Jarosław Pietrzak graduated with honours from the Henryk Wieniawski Secondary School of Music in Łódź. He continued his study of music in the violin class under Prof. Zenon Brzewski at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He is a prizewinner of the Young Violinists Festival in Lublin and the Karol Szymanowski Chamber Music Competition in Łódź. He perfected his skills and abilities at numerous master courses under outstanding violin teachers and virtuosi, including: Jean Fournier, Irena Dubiska, Wolfgang Marschner, Oleg Krysa, Renato de Barbieri and Zakhar Bron.

After graduating from university, he became a member of the Polish Chamber Orchestra and the orchestra Sinfonia Varsovia. With those ensembles, he has made many CD and TV recordings, performed in a majority of European countries, as well as in Argentina, Brazil, Japan and the US. He also participated in the world tour of Menuhin Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. For a time, he cooperated with L’Orchestre National de Chambre de Toulouse. After a year-long stay in France, he returned to Poland to become the leader and one of the founders of Wrocław Chamber Orchestra ‘Vratislavia’. With the ensemble, he has made numerous CD recodings. He was also behind the idea to create the Wrocław Chamber Music Festival ‘Evening at the Arsenal’.

Jarosław Pietrzak also frequently performs as a soloist or a chamber musician. He has given concerts in Germany, the UK, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil and the USA. He has played in numerous prestigious concert halls, including Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, City Hall in Glasgow, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, National Forum of Music in Wrocław, and the Royal Castle in Warsaw. On many occasions he has performed at the Musique et Amitie Festival in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, as well as at various festivals in Poland, such as Forum Musicum, Arsenal Nights, Warsaw Music Encounters, Musica Polonica Nova, Musica Electronica Nova, May with Early Music, the Henryk Wieniawski International Festival at Szczawno-Zdrój.

Among Jarosław Pietrzak’s artistic interests is contemporary and baroque music. His output includes the CD entitled ‘Polish Violin Duos’ (DUX, 2002), recorded with the violinist Bartłomiej Nizioł, which features works written by contemporary Polish composers. The CD was nominated for Fryderyk – a prestigious Polish music award. He has also recorded concertos by baroque composers, with the trumpet player Igor Cecocho as a soloist, conducting the Wrocław Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra as its leader (DUX, 2010).

Since 2010, Jarosław Pietrzak has been performing with the pianist Julita Przybylska-Nowak. One of the first duo concerts was in 2010, at the Righteous Among the Nations medal award ceremony, which is held by the Yad Vashem Institute. Since its establishment, the duo has made numerous first world and Polish recordings. The pianist Julita Przybylska-Nowak and the violinist Jarosław Pietrzak have performed together at many music festivals in Poland. Those include the Felix Mendelssohn Music Days in Cracow, the Simcha Festival in Wrocław, Singer’s Warsaw Festival, the Felix Mendelssohn Festival at Duszniki-Zdrój, the Mazel Tov Festival, the Henryk Wieniawski International Festival at Szczawno-Zdrój, and the May with Early Music Festival. The duo have presented works by Polish composers of Jewish descent at the Jewish Community Center in Warsaw, the Jewish Historical Institute and during events as part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Jarosław Pietrzak is a professor of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, where he has taught the violin since 1994, and has been the Head of the Chair of String Instruments since 2016. Under his supervision, Christoph Polonek, the leader of the Berlin Philharmonic (Berliner Philharmoniker), and Tomasz Tomaszewski, a professor at Universität der Künste in Berlin, obtained their Doctor of Music degrees. For his artistic and teaching achievements, Jarosław Pietrzak has been awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit (2012) and the Silver Cross of Merit (2018).

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