Jury of the 13th Competition 2025
PAWEŁ WAKARECY
Born in 1987 in Toruń, Poland. In 2011, after graduating with honors from prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń’s piano class he became the assistant lecturer at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. In 2017 he completed his PhD in piano performance and from 2019 started to work as a professor.
He developed his abilities at master classes taught by e. g. Bernard Ringeissen, Ewa Pobłocka, Jaques Rouvier, Dang Thai Son, Mikhail Voskressensky and Nelson Goerner.
The pianist was awarded in many national and international piano competitions for children and youth. He received special awards in the International Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz (2007) and was a finalist of the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Darmstadt (2009). In the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010), he was awarded a distinction and a special award „for the most highly assessed Polish participant”.
As part of the Chopin Year celebrations in 2010, Paweł Wakarecy gave more than 50 concerts in Poland as well as abroad. After success on the Chopin Competition he performed in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Bulgaria, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, China, Japan, Korea, Denmark, Egypt, Chile, Columbia. In 2012 he toured Ukraine with the ‘Amadeus’ Chamber Orchestra of the Polish Radio, the same year he gave recital in Moscow and London. In 2013-2014 he performed in important places connected with Chopin’s life – at Chopin festivals in Valldemossa (Mallorca) and Nohant (France), in Schubert Saal of Vienna Konzerthaus. He performed in prestigious concert halls like The Cadogan Hall and Westminster Cathedral Hall in London, Salle Cortot in Paris, Oji Hall in Tokyo, Seoul’s Arts Center and Lotte Concert Hall or Grand Hall of Kiev Conservatory.
The artist has played with such ensembles as: Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the Polish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (NOSPR), Sinfonia Iuventus Polish Orchestra, the Polish Philharmonic Sinfonia Baltica, Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, and the majority of philharmonic orchestras in Poland, under the batons of Agnieszka Duczmal, Antoni Wit, Łukasz Borowicz, Wojciech Michniewski, Zygmunt Rychert, Jerzy Salwarowski, Marek Moś, Adam Sztaba, Mitsuioshi Oikawa, Bar Avni and Daniel Smith.
As a chamber musician he performs in Wakarecy Piano Duo with his wife Aleksandra, and plays in chamber ensembles with most prominent young polish musicians.
The English music critic John Allison wrote in his commentary to the CD released by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in 2011, containing selected performances from the 2010’Chopin Competition in Warsaw:
„As the only Polish finalist in the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition, Paweł Wakarecy […] had shown himself to be one of the outstanding pianist. The Toruń-born player certainly showed natural, instinctive feeling for nearly everything he tackled, often capturing that subtle, nostalgic quality that Poles call ‘żal’. But if his Polish genes showed through, he never appeared to take anything in the music for granted, and most of his interpretations were the result of a searching, individual musical mind. Above all, Wakarecy’s playing convinced for the depth of his touch, which showed a very psysical connection to the instrument.”