Artistic deputy director Rafał Janiak

Composer, conductor, and educator born in 1986. He graduated with honors in conducting under the guidance of Professor Antoni Wit (2011) and also in composition (also with honors) under Professor Stanisław Moryto (2010) at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2016, he obtained a PhD in musical arts in the field of conducting, and in 2020, he received his postdoctoral degree (habilitation).

 

He has received numerous awards in national and international music competitions, including: First Prize at the Jan Paweł II Composition Competition in Warsaw (2007), Third Prize at the Fourth International Composition Competition "Musica Sacra" in Częstochowa (2008), and an honorable mention at the 51st Tadeusz Baird Young Composers' Competition in Warsaw (2010). He was also a semifinalist in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London (2014). He is the winner of the competition organized by the Grand Theatre in Łódź for the composition of the opera "The Man from Manufaktura." The jury, chaired by Professor Krzysztof Penderecki, unanimously awarded him the Grand Prix, and the composition also won the audience award. The opera premiered in 2019 at the Grand Theatre in Łódź, and its outdoor version at the Łódź Textile Workers' Market was an unprecedented event. He has twice been awarded a scholarship by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2007, 2012), the President of the City of Gdańsk (2005, 2009), and the Keimyung University Foundation (South Korea, 2009). In 2018, he became a laureate of the "Young Poland" scholarship program and received the prestigious scholarship for outstanding young scientists awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

 

He has served as an assistant to Jacek Kaspszyk and Antoni Wit at the National Philharmonic, where he also had the honor of assisting in collaboration with many orchestras in Poland and abroad (including South Korea and Spain). Rafał Janiak regularly performs with most Polish orchestras, including the National Philharmonic, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and the Philharmonics of Kraków, Łódź, Silesia, the Baltic region, Lublin, Gorzów, Zielona Góra, Podkarpacie, Opole, and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic in Sopot.

 

His repertoire includes symphonic, concert, and oratorio works. In 2011, he debuted as an opera conductor, leading the premiere performance of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte." In 2014, at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, in collaboration with the Chopin University of Music, he took on the artistic direction of Mozart's "Don Giovanni," in 2017, Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Chamber Stage of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, and in 2022, Puccini's "Sister Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi" (in collaboration with the Chopin University of Music). Since 2022, he has collaborated with the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, where he conducts performances of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville." Since 2017, he has been the artistic director of the Chopin University Chamber Orchestra, with which he has achieved many significant successes; in 2019, they toured China, giving over 20 concerts. The ensemble has recorded several albums, the latest of which was nominated for the "Fryderyk 2021" award.

 

He currently holds the position of professor at his alma mater, serving as the dean of the Faculty of Symphony and Opera Conducting at the Chopin University of Music.

 

Since January 2023, he has served as the Deputy Director for Artistic Affairs at the Grand Theatre in Łódź. During this time, as music director, he has prepared premieres of such titles as Gounod's "Faust," Penderecki's "Paradise Lost," Verdi's "La Traviata," and Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel."