Artistic deputy director Rafał Janiak

Composer, conductor, and educator born in 1986. Since 2023, he has served as Deputy Artistic Director of the Grand Theatre in Łódź, and since 2024, as Vice-Rector for Artistic Affairs at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

 

He began his conducting career in 2011, making his debut at a diploma concert with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Continuing his collaboration with the institution in 2012–2013, he served as assistant conductor, working with Antoni Wit, Jacek Kaspszyk, and many distinguished guest conductors. During this period, he also led numerous concerts, including the finale of the “Warsaw Autumn” Festival in 2013.

 

He launched his operatic career with a production of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” in 2011. Since then, in cooperation with the Chopin University of Music, he has prepared and conducted new productions of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (Warsaw Chamber Opera), Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” and Puccini’s “Suor Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi” (Polish National Opera). He has also conducted productions of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” (Baltic Opera in Gdańsk), as well as numerous titles at the Grand Theatre in Łódź, including Puccini’s “Turandot,” Bizet’s “Carmen,” Strauss’s “The Gypsy Baron,” Moniuszko’s “The Haunted Manor,” and Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” among others.

 

As music director, he has prepared premieres of Gounod’s “Faust,” Penderecki’s “Paradise Lost” — awarded the Jan Kiepura Theatre Music Awards for, among others, Best Production, and nominated for the International Classical Music Awards for its DVD recording — as well as Verdi’s “La Traviata,” Berlioz’s “Roméo et Juliette,” Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” and Puccini’s “La Bohème.” At the institution, he also initiated the Puccini Festival and the “Concert with a Star” series, featuring artists such as Pretty Yende, Francesco Demuro, and Aleksandra Kurzak.

 

He has collaborated with many leading Polish orchestras, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and the philharmonics of Kraków, Łódź, Silesia, the Baltic, Lublin, Gorzów, Zielona Góra, the Subcarpathian region, Opole, and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot. He regularly performs both in Poland and abroad, conducting symphonic and oratorio concerts.

 

He graduated with distinction in conducting under Professor Antoni Wit (2011) and in composition under Professor Stanisław Moryto (2010) at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2016, he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting, followed by a habilitation degree in 2020. He currently holds the position of university professor.

 

From 2019 to 2024, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Symphonic and Operatic Conducting, and since 2024, he has been Head of the Department of Symphonic and Operatic Conducting. For his academic and artistic achievements, he has received numerous scholarships, including those from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2007, 2012), the Mayor of Gdańsk (2005, 2009), the Keimyung University Foundation (South Korea, 2009), the “Young Poland” program, and the prestigious scholarship for outstanding young scientists awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

 

Between 2017 and 2024, he was Artistic Director of the Chopin University Chamber Orchestra, with which he toured internationally, including a concert tour of China in 2019. Under his direction, the ensemble recorded several albums, some of which were nominated for the “Fryderyk” Award. His artistic output includes over a dozen CD and DVD recordings made with prominent Polish ensembles.

 

His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including First Prize at the John Paul II Composition Competition in Warsaw (2007), Third Prize at the International “Musica Sacra” Composition Competition in Częstochowa (2008), and a distinction at the Tadeusz Baird National Competition for Young Composers in Warsaw (2010). He was also a semifinalist in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London (2014).

 

A particularly significant achievement is his opera “The Manufaktura Man,” which won the Grand Prize in a competition organized by the Grand Theatre in Łódź. The jury, chaired by Professor Krzysztof Penderecki, awarded him the prize unanimously, and the work also received the Audience Award. Its world premiere took place in 2019 at the Grand Theatre in Łódź, while an open-air performance at the Łódź Weavers’ Market Square became one of the most spectacular events in the city’s history.

 

Rafał Janiak consistently combines artistic, compositional, and pedagogical activity, contributing to the promotion of Polish musical culture both in Poland and internationally.

 

In 2023, he was awarded the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

 

www.rafaljaniak.com