Janusz Olejniczak

Janusz Olejniczak – is one of the greatest Polish pianists in history. A respected teacher, a jury member of the Chopin Competition, and occasionally even an actor. He learned to play the piano from great masters: Zbigniew Drzewiecki, Witold Małcużyński and Barbara Hesse-Bukowska. He gained fame after the 8th Chopin Competition (1970) as he was only 18 years old when he became its laureate. Since then, he has been giving concerts all over the world. He has performed many times on the most prestigious stages in the world: at the famous Berlin Philharmonic, Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Lincoln Center in New York. Although he is usually associated with excellent and extremely sensitive interpretations of Chopin's works, Olejniczak is a highly versatile pianist, reaching for both classical and contemporary works. For the record labels Polskie Nagrania, Wifon, Selene, Tonpress, Camerata, Pony Canyon, Opus 111, CD Accord, Sony Classical, and BeArTon, he has recorded both works by Jean-Philippe Rameau (a French composer from the Baroque period) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ferenc Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Schubert, Sergei Prokofiev, Wojciech Kilar, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. In 1997 he premiered Giya Kancheli's Valse Boston for piano and orchestra. He is also known as a virtuoso of period instruments (Érard and Pleyel), which resulted in permanent collaboration with the Frans Brüggen Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. He also performs as a chamber musician with violinists, cellists and singers.

He is probably the only pianist with an actor's flair. In Andrzej Żuławski's film La note bleue, he played the role of Frédéric Chopin. He also played the role of Jan Ignacy Paderewski in the film by Łukasz Barczyk. He is known as the performer of the soundtrack to such big-screen hits as Chopin. Desire for Love or The Pianist by Roman Polański. For many years he taught young pianists at the Academy of Music in Krakow.