Ewa Osińska studied piano at the National Higher School of Music (now the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music) from 1960 to 1965, graduating in the class of Professor Zbigniew Drzewiecki. Studying with Professor Ryszard Bakst gave her a thorough understanding of the music and aesthetics of the Romantic era. The pianist also attended consultations with Professor Jadwiga Sukiennicka. From 1960 to 1963, she studied French philology at the University of Warsaw.
From 1968 to 1972, Osińska studied at the Conservatoire Européen in Paris under Professor Vlado Perlemuter, an expert in the works of Ravel and Debussy. She graduated from the Paris Conservatoire with honours and received the Prix d’Excellence diploma. At the same time, she won top prizes at international piano competitions in Naples and in Jaén, Spain, where she also received a special prize for her interpretation of Spanish music. Spanish music was an important element in her later recordings and recitals.
Ewa Osińska has given concerts in the concert halls of Europe, Asia, America and Oceania. She has performed at venues including the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Pleyel, Châtelet, Théâtre du Rond-Point, Radio France, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Auditorium RAI in Turin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Dvořák Hall in Prague, Filharmónia Magyarország in Budapest, Rachmaninoff Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the concert halls of Kyoto, Sapporo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Tokushima, Beijing Concert Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York, and in Washington, DC.
The pianist has collaborated with many orchestras, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Lamoureux, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. She has played under the baton of eminent conductors such as Jerzy Semkow, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Michel Plasson, Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Hideomi Kuroiwa, Tezuka Yukinori, Jacek Kaspszyk, Wojciech Michniewski, Jerzy Katlewicz, Mariusz Smolij, Jerzy Swoboda, Bruno Apprea, Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, Barry Wordsworth, Árpád Gérecz, Vasil Kazanjev, Marin Goleminow and Paul Kuentz.
She gave concerts with the outstanding singer Teresa Żylis-Gara, and they appeared together in France and Spain, performing works by Édouard Lalo, Gabriel Fauré, Henri Duparc, Antonín Dvořák and Fryderyk Chopin. In 2004, she performed a gala Chopin recital at the Victoria Hall in London to celebrate Poland’s entry into the European Union.
Notable festivals at which Ewa Osińska has performed include Festival International Echternach in Luxembourg, the Sala Beethoven Festival in Monterrey, Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato, International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, London Chopin Festival, and Nohant Festival Chopin.
Ewa Osińska is a juror at many international piano competitions around the world, including in Spain, China, Japan, Russia, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Poland. She conducts masterclasses in Europe and Asia.
The pianist gave the French premiere of the Piano Sonata Op. 12 No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and she also performed it at London’s Wigmore Hall and the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. Osińska recorded Shostakovich’s work on albums for Radio Suisse Romande and Polskie Nagrania. She used the original Russian score from the 1920s given to her by Professor Ryszard Bakst. She also brought Karol Szymanowski’s Piano Sonata No. 1 to Paris audiences, playing it at the Musée d’Orsay in 1996.
In Paris, she met and became friends with Aleksander Tansman, a composer who spent most of his life in France. As president of the Association of Polish Artist Musicians in Paris, the pianist contributed to the organisation of the centenary celebrations of Tansman’s birth. In 2020, she recorded two Nocturnes and four Mazurkas by the composer for Polish Television. Tomasz Sikorski dedicated the piece Euphonia to Ewa Osińska, premiered by the artist at the Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea de Alicante. During the same concert, she also performed music by Zygmunt Krauze. Other musical friends of the pianist included Artur Rubinstein and Henryk Szeryng, with whom she maintained close and regular contact.
At the Sony Classical studios in London, Osińska made the world’s first piano recording of Frédéric Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise in C major, Op. 3. The score was provided to Osińska by Jan Weber, a musicologist and music critic. The piece was included on the album Chopin: Chamber Music, released in 1994, featuring Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma and Pamela Frank. The pianist was instrumental in the purchase of Chopin’s correspondence for the NIFC by Mark Keller, art dealer and collector, a friend of Osińska’s.
She recorded Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s four piano concertos (with the Polish Chamber Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk) on Polskie Nagrania. The same label also released Ewa Osińska’s own album Portret, featuring compositions by Bach, Shostakovich and Chopin. The artist has also recorded albums for the French Cassiopée label and the American Columbia Records. The CD dictionary published by the French music magazine Diapason singled out her set of 58 Chopin Mazurkas, and also recommended her interpretations of Chopin’s Waltzes and Polonaises.
In 1997, in Paris, Osińska was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of the Republic of Poland. The pianist also received the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis, one of Poland’s highest cultural honours, as well as the French honours l'Ordre du Mérite Artistique and Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
