Chair of Music Education and Eurhythmics

The history of the Chair of Music Education dates back to December 1961 when the Chair of Music Education Issues was founded. Its Head was Prof. Wincenty Laski who held this function until 1966. After him, the Chair was headed by Feliks Kośnicki, Tadeusz Maklakiewicz, Antoni Szaliński, and Maria Przychodzińska.

The name and programme of the Chair evolved along with the development and subsequent changes of names of the current Department of Choir Conducting and Choir Vocal Studies, Music Education and Rhythmics. Between 1993 and 2015, the work of the Chair was supervised by Prof. zw. dr hab. Zofia Konaszkiewicz, and between 2016 and 2020 by prof. dr hab. Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski. Since the academic year 2017/2018, the Chair has overseen the new specialty of studies – Choir Vocal Studies (2^nd cycle studies, MA-level) aimed at preparing future professional choir singers. This specialty is unique in Poland. The Chair of Music Education is a teaching and research institution. It provides content-related supervision for subjects connected with the teaching preparation of students of the Department of Choir Conducting and Choir Vocal Studies, Music Education and Rhythmics. The new version of the Chair shows its widened academic, teaching and artistic activity as the supervision covers voice production as well as theoretical music subjects.
The Chair of Music Education annually organises at least two concerts of composition and arrangement given by students of the Department of Choir Conducting and Choir Vocal Studies, Music Education and Rhythmics. Members of the Chair head research and publishing projects and they are independent artists (creators and performers), scholars (active participation in conferences/academic sessions in Poland and abroad), teachers (conducting workshops), and organisers (coordinating/conducting artistic/academic/teaching events, participation in the work of committees, juries, etc.)The Chair of Eurhythmics and Piano Improvisation was founded in 2019. Its activity is the continuation of the activity of the structures which existed before it: Émile Jaques-Dalcroze College (2003-2007), Unit of Education Methods (2007–2013) and Unit of Rhythmics and Piano Improvisation (2013-2019). The Chair conducts academic and artistic activity both within the widely understood music education and the theoretical aspect of the rhythmics method. Its research creates a wide content-related ground for the specialty called Rhythmics. The Chair also conducts research on the history of rhythmics in Poland in collaboration with the Institute of Music and Dance. One of the main tasks of the Chair is creating and monitoring a modern model of education for the specialty of Rhythmics. The Chair organises conferences with international and national range. Among the most important academic events are the conferences “Improvisation in the Dalcroze Method” (5 editions since 2011) and “Creativity in Music Education (2019). Our guests were, among others, Maria Apagyi (Hungary) and Mira Daniel (Jaques-Dalcroze Institute in Geneva). The Chair’s artistic activity is presented annually on the stage of the UMFC Concert Hall as part of the concert entitled “Music in Movement”. In 2017, Prof. Szabolcs Esztenyi, former member of the Unit of Rhythmics and Piano Improvisaion, was awarded with the title of Honorary Doctor.
On January 30, 2024, the cathedrals were officially merged.