Polish pianist of Bulgarian origin. Graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Gdansk, in prof.Zbigniew Sliwinski’s piano class . She continued education in 1974-75 as a holder of Austrian government scholarship in Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Vienna in class of Alexander Jenner. Her piano qualities were perfected during masterclasses with Suzanne Roche, Dieter Zechlin and Georgy Sebok.
She is a laureate of 4. All-polish Festival of Young Musicians in Gdansk (1974), semi-finalist of The Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition (1975), International Piano Competition “Alessandro Casagrande” Terni, Italy(1975), and ARD Competition in Munich(1978).
Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron performs inland and abroad – in Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria, Austria and Japan. Her repertoire includes compositions from baroque to present day – with particular emphasis on works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy. She made debut performances of Polish modern works, this includes Konrad Palubicki’s 4. Piano Concert played with Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Wojciech Czepiel.
She also appears as a chamber musician with renowned soloists and bands (Urszula Krygier, Piotr Kusiewicz, Stefan Popow, Camerata quartet) and formed piano duets with Waldemar Wojtal (1985-92) and Jan Kulesza (1979-83).
Since 1980 Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron has been working as a pedagog. She is a piano class professor in the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where she is also the director of piano faculty. Her pupils and students won awards in numerous all-polish and international competitions. This list includes Rafal Blechacz – the winner of ther first prize in The Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition 2005 and the Polish finalist Pawel Wakarecy in the XVI th FCIPC
She has participated repeatedly as jury member of all-polish and international competitions. For her artistic and pedagogic activity she received many awards and state honours.