Jan Stanienda

Jan Stanienda (born in Bytom) – Polish violinist, chamber musician and concertmaster.

He is a graduate of the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, where he studied with Professor Krzysztof Jakowicz. Since 1975, Jan Stanienda has been a member of the Polish Chamber Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk, and in 1977 he became its concertmaster and soloist. In 1976 he received a prize at the Niccolo Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa.

He performed with many distinguished musicians, such as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Maurice André, Michala Petri, Wanda Wiłkomirska, Krzysztof Jakowicz, János Starker, Barbara Hendricks, Maurice Bourge, Lidia Grzanka-Urbaniak, Guy Touvron, Andrei Gridchuk, Grzegorz Nowak, Tadeusz Wojciechowski and Krzysztof Jablonski.

He was the concertmaster of Sinfonia Varsovia in 1986–1990 and before that he was the concertmaster of the Polish Chamber Orchestra. He was the artistic director of the Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra in 1992–1995 and has been the artistic director of the Wratislavia Chamber Orchestra since 1996. He is the creator and artistic director of the Wrocław Chamber Music Festival Arsenal Nights and the laureate of the Wrocław Music Award (2006). He is also the artistic director of the European Musical Workshops and the Summer Orchestral Workshops in Kołobrzeg.

He has performed both as soloist and conductor in every European country and on every continent. He gave concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, Berliner Philharmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Barbican Centre and Royal Albert Hall in London (BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts), Santa Cecilia in Rome and many others.