Alena Budziňáková comes from Slovakia. She is one of the leaders of the accordion domain in her home country. Since 2009 she has permanently lived and worked in Poland, boldly breaking the stereotypes related to the origins of the accordion music and the instrument’s performance potential. She is equally successful as a solo and chamber musician, she also performs to the orchestral accompaniment. Alena did her studies at the Conservatory of Kosice (Slovakia), Academy of Music in Kraków, Wien Privatuniversitat Conservatory (Austria), and Hochschule für Musik Detmold (Germany), from where she graduated with honours from the class of Prof. Grzegorz Stopa and was awarded the Konzertexamen diploma. In 2023 she obtained a doctoral degree of Musical Arts at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk.
She lives an active international concert life, giving performances both in Poland and Slovakia, and in many other countries, such as Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Czech Republic, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, and Luxembourg. In her renditions she combines emotional charm and sensitivity with temperamental and vigorous energy. Owing to her broad horizons of artistic classical music performance, Alena’s repertoire is cross-cut and includes pieces ranging from the Baroque and up to contemporary times. Alena was a laureate at many international music competitions. She won e.g. the first prize in Pula (Croatia, 2012), Poprad (Slovakia, 2010) and Dunajska Streda (Slovakia, 2010).
In 2019, together with Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie and playing the solo part she gave the first performance of the concerto dedicated to her, written by Peter Machajdik, one of the most outstanding Slovakian composers. She also gave concerts with the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, Przemyśl Chamber Orchestra, Polish Art Philharmonic, Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria, and the ‘PANtonale PhilHARMONIKA’ Festival Orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and played at the Odessa Philharmonic Theatre, Philharmonic Hall in Kosice, Konzerthaus Detmold, Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice, in Tonhalle Düsseldorf, European Parliament in Brussels, Jesus and Mary Church in Rome, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
As a member of the critically acclaimed chamber project „Feminine forms” she performed twice at the International Festival of Contemporary Music 'Warsaw Autumn’ (2020, 2021) and at the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow (2020). Alena is invited to perform at international accordion festivals in e.g. Kiev (Ukraine), Poprad (Slovakia), Przemyśl (Poland), Ugljevik (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vilnius (Lithuania), and to sit on juries at accordion competitions.
She regularly participates in world premieres of contemporary accordion compositions written by e.g. Miłosz Bembinow, Bartosz Kowalski, Sven Ingo Koch, Peter Machajdík, Volodymyr Runchak, Kira Maidenberg-Todorova, Renāte Stivriņa, Anna Sowa, Grzegorz Majka, Maciej Zimka, Wojciech Ziemowit Zych, Żaneta Rydzewska, Marta Śniady, Paweł Sotomski, Teoniki Rożynek, Martyna Kosecka, Nina Fukuoka, Katarzyna Krzewińska, Paweł Malinowski, Paweł Sotomski, Monika Szpyrka, Miłosz Bembinow, David John Roche and Tyler Versluis. Her output also includes numerous CD albums published by Chopin University Press, DUX, Sarton Records and radio recordings for the Slovak Radio and Television, Polish Radio Rzeszów, Slovakian Radio Devin, and German radio WDR 3.
