In 1996-2001, as an assistant professor of music history and literature at the USC Thornton School of Music Dr. Trochimczyk taught different graduate and undergraduate courses, including: undergraduate music history survey, MUHL 280 B, Music from 1750 to the Present, graduate seminar in musicology, MUHL 688, Polish Identity in Music, special studies in 20th century music MUHL 588: Three East-European Composers (Bartók, Bacewicz, Lutosławski). In the Fall of 1999, she offered for the first time a new course, MUHL 428: Women in Music. In 2000 she taught Introduction to Graduate Study, MUHL 570 and a graduate music history survey, 20th Century Music, MUHL 578.

Details from personal biography: Born on 30 December 1957 in Warsaw, Poland (birth name—Maria Anna Trochimczyk, other names—Depinska, Harley), Dr. Trochimczyk is the citizen of two countries, Poland and Canada (through the marriage to Canadian composer James Harley). Her mother, Henryka Wajszczuk comes from a Polish family that lived in the part of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union after WWII and is now in Bielorus (city of Baranowicze); the family was displaced during the war and is now scattered throughout Poland and the U.S. The mother's uncle, Feliks Wajszczuk was a Roman-Catholic priest in Woskrzenice and a prisoner of the German concentration camp in Dachau during WWII Another member of the family, Karol Wajszczuk, was a priest active in the anti-German resistance (Home Army) during WWII; a prisoner of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (prisoner no. 25746), he died in the concentration camp in Dachau (as prisoner no. 22572). More information about that part of the family may be found on the Wajszczuk Family page. Dr. Trochimczyk's father, Aleksy Trochimczyk came from a Byelorussian family living in the district of Bialystok; the family has roots reaching to Ukraine and the Caucasus mountains (Georgia and/or Armenia).

In 2000 Dr. Trochimczyk returned to her family name to honor her parents, victims of a vicious and senseless crime in Poland. She likes poetry, and has three children: Marcin Depinski (b. 1979), Anna Harley-Trochimczyk (b. 1989), and Ian Harley-Trochimczyk (b. 1993).

Dr. Trochimczyk (depicted here in 1996) fascination with California's landscape propels her for walks with her strangely terrified new dog, border collie mix Barnaby. Her hobbies include gardening and filling her garden with tchotchkes (elves, birdhouses); writing and reading poetry; listening to music over and over again; and taking pictures of people and things she likes, with her children, flowers, trees, leaves and strange living patterns among the most beloved subjects. For more information go to see her Hobbies.

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Copyright 2000-2003 by Maja Trochimczyk
Updated in September 2003.