Piotr Pawlak

Piotr Pawlak is one of the most versatile Polish pianists of the young generation. Winner of many international competitions, including the V Maj Lind International Piano Competition in Helsinki (2022) and the XI International Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt (2017). He is also laureate of Chopin Competitions in Beijing (2016), Budapest (2018) and Cracow (2019), the International Competition of Polish Music in Rzeszów (2019), the International Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz (2022) and the International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw (2023).

After winning the competition in Helsinki, he was frequently invited to give concerts in Finland. In 2023 he made his debut with many Finnish orchestras: Jyväskylä, Pori, Vassa, Kuopio and Kymi, performing piano concertos of Mozart, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninoff. He played recitals in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku and was invited to the most prestigious Finnish piano festivals, including the Mänttä Music Festival and the PianoEspoo Festival.

Piotr also performs frequently in Poland. Last year he collaborated with the Polish Chamber Orchestra Sopot, Philharmonic Orchestra of Zielona Góra, Toruń Symphony Orchestra and Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra with Chopin, Grieg and Mozart piano concertos, and performed at the oldest annual piano festival in Poland – the Duszniki International Chopin Piano Festival, where legends past and present have appeared.

He also gave a series of recitals in Japan, United States, Germany and Slovakia.

In previous years he performed at numerous musical events in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, Georgia, Russia and the United States. As soloist, he has played with the Warsaw National Symphony Orchestra, Lower Silesia Philharmonic Orchestra, Holy Cross Philharmonic Orchestra, West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra, Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and others. He has performed in prestigious musical venues, such as the Sankt Petersburg Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Sala Verdi Milano, Teatro alla Scala, as well as appeared in festivals such as the “Kissinger Sommer” in Bad Kissingen and “Chopin and his Europe” in Warsaw. In 2019 he embarked on a concert tour of China.

This year alone, he performed with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Joensuu City Orchestra and Oulu Sinfonia, and played recitals in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Pawlak began his musical studies on the piano at the age of six in Feliks Nowowiejski Music School in Gdansk with Ewa Włodarczyk, and continued to study with Waldemar Wojtal until the end of his studies in 2021. He also graduated from music school with a degree in organ studies under the tutorship of Hanna Dys, and he now studies conducting in The Stanislaw Moniuszko Music Academy in Gdansk with Zygmunt Rychert. He attended masterclasses with, among others, Kevin Kenner, Dang Thai Son, Dmitrii Alexeev, Eugen Indijc, Phillippe Giusano, Dina Yoffe, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Wojciech Świtała and Janusz Olejniczak. This year he is also a participant at the prestigious International Piano Academy Lake Como.

In his performances, Piotr Pawlak tries to bring back the element of improvisation to the classical music world. He is inspired by historically informed performances, for example, playing improvised cadenzas in Mozart’s piano concertos. In the Chopin Competition in Darmstadt, in addition to the 1st prize, he also received a prize for the best improvisation on the themes from Weber’s “Der Freischütz”. In 2020 he was awarded 2nd prize at the “Transatlantyk Instant Composition Contest” at the International Film Festival in Katowice.

In addition to his pianistic career, Piotr has been a laureate of organ competitions, and of national and international olympiads in mathematics, informatics and other sciences. After finishing his Master’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Gdansk in 2020, he is preparing a PhD dissertation about mapping class groups of non-orientable surfaces. A multi-talented man indeed!