Halina Czerny-Stefańska (1922–2001) was a Polish pianist born in Kraków who studied with Alfred Cortot, Józef Turczyński and Zbigniew Drzewiecki. She shared First Prize with Bella Davidovich at the 1949 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, also winning the Polish Radio prize for the best performance of Chopin’s mazurkas, which launched her major international career. She performed throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia, both as a soloist and with leading orchestras, and her repertoire ranged from Bach to 20th-century music, with a particular emphasis on Chopin and the Romantic repertoire; she also recorded Mozart, Beethoven, Paderewski, Szymanowski and Zarębski. She later taught at the Poznań Academy of Music and Tokyo University of the Arts and gave masterclasses internationally.
