Rafał Janiak

Composer, conductor and teacher born in 1986. He graduated with distinction from conducting studies under the supervision of prof. Antoni Wit (2011), as well as composition studies (also with distinction) in the class of prof. Stanisław Moryto (2010) at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2016, he obtained a doctorate in musical arts in the discipline of conducting, and in 2020 a postdoctoral degree.

He has many awards won in national and international music competitions, including: 1st prize at the 1st John Paull II Composition Competition in Warsaw (2007), 3rd prize at the 4th International Composition Competition "Musica Sacra" in Częstochowa (2008), distinction at the 51st Tadeusz Baird National Competition for Young Composers in Warsaw (2010). He was also a semi-finalist of the Conducting Competition "Donatella Flick" 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 prof. Krzysztof Penderecki, unanimously awarded the Grand Prix, the composition also won the audience award. The opera's world premiere took place in 2019 at the Grand Theatre in Łódź, and its open-air version at the Łódź Textile Market was an unprecedented event. He has twice been awarded scholarships 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 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.

He was an assistant to Jacek Kaspszyk and Antoni Wit at the Warsaw Philharmonic, which he also had the honor of assisting, collaborating with many orchestras in Poland and around the world (including South Korea, Spain). Rafał Janiak regularly performs with most Polish orchestras, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice, and the Krakow, Lodz, Silesian, Baltic, Lublin, Gorzów, Zielona Góra, Podkarpacka, Opole Philharmonics and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic in Sopot.

The artist's repertoire includes symphonic, concert, and oratorio works. In 2011, he made his debut as an opera conductor, conducting the premiere performance of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte". In 2014, on the stage of the Warsaw Chamber Opera, in cooperation with the UMFC, he took over the artistic direction of Mozart's "Don Giovanni", in 2017 on the chamber stage of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", in 2022 of Puccini's "Sister Angelica" and "Gianni Schicchi" (cooperation with the UMFC). Since 2022, he has been cooperating 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 band has recorded several albums, the latest of which was nominated for the "Fryderyki 2021" award.

Currently, he works as a professor at his alma mater, serving as the dean of the Department of Symphonic and Opera Conducting at the UMFC.

Since January 2023, he has been the deputy artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Łódź, during which time, as music director, he prepared the premieres of such titles as: "Faust" by Charles Gounod, "Paradise Lost" by Krzysztof Penderecki, "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi, "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Photo: Joanna Miklaszewska