JURY 2026
Professor of art in the artistic discipline of conducting. Rector of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. In addition, head of the Postgraduate Studies in Choral Conducting and Voice Emission at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz and vocal consultant for the “Opera Nova” Choir in Bydgoszcz. Since 1993, she has been a lecturer at the Polonia Choral Conductors’ Study within the Polonia Choral Academy in Koszalin. She has conducted seminars and choral workshops for conductors and choirs in Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, Australia and Mexico. In 1981 she founded the “Canzona” Girls’ Choir in Murowana Goślina, and in 2001 the “Canzona-Absolwent” Female Choir. Currently, she leads the female ensemble, and has artistic and substantive supervision over the girls’ choir led by Dr. Adrianna Wtorkowska-Kubinska. With the “Canzona” choirs, she has given concerts in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic in Slovakia in Hungary, Lithuania, Finland, Austria, Ukraine, England, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy. He is the initiator and artistic director of the Rev. Edmund Szymanski International Choral Festival in Murowana Goślina, which has been held annually since 2007. He guest lectures at seminars for vocalists, teachers and choral conductors in Poland and abroad.
Conductor, choirmaster, educator, and professor of musical arts in the artistic discipline of conducting. Honored three times (in 2000, 2003, and 2015) with the Mayor of Toruń Award for exceptional achievements. In 2001, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage awarded her the Badge for Merit to Culture, in 2017 the Bronze Medal “Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis” (Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis), and in 2021 an Honorary Diploma from the Minister. In 2018, she was awarded the Silver Medal for Long Service by the President of the Republic of Poland. She has also received Individual Awards from the Rector of the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (2nd degree in 2013 and 1st degree in 2021) and over a dozen Awards from the Director of the Music Schools Complex in Toruń between 1997 and 2024.
She conducts academic and teaching activities at the Faculty of Conducting, Jazz, Church Music, and Music Education at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where she has been the Head of the Department of Choral Studies and Music Education since 2024. She leads, among others, the conducting class and the Academic Choir. She is the conductor of the “Gioia di Cantare” Children’s Choir and the “Semper Iuvenes” Youth Choir at the Music Schools Complex in Toruń, as well as the co-founder and conductor of the “Akolada” Chamber Choir in Bydgoszcz.
She is the author of publications related to choral singing, covering topics such as the relationship between word and music, the sacred in music, and working with children’s choirs. As a speaker, she participates in national and international academic conferences dedicated to choral music. She has also been the director and organizer of national academic conferences at her home university. She conducts lectures and workshops for conductors and choral ensembles and serves as a jury member for choral competitions in Poland and abroad. She is a consultant for the Center for Artistic Education, Vice-President of the Board of the Akolada Chamber Choir Association, and the initiator, artistic, and organizational director of the “Musica in Urbe” National Choral Competition and Festival in Bydgoszcz, promoting the works of local composers. For many years, she was a member of the Artistic Council of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian branch of the Polish Choirs and Orchestras Association, where she currently serves as Artistic Director.
With her ensembles, she has performed over 700 concerts in Poland and abroad—including in Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece, Norway, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Morocco, and South Korea—promoting Polish choral music worldwide. In addition to hundreds of a cappella works, including many premieres and compositions dedicated to her, she has prepared dozens of vocal-instrumental works in collaboration with renowned orchestras (e.g., Pomeranian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Cappella Bydgostiensis, Toruń Symphony Orchestra, Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra).
She has won approximately 200 prestigious awards and distinctions at choral festivals and competitions, including over 20 Grand Prix titles in cities such as Ostrów Wielkopolski, Barczewo, Międzyzdroje, Malcesine (Italy), Cattolica (Italy), Eišiškės (Lithuania), Bydgoszcz, Toruń, Szczecin (2016, 2025), Lublin, Kielno, and Palermo (Italy 2025). Her interpretations have received dozens of special awards for the best performances and excellent choral sound. She has received about 40 individual awards, including over 20 Best Conductor Awards at national and international choral competitions (e.g., in Malcesine, Venice, Cattolica, Barczewo, Chełmno, Toruń, Lublin, Szczecin, Lucca, and Palermo).
She was born in Poprad, Slovakia, and currently lives in Barcelona. She graduated in Music Education and Biology from the University of Prešov and completed Postgraduate Choirmaster Studies at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. She completed her doctoral studies in conducting at the Academy of Music in Kraków. She has participated in numerous conducting courses in Spain, France, Hungary, and Slovakia. She made her conducting debut at the age of 14, leading the Effatha Choir in Šuňava. She is the conductor of the mixed choirs: Cor Polifònic Sagrada Família de Barcelona, Singfonia, Unió Coral Centre i Energia de la Roca del Vallès, Orfeó Joventut Terrassenca, Cor de Creu Roja de Barcelona, Tremolo Vocal Ensemble, Cor Alegre, Cor Pandamia de la Universitat de Barcelona; the women’s choir Cor Alleluia de Tarragona, and the Orchestra Tremolo. She is a co-founder and one of five conductors of the international REVOICE International Vocal Ensemble, with which she performs in numerous European cities – Brussels, Berlin, Milan (EXPO 2015), Pécs, Graz, Barcelona, and Novi Sad. The REVOICE International Ensemble is also an ambassador choir for EUROPA CANTAT. Lucia Bérešová collaborates with the Chamber Choir of the Mińsk Music Society in Mińsk Mazowiecki. With her choirs, she performs secular and sacred a cappella music, as well as vocal-instrumental works such as the “Highlander Mass” by T. Maklakiewicz, “Mass in C major, KV 258” by W. A. Mozart, “Gloria in D major, RV 589” by A. Vivaldi, “Requiem in D minor, Op. 48” by G. Fauré, and “The Magic Flute, KV 620” by W. A. Mozart.
Graduate of the Academy of Art in Szczecin in the instrumental department in the violin class and music education – conducting faculty.
For years, she has been extremely involved in the activity and development of her band Cherry Daiquiri, in which she is the vocalist and violinist, and with which she identifies herself, setting new aesthetics and style in popular music. Thanks to her charismatic personality and original image, which is also a reflection of her individual creative style, she and her band have been recognised by becoming Ambassadors of Szczecin. She represents the city at home and abroad giving concerts in the Czech Republic, Germany, France and England. Her achievements include numerous artistic activities, concerts, participation in festivals in increasingly interesting and avant-garde concert performances. In July 2017, she won the award for the best vocalist and instrumentalist at the Mira Kubasińska Festival in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, promoting the album ‘Phlebotomy Blues’. The album was patronised by the City of Szczecin and co-financed by Szczecin institutions and companies. She created and disseminated the idiom of the feature concert, one of the most spectacular scenes of which took place during the concert entitled ‘Where no strawberries grow, i.e. beyond good and evil’ in Trafostacja Sztuki. She was promoted on London alternative radio. Winner of the Winter Song Exchange in Opole, the ‘NGO Picnic’ and the Łęczyce Festival. Organisational director of the International Musical Struggles of Seniors and, from 2019, of the Szczecin International Passion Music Festival 2019, the West Pomeranian Choral Workshops in Kołobrzeg, coordinator of international Erasmus + projects.