Pianist, teacher and organiser of musical events. He has won a host of prizes at prestigious competitions, including the Ferruccio Busoni Competition in Bolzano, the UNISA Piano Competition in Pretoria (the Estelle Zwick Prize), a Grand Prix at the Concorso Pianistico Internazionale in Marsala, Sicily and a Grand Prix and four special prizes at the Concurso Internacional de Musica in Porto. He has appeared in Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan. With orchestras, he has toured Russia, Portugal, the Netherlands and South Africa. He has also performed at the music festivals in Yokohama, Lisbon, Porto, Gaming-Kartause, Vienna, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Antonin, Słupsk, Duszniki Zdrój, Warsaw, Poznań and Bydgoszcz.
Jarosław Drzewiecki has been on the jury of multiple music competitions. He has chaired the juries of the Maurycy Moszkowski International Competition ‘Per aspera ad astra’ in Kielce (2005-2013), the Miłosz Magin Competition in Łódź, the Fryderyk Chopin Competition of Polish and Ukrainian Music in Dnipropetrovsk and the International Baltic Chopin Competition in Narva (2001-2004). He has also been a jury member at the piano competitions in Kirovohrad, Gomel (Belarus), Moscow (2012-2014) and Lviv, as well as at the Lysenko Music Competition in Kiev and the Concurso Internacional de Musica da Cidade do Porto (1999-2001).
The pianist can boast a rich catalogue of recordings. Amongst 11 CDs and SACDs, he has recorded music by Karol Szymanowski (released by Polskie Nagrania), the complete 27 Etudes by Fryderyk Chopin (he was the first Polish pianist to have them released on SACD) and 18 Polonaises by Fryderyk Chopin (released by Pony Canyon), chosen a record of the month in Japan. His recording of Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Witold Lutosławski (released by DUX) with the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jerzy Salwarowski was nominated for the Fryderyk Award in 2002. In 2006, he received another nomination for the same prize for his Mozart for 3-2-1 Pianos (released by Polskie Nagrania), recorded with the orchestra Sinfonia Varsovia directed by Michael Zilm. In 2008, Jarosław Drzewiecki recorded Bach – Concertos for 4-3-2-1 Pianos for the German label Blüthner Classics, where he featured alongside such eminent artists as Tatiana Shebanova, Andrzej Jasiński, Stanisław Drzewiecki and Concerto Avenna conducted by Jerzy Maksymiuk.
Jarosław Drzewiecki has initiated a number of special cultural enterprises, such as the Wawer Music Festival in Warsaw, the European Festival of the Music Academies in Warsaw and the International Master Competition for Music Teachers. He is the chairman of the Podkarpacka Fundacja Rozwoju Kultury (Podkarpacka Foundation for the Development of Culture), the organiser of the International Piano Forum ‘Bieszczady Without Frontiers’ (‘Bieszczady bez granic’) in Sanok.
The artist has completed with distinction the Academy of Music in Poznań and he was a trainee assistant of Victor Merzhanov at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1986 – 1988. Since 1998, he has been a professor of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz and conducted master classes throughout Poland, as well as in Kiev, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Moscow, Narva and Porto. In 2013, he received an honorary degree from the Mykola Lysenko National Academy of Music in Lviv. He has also been awarded the most prestigious presidential medal of distinction bestowed upon foreigners in Estonia – the Order of the White Star. In 2018, the pianist received the Hipolit Cegielski Award in Poznań and the Medal and Title of "The Friend of the Children's Memorial Health Institute" in Warsaw.
Jarosław Drzewiecki is a passionate bridge player and figure skater. As an individual performer, he was the Polish figure skating champion in 1974.
