Photo Wojciech Grzędziński

jury secretary

Janusz Ostrowski

Cultural activist, educator, pianist, consultant at the Centre for Artistic Education. Creator and director of the International Piano Forum ?Bieszczady Without Borders? in Sanok. Vice-President of the Podkarpacka Fund for the Development of Culture and director of the National Training Institute based in Sanok.

In 1997, Ostrowski graduated from the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź, Faculty of Instrumental Performance, where he studied piano with Anita Krochmalska. He supplemented his education at Postgraduate Choirmaster Studies, part of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, and at the National Centre for Culture in Warsaw. He also completed postgraduate studies of education management at the University of Rzeszów.

He is the creator, director and leading light of the International Piano Forum ?Bieszczady Without Borders? in Sanok, as part of which he organises the Master School of Piano Teaching and the International Piano Competition ?Young Virtuoso?. He is also vice-president of the Podkarpacka Fund for the Development of Culture and director of the National Training Institute in Sanok. Ostrowski has been actively involved in the organisation of the Wawer Music Festival in Warsaw, the European Festival of Music Academies in Warsaw and the International Master Competition for Music Teachers in Warsaw. He has been a recurrent member of the juries of such competitions as the National Piano Festival ?Alla Pollacca? in Warsaw, the International Polish Grand Piano Music Competition-Festival Dedicated to Fryderyk Chopin in Vilnius, the Sacred Song Competition ?He Who Sings Prays Twice? in Sanok, the International Master Competition for Music Teachers in Warsaw and the Reverend Kazimierz Szwarlik International Festival of Christmas Carols and Pastorales in Będzin (preliminary round in Sanok).

He has been involved in a number of cultural activities in the city of Sanok. He founded and directed the Adoramus choir and worked as an organist at the Church of the Transfiguration in Sanok, thus contributing to the promotion of sacred music in the city. He currently teaches at the Wanda Kossakowa State Combined Schools of Music in Sanok, where he also heads the piano section. His students have received scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and have won multiple piano competitions and festivals. Ostrowski also conducts sessions of music therapy for the Group Therapy Workshops in Sanok. In recognition of his activities and accomplishments, he has been a recipient of the City of Sanok Award, the Centre for Artistic Education Director?s Award, the ?Child?s Friend? Medal from the Friends of Children Society, an honorary diploma from the Lviv National Music Academy named after Mykola Lysenko and the Bronze Medal ?For Merit to Polish Culture?.