Zofia Rabcewicz

Early life and education Rabcewicz was born in Vilnius, then part of the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire, on 7 October 1870 to Amilia and Kazimierz Poznański. to study piano under Anton Rubinstein,

Rabcewicz began teaching as a distinguished professor at the Warsaw Conservatory and the Wysocki School of Music in 1922. She was the only woman on the fourteen-member jury in 1927. In September 1935, she sailed for New York aboard the MS Piłsudski on the liner's maiden transatlantic crossing, traveling with her son-in-law Aleksander Leszczyński, the managing director of the shipping line that operated the vessel. Her diaries from the voyage are held by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. Her hands are seen playing the Revolutionary etude in a scene where Lena Żelichowska acts as the pianist Maria.

World War II and later years

During the occupation of Poland, she gave more than 60 underground concerts. She appeared there alongside Henryk Sztompka. She gave her last performance, a recital of Chopin for the Polish Radio, on 2 July 1947.

Recordings

Étude Op. 10, No. 12, Chopin, soundtrack for the film Róża (1936) Ballade No. 2, Chopin, Muza XL 0157- 0160 (1932) She was also the great-grandmother of Polish writer .