She completed her M.A. (1994) and Ph.D. (1998) studies at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Warsaw (IMuzUW). Her doctoral dissertation, Muzyka Giovanniego Battisty Coccioli [The Music of Giovanni Battista Cocciola], on the basis of which she obtained her Ph.D. in 1999, was published as: Giovanni Battista Cocciola. Dzieła zebrane w opracowaniu Ireny Bieńkowskiej [Giovanni Battista Cocciola. Collected Works, Edited by Irena Bieńkowska], Warszawa, BelStudio, 2004. Since 2000 she has been a faculty member at the Polish Music History Unit (now the Chair of Music History) of the IMuzUW. She obtained her postdoctoral (habilitation) degree on the basis of the book Muzyka na dworze księcia Hieronima Floriana Radziwiłła [Music at the Court of Prince Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł] (Warszawa, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2013). In 2003-2007 she was the Director for Student Affairs at the IMuzUW.
Her research interests focus on the musical culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th centuries, with particular emphasis on aristocratic patronage. Her other field of academic activity is music editing. She has prepared for publication more than 40 works by musicians associated with the courts of Polish magnates and church dignitaries. She is the scientific editor of the Musica Revelata series, dedicated to critical editions of music repertoires. Since 2020 she has also been the head of the nationwide research project Słownik muzyków Rzeczpospolitej XVIII wieku [A Dictionary of Musicians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th Century], financed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education as part of “The National Programme for the Development of Humanities”
