Born in 1977 in Poznań, between 1984 and 1996 Jarosłąw Bręk sang in the Boys’ and Man’s Choir of the Poznań Philharmonic. He was a pupil of Jerzy Artysz at the Warsaw Academy of Music, and on graduation was awarded the Magna Cum Laude medal as the most outstanding graduate. He is a winner of many prizes at vocal contests in Duszniki-Zdrój (1998), Barcelona (1999), Vercelli (1999) and Lisbon (2000). In 1999 and 2000 he was nominated by the influential Polish magazine Polithics for the award for best musicians in Poland. Recent achievements include participation in Górecki’s Second Symphony, celebrating the six hundredth anniversary of the Cracow Academy, in Handel’s Messiah with the Oxford New College Choir Oxford under Edward Higginbottom, participation in Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater in concerts given in Oviedo, Gijon, Düsseldorf, and at Notre Dame in Paris (at the opening ceremony of the Polish Season in France), repeated performaces at the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans, participation in the Opera Gala in the Lviv Opera House, participation in the Polish première of the Passion by Jommelli during the Seventh Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Cracow, participation in Requiem for Street Urchins in Berlin, in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderborn performed for the first time
at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, in Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony at the Main Market Place in Cracow on the occasion of Poland’s accession to the European Union, a performance with Teresa Żylis-Gara in a concert for the Red Cross in Monte Carlo, a performance of Bach’s
St John Passion in Amsterdam conducted by Tomasz Bugaj, and collaboration in a performance of Fauré’s
Requiem, performed on the Cracow Common, conducted by Thomas Sanderling.
Jarosław Bręk has performed in most of Poland’s concert halls, and has appeared in opera houses and concert halls in Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland, Romania, the Canary Islands, Japan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Russia, France and Monaco. He is a soloist of the Warsaw Chamber Opera, works with the National Opera in Warsaw, and has also appeared in Poznań, Lodz and Cracow. He has also sung in such halls as the Palau de la Música de Valencia, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Kyoto Concert Hall, and the Muzeul National George Enescu in Bucharest. He is often invited to take part in first performances of contemporary compositions.