Jan Łukaszewski is an outstanding conductor, a highly regarded teacher and an accomplished organizer of musical life. Since 1983 he has directed the Polski Chór Kameralny Schola Cantorum Gedanensis, with which he has given almost 700 premieres and made several hundred recordings for radio and television, as well as over 80 CDs. Twenty two of the latter were nominated for the Fryderyk Award of the Polish recording industry, five received this prestigious accolade, and two received Orphée D’or awards from the French Academie du Disque Lyrique. He has conducted several thousand concerts in Poland, almost all European countries, the United States, Canada, China and Japan. He has sat on the jury of the Musica Sacra Nova International Composers’ Competition and conducted the performances of prize-winning works.

Jan Łukaszewski was born in the Gdańsk district of Oliwa. Its picturesque park is the venue of the ‘Mozartiana’ International Mozart Festival, which he initiated in 2006 and has served as its artistic director. The event’s final concerts under his baton have attracted many leading soloists and renowned European instrumental ensembles to the historic Oliwa Cathedral, and have been broadcast to many European countries. Together with his wife, the singer Wiesława Łukaszewska, he also directs the Pueri Cantores Olivenses Boys’ and Men’s Choir, which has given acclaimed concerts on several continents.

The list of composers who have dedicated their works to Jan Łukaszewski includes such outstanding names as Krzysztof Penderecki, Wojciech Kilar, Augustyn Bloch, Edward Pałłasz, Paweł Łukaszewski, Andrzej Koszewski, Krzesimir Dębski, and Juliusz Łuciuk. He has worked closely with the singers Julia Lezhneva,  Simone Kermes and Emma Kirkby. As an orchestral conductor, he has performed with Sinfonia Varsovia, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Venice Baroque Orchestra.  It was in collaboration with these household names in the musical world that numerous concerts of the highest calibre were given and excellent recordings were made. Jan Łukaszewski conducted the Polski Chór Kameralny in the world’s first recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s entire a cappella choral output  and, in partnership with the Swiss period instrument ensemble Musica Fiorita, they have made a pioneering recording of the complete set of 55 extant motets by Andreas Hakenberger, a Gdańsk composer who flourished from the late 16th into the early 17th century.

A  conductor of rare distinction, Jan Łukaszewski feels equally at home in the choral and oratorio repertoire and is able to delve into the intentions  both of composers from previous periods, such as Hakenberger, and those who have been active in recent decades, such as Penderecki. The hallmarks of his art of conducting are the perfection of intonation,  the ideal vocal balance and  precision in reading a composer’s score, all this blended with a creative courage of interpretation. He has gained a reputation for masterful performances of texturally, harmonically and rhythmically complex contemporary pieces.

A professor of musical arts, Jan Łukaszewski has several prestigious honours to his name, including the Gloria Artis Silver Medal of Cultural Merit (2008), the Officer’s  Cross of the Order of Reborn Poland (2018) and an award from the Board of the ZAiKS Authors’ and Composers’ Association   (2020). In 2021, following a decision by the Council of the Phonographic Academy, he received the Golden Fryderyk for outstanding artistic achievements. What he claims to be his greatest achievement, though, is his large and faithful audience who have been enthusiastically receiving his concerts for almost four decades.