DR. JAROSŁAW PRASZCZAŁEK (POLAND) JURY SECRETARY

Conductor, composer, instrumentalist, educator, popularizer of knowledge about music. He graduated from the Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Music Theory (major: symphonic and opera conducting) at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He earned his bachelor’s degree in the class of Prof. Marek Pijarowski, and his master’s degree in the class of Prof. Szymon Kawalla. He honed his skills at international conducting courses conducted by such baton masters as Douglas Bostock, Frank Cramer, Colin Metters and Johannes Stert. In 2017, he earned a doctorate of musical arts in the artistic discipline of conducting at his alma mater. He has won numerous competitions in music theory, composition and improvisation. Finalist of the second and third editions of the Warsaw Chamber Opera’s Young Stage program, as part of which he conducted the premieres of operas by contemporary composers: Dariusz Przybylski’s Wasserstimmen, Nikolet Burzynska’s Labyrinth of Orpheus, Ryan Latimer’s Three Tall Tales of Doctor Monsieur Façade and Eunho Chang’s Sacred Emily. Since 2011, he has been a presenter of educational concerts at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, and since 2014 he has worked as a conductor-educator at the State Music School Complex No. 1 in Warsaw. In 2016, soprano Joanna Freszel’s album Real Life Song, on which the artist conducts the world premieres of works by Milosz Bembinov and Katarzyna Szwed, received two Fryderyk Award nominations and the prestigious Parisian award Les Orphées d’Or (Golden Orpheus). As a conductor, he also collaborates with Jerzy Semkow’s Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz, the Gorzow Philharmonic, the Kalisz Philharmonic, the Swietokrzyska Philharmonic named after Oskar Kolberg. Oskar Kolberg Philharmonic in Kielce, Witold Lutoslawski Chamber Philharmonic in Lomza, Rybnicka Philharmonic named after the Szafranek Brothers, Elblag Chamber Orchestra, Radom Chamber Orchestra, Plock Symphony Orchestra, Toruń Symphony Orchestra, Arte Creatura Musical Theater, Proscenium Musical Theater and Variety Theater in Warsaw. Since 2017, he has been a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where he teaches at the Department of Symphony and Opera Conducting and organizes numerous scientific and artistic conferences. Since 2020, he has been the head of the Postgraduate Studies in Wind Orchestra Conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.