Bianka Szalaty was born in Wrocław, Poland, in 1994. She first performed with orchestra at the age of 13 – Concerto in D by Antonio Vivaldi with the Koszalin Philharmonic Orchestra; since then Bianka Szalaty has played the guitar concertos by Joaquín Rodrigo, Manuel Maria Ponce and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Currently, she is preparing for her Konzertexamen with Tomasz Zawierucha at the Folkwang Universität der Künste in Essen. She completed her Masters at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań with Łukasz Kuropaczewski. As a soloist, Bianka Szalaty has been a prizewinner at numerous international competitions – she won First prize at the 10th J.S. Bach International Guitar Competition in Tokyo, Concorso Internazionale di Chitarra ‘Alirio Diaz’ in Rome and at the International Guitar Competition Nürtingen in Germany – and has received scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and Prime Minister of Poland. She performs music by John Dowland and J.S. Bach, as well as more modern music by Leo Brouwer, Stephen Dodgson and Peteris Vasks. Bianka Szalaty has given solo and duo concerts at many international festivals in Moscow, Brno and Copenhagen. She has a duo with the lyric mezzo-soprano, Ewelina Koniec, Meninas Duo, for which she transcribes the music of Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc as well as Manuel de Falla and Karol Szymanowski.