Jakub Polaczyk

Jakub Polaczyk is a Polish-American composer, pianist, and pedagogue based in New York City. He is a recipient of the Gold Cross of Merit, awarded by the President of Poland (2024), the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2023), and was named an Honorary Citizen of Stary Sacz in Poland (2024).
He received his education at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Jagiellonian University, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, and Carnegie Mellon University. He studied with: Krzysztof Penderecki, Marcel Chyrzynski, Marek Choloniewski, Jan van Landeghem, Reza Vali. Polaczyk has received more than twenty prizes in national and international competitions, including the Musical Eagle Statuette in Łódź (2025), Gloria Musicorum Award in Gniezno (2025), Runner-Up Prize at the New York Composers Circle Composition Competition (2024), Global Music Awards (2023), New Jersey Guild of Composers Award (2022), The American Prize in Composition (2020), SIMC in Milan (2019), Iron Composer Award in Cleveland (2013), the Tadeusz Baird Award of the Polish Society of Composers (2012), and the PWM (Polish Music Publishers) Composition Competition (2007), among others.
From 2019 to 2023, he served as Director of the International Chopin and Friends Festival in New York City. As a pianist, he has performed with leading vocalists and instrumentalists, and his works have been presented worldwide at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Musikverein in Vienna. He has collaborated with ensembles such as the Carnegie Contemporary Ensemble, Connecticut Virtuosi Orchestra, Wieniawski Philharmonics, Brazil National Orchestra, Sofia National Orchestra, S.E.M. Ensemble, Avanti!. As a solo pianist, he has given recitals in Poland, the United States, and South Korea.
His students at the New York Conservatory of Music have received multiple awards in piano performance competitions.His music is published by Universal Edition, Donemus, and PWM, and recorded by Naxos, Albany Records, and Ablaze Records. In 2024, he completed the dialogue with a newly discovered waltz by Frédéric Chopin at the Morgan Library & Museum. Conversations with Jakub Polaczyk, directed by Dennis Woytek, received a Bronze Statuette at the 43rd Telly Awards in New York City (2023).