Marek Pijarowski - born in Wrocław. During his education in the High School of Music he mastered playing several instruments, including the piano (as the main one), violin, oboe and organ. He graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Wrocław with Tadeusz Strugała and completed his conducting studies in 1971-1973 at the International Music Courses in Weimar, working under the supervision of the excellent Latvian conductor Arvid Jansons.  In 1977 he received a scholarship from the Austrian government and stayed in Vienna for 9 months, improving his skills with Professor Carl Oesterreicher at the famous Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. During this time, he had the opportunity to experience directly the art of conducting and to meet personally such masters of the baton as: Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Georg Solti or Claudio Abbado. He started his full-time work in 1974 as the assistant conductor of the Wrocław Philharmonic. The same year, in December, he took part in the 2nd Polish Conducting Competition in Katowice, where (being the youngest participant) he won the 1st prize and a special prize of the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. This success resulted in numerous invitations to many philharmonic institutions, e.g. the Warsaw National Philharmonic and the National Symphonic Orchestra of Polish Radio in Katowice.

In 1975 he took a position of the second conductor of Wrocław Philharmonic and in 1980 he was promoted head and artistic director of this institution, which he led till 2002. He was also the artistic director of the Duszniki International Chopin Piano Festival (Poland) and the first conductor of the Cracow Philharmonic. During years 1980-2000 he was the artistic director of the Polish Contemporary Music Festival in Wrocław and from 2002 to 2005 the artistic director of the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic. Currently he is the Chief Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

For almost 50 years, he has been continuously active as a conductor, performing with all philharmonic and radio orchestras in Poland. He has also conducted numerous concerts with Polish ensembles abroad, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic (Germany), the National Symphonic Orchestra of Polish Radio (Spain, France), the Cracow Philharmonic (France), Sinfonia Varsovia (Spain), the Łódź Philharmonic (Italy, Spain) and a number of tours with the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, including Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. He has made many archival recordings for the Polish Radio. He has cooperated closely with the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro and the Texas Music Festival in Houston (USA), as well as with the Presidential Orchestra in Ankara.

Marek Pijarowski’s conducting art could be known to music lovers in most European countries as well as in Egypt, Israel, Canada, China, the USA, Mexico, South Korea and Cuba.

In 1997, he obtained the title of professor of musical art from the President of Poland. For many years he has been affiliated with the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, where he is a professor. He holds a conducting class, at the same time being the Head of the Chair of Conducting and, previously, the Deputy Rector of the Academy. He is the initiator, artistic director and chairman of the Jury of the National Competition for Students of Conducting organised by the Academy of Music in Wrocław every three years. In 2006-2019, he was also professor of conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Many of his alumni hold leading positions in music institutions in Poland and abroad.

Marek Pijarowski has been a supervisor or reviewer of many doctoral theses, habilitation proceedings, proceedings for obtaining the title of professor of musical arts, as well as a laudator or a reviewer in the proceedings for obtaining the doctor honoris causa title of Polish music academies for outstanding masters of baton, among others: Jerzy Semkow, Tadeusz Strugała, Gabriel Chmura, Helmut Riling, Neville Marriner, Joshua Rifkin, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kurt Masur and Stanisław Skrowaczewski.

He has repeatedly chaired the Jury of the Witold Lutosławski International Review of Young Conductors in Białystok. He is also a Jury member of the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Katowice.

He was honoured, among others, with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis.

In 2021 Marek Pijarowski will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his artistic activity.