Frances Borowsky and Julia Kisielewska have the grueling schedule of most music majors at Towson University, but the pair also has the awards to show for it.

Borowsky, a junior, and Kisielewska, a senior, took home awards from the Baltimore Music Club last month.

The pair will perform at a free recital with the other winners on Sunday, April 11 at Peabody Preparatory’s Towson campus.

The awards came with scholarships for the two cellists, who are both lifelong musicians.

Both are frequent performers at Towson, making the award one more feather in their caps. For the award, both had to perform four pieces from four different musical styles.

‘They wanted to hear all pieces from different styles to see how we played each,’ Kisielewska said.

They got the results back the same day.

Borowsky and Kisielewska received awards in the student age and senior age string categories, respectively. Both cellists are accomplished beyond their years.

Borowsky grew up in a very musical family; her siblings are acclaimed musicians, she performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall when she was just 12 years old, and entered Towson University at 15.

Her mother is Towson cello professor Cecylia Barczyk.

Borowsky said her musical upbringing motivated her to achieve.

‘I guess there’s always this wanting to reach perfection, seeing how much further you can get because you’re always exposed to different musicians in the area or around the world,’ Borowsky said. ‘They’re all models to live up to.’

Kisielewska is one of them. Raised in Poland, she is the daughter of musicians and has been studying cello since she was seven.

‘I didn’t really move. I just came here to study with Professor Barczyk,’ Kisielewska said.

Barczyk, for her part, is ecstatic about the win.

‘I was so happy and really, I did not expect anything because it’s open to all students,’ she said. ‘There’s always this quiet competition between institutions, so you never know in competitions who might be the winner.’

For both musicians, there’s an aspect of conquering something outside their element. Kisielewska comes from Poland, and Borowsky, only 17, is beating older musicians from places such as the venerable Peabody Institute.

The age difference doesn’t seem to matter to Borowsky, who hinted that she might be working on a master’s degree before she even reaches drinking age.

‘You don’t really notice the different age with Frances. Frances is very mature,’ Kisielewska said, with a laugh.

Barczyk said that being her daughter doesn’t necessarily give Borowsky an edge, though certainly it makes things different when the person telling her to practice is the same one telling her to clean her room.

‘It’s not that I make an effort to regularly spend more time with her. But when she needs it, yes, I’m definitely there, so yes it could be an advantage you could say. But I do the same with other students,’ she said, explaining the ‘open-door policy’ she keeps with students.

The pair practiced several songs of different styles for the March audition, but the hardest part of preparing for the Sunday recital, however, is picking one to play.

‘We can only play eight minutes in the recital, so of course we had to figure out what to choose and now it’s just keeping … that piece in our fingers and making it even better,’ Borowsky said.

The recital will be held at Peabody Preparatory’s Towson campus at 949 Dulaney Valley Rd. on Sunday at 3 p.m.