Monika Rosca

One-time-child-starlet - as far as W pustyni i w puszczy (1973) was her the only movie role (if you don't count mini-series created from movie materials and Polish dubbing for The Water Babies (1978) British cartoon, which isn't confirmed thing for now) - half Romanian Rosca was nine when she has beaten over four thousand other girls in the casting for the role of young Nel Rawlison (she was twelve when they have finished making the movie).

After the movie's success (it remains until today the second ranked movie in Polish cinematography if you consider the number of viewers), she didn't follow acting career but got back to her elementary music school (she played at that time at piano and flute) and has followed that path.

After high school she went to the Warsaw and Lodz Academies of Music where she was awarded a master's degree in fine arts. Twice the recipient of a Fryderyk Chopin Society Scholarship, Rosca became an assistant professor at age 24 but gave up teaching to concentrate on an international career that has included concerts in Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Rumania, Russia, Korea, Indonesia and India.

She has won a number of international competitions, including the "Rina Sala Gallo" in Italy; Chamber Music and Karol Szymanowski Competitions in Lodz, Poland; "Atheneum" Piano Competition in Athens, Greece; and Milosz Magin Piano Competition in Paris, France and Fryderyk Chopin International Competition in Poland.

A Chopin devotee, Rosca delights in playing Chopin with Orchestra and often plays concerts for the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw. She has spent couple of years at the contract in Japan.

She remains until today in touch with Tomasz Medrzak, her co-star from W pustyni i w puszczy (1973). In 1975 she was rewarded with "Kvety" magazine award for that movie.