Artistic deputy director Rafał Janiak

 

RAFAŁ JANIAK

 

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

 

Janiak has won numerous awards in national and international music competitions, including the 1st prize in the Jan Paweł II Composition Competition in Warsaw (2007), the 3rd prize in the Musica Sacra International Composition Competition in Częstochowa (2008), an honorable mention at the 51st Tadeusz Baird National Young Composers Competition in Warsaw (2010), and he was a semi-finalist in the Conducting Competition "Donatella Flick" in London (2014). He is the winner of the opera composition competition organized by the Grand Theatre in Łódź. The jury, chaired by Prof. Krzysztof Penderecki, unanimously awarded him the Grand Prix. Additionally, he also received the Audience Award. The premiere of the opera "The Man from Manufaktura" took place in February 2019, and its outdoor version in May 2019 in the Łódź Włókniarek Square was an unprecedented event.

 

He has been a recipient of scholarships from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2007, 2012), the Mayor of Gdańsk (2005, 2009), and the Keimyung University Foundation (South Korea 2009). In 2018, he was a laureate of the "Young Poland" scholarship program and received a prestigious scholarship for an outstanding young scientist awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

 

In the 2013/14 season, Janiak was an assistant to Jacek Kaspszyk, and in the 2012/13 season to Antoni Wit at the National Philharmonic. He had the honor of assisting and collaborating with many orchestras in Poland and around the world (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, the Krakow Philharmonic, and the orchestras in Łódź, Silesia, Baltic, Lublin, Gorzów, Zielona Góra, Podkarpacie, Opole, and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot.

 

In September 2012, Rafał Janiak made his debut at the "Warsaw Autumn" festival, conducting a concert with the National Philharmonic Orchestra. During the next edition of "Warsaw Autumn" (2013), he conducted the final concert.

 

The artist's repertoire includes symphonic, concert, and oratorio works. In 2011, he made his debut as an opera conductor, leading the premiere performance of W.A. Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte." In 2014, in collaboration with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, he took artistic direction of a new production of W.A. Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. In 2017, he conducted Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" on the chamber stage of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, and in 2022, Puccini's "Suor Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi" (in collaboration with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music).

 

Since 2016, Janiak has been collaborating with the Grand Theatre in Łódź, conducting productions such as J. Strauss's "The Gypsy Baron" and Puccini's "Turandot." Since 2022, he has been collaborating with the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, conducting performances of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville."

 

Since 2017, he has been the artistic director of the newly established Chopin University Chamber Orchestra, achieving many significant successes. The ensemble has several recorded albums, with the latest nominated for the "Fryderyki 2021" award. Recently, they performed together during a tour in China, giving over 20 concerts (July 2019).

 

Currently, he works as an assistant professor at his alma mater, serving as the dean of the Symphonic-Operatic Conducting Faculty at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

Since January 2023, he has been the deputy artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Łódź, during which he has taken on musical direction in premieres such as Charles Gounod's "Faust," Krzysztof Penderecki's "Paradise Lost," and Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata."

www.rafaljaniak.com