Born in 1988 in Gdańsk, she started learning the violin at the age of four. In 2011 she graduated with honours from the class of Wiesław Kwaśny at the Academy of Music in Cracow. She also studied chamber music with Janina Romańska-Werner. She continued her studies with Dora Schwarzberg and subsequently with Maxim Vengerov, Ivry Gitlis, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Kolja Blacher, Petru Munteanu, and Wanda Wiłkomirska. She took part in the Keshet Eilon Violin Masterclass in Israel (2012) and the Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano (2014). She currently works as an assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Violin and Viola, Academy of Music in Cracow. In May 2015 she obtained the title of Doctor of Fine Arts.
Maria Sławek made her debut at the Polish Violin Masters festival at the age of 15, playing with the Zielona Góra Philharmonic. She has appeared at festivals such as Wawel at Dusk, Music in Old Cracow, Gdańsk Mozartiana, International Chamber Music Festival in Charente, Emanations Festival organised by the European Krzysztof Penderecki Centre for Music, Summer Concerts in Grochowska St. held by Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra, as well as the International Festival of Cracow Composers.
Since 2007 she has played in a duo with Piotr Różański. In 2012 the Castello Concert and Publishing Agency released the duo’s debut CD with sonatas by Schumann and Prokofiev. At present the duo is working on a CD of sonatas by Mieczysław Weinberg, to be released in 2015 by CD Accord. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed throughout Poland as well as in Germany, Israel, Italy, France, Great Britain, Brazil, Belgium, Ukraine, and the United States.
In 2003–6 she held a scholarship from the Polish Children’s Fund. In 2007 she received the Jerzy Katlewicz Award for the best Cracow Music Academy students. In 2009 she obtained a scholarship from the Sapere Auso foundation and in 2010 and 2013, from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2011 she was granted the Mayor of Cracow Scholarship for Young Artists and a Grazella Foundation scholarship. She is also a winner of the Georg Solti Foundation Award.
