re di Granata since 1827 (Bad Wildbad, Germany). She also performed in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in Vienna and in Schlafes Bruder by Herbert Willi at Neue Oper in Vienna. Her most recent appearance is in The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten at the Castle Opera in Szczecin, Poland.
Lilianna Zalesińska has received art scholarships from the Italian Ministry of Culture and from the Dr. Robert and Lina Thyll-Dürr Foundation in Switzerland, which focuses on supporting musical talents.
Sources: artist's materials; April 2016, transl. AM, June 2016