prof. dr hab. Jarosław Pietrzak

He graduated with distinction from the Henryk Wieniawski Secondary Music School in Łódź. He continued his musical education in the violin class of Prof. Zenon Brzewski at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, graduating in 1986. He is a laureate of the Young Violinists' Festival in Lublin and the Karol Szymanowski Chamber Music Competition in Łódź. He honed his skills at numerous master classes under the guidance of distinguished teachers and violin virtuosos such as Jean Fournier, Irena Dubiska, Wolfgang Marschner, Oleg Krysa, Renato de Barbieri, and Zakhar Bron.

After graduating, he became a member of the Polish Chamber Orchestra and the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra. With these ensembles, he has made numerous CD and television recordings and performed in most European countries, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, and the USA. He also participated in the world tours of the Menuhin Festival Orchestra, conducted by Sir Yehudi Menuhin. He also collaborated with the Orchestre National de Chambre de Toulouse. After a year in France, he became concertmaster and one of the founders of the Wrocław Chamber Orchestra Wratislavia. With this ensemble, he has made numerous recordings and was also the initiator of the Wrocław Chamber Music Festival "Wieczory w Arsenale."

Jarosław Pietrzak's artistic interests also include contemporary and baroque music. His work includes the album "Polish Violin Duos" (DUX, 2002), recorded with violinist Bartłomiej Nizioł, featuring works by contemporary Polish composers. The album was nominated for a Fryderyk Award, a prestigious Polish music award. He has also recorded concertos by baroque composers, leading the Wrocław Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra as conductor and concertmaster, with trumpeter Igor Cecocho as soloist (DUX, 2010).

Since 2010, Jarosław Pietrzak has performed in a duo with pianist Julita Przybylska-Nowak. One of the duo's first concerts was a performance in 2010 at the Righteous Among the Nations medal ceremony organized by the Yad Vashem Institute. During their career, the duo has made numerous recordings, which are both world and Polish phonographic premieres. Pianist Julita Przybylska-Nowak and violinist Jarosław Pietrzak have performed at numerous music festivals in Poland, including the Felix Mendelssohn Music Days in Krakow, the Simcha Festival in Wrocław, the Singer's Warsaw Festival, and the Feliks Mendelssohn Festival. They have performed at the Felix Mendelssohn Academy of Music in Duszniki-Zdrój, the Mazel Tov Festival, the International Henryk Wieniawski Festival in Szczawno-Zdrój, and the May Festival with Early Music. They have presented Jewish music at the Jewish Community Center in Warsaw (2015), at the Jewish Historical Institute, and during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations.

Jarosław Pietrzak is a professor at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, where he has taught violin since 1994 and served as Head of the Department of String Instruments from 2016 to 2020. Under his supervision, Christoph Polonek, concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tomasz Tomaszewski, professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin, earned their doctorate in musical arts. For his artistic and pedagogical achievements, Jarosław Pietrzak was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit (2012) and the Silver Cross of Merit (2018).

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