Critics count him among the best Polish performers of his generation. A winner of a Fryderyk phonographic award and an Orfeusz award for 'outstanding performances of Polish music', he has been nominated for a Paszport Polityki award (2017) for 'the sensitivity and intelligence with which he approaches repertoire that tends to be absent from our stages', and his interests include the latest music as well as unknown music of Polish Romanticism.
The year 2017 saw the release of his four-disc album with the complete piano works of Juliusz Zarębski. A year later he decided to record the complete works of Władysław Żeleński for piano. He has many world premiere performances of contemporary music to his credit, and collaborates with the Apollon Musagète Quartett, the Royal String Quartet, Piotr Pławner, Agata Zubel and the Silesian String Quartet, among others. With the last-mentioned ensemble, he recorded Mieczysław Weinberg’s Piano Quintet (Fryderyk 2018), which marked the start of his fascination with this composer. He is one of the founders of the Weinberg Trio chamber group.
His professional interests focus on Karol Szymanowski and his music; in 2018 Piotr Sałajczyk became vice-president of the Karol Szymanowski Society in Zakopane.
Mr Sałajczyk has a very busy concert schedule (performances with the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Sinfonia Iuventus, Sinfonietta Cracovia, festivals in Poland and abroad: Warsaw Autumn, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Musica Polonica Nova, Budapest Spring, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Musique et Neige, The Silesian String Quartet and Its Guests, NOSPR Festival of World Premieres, Festival of Polish Piano Music in Słupsk, Usedomer Musikfestival).
His many albums released by DUX, CD Accord, Hänssler, CPO and Naxos have won various awards in Poland and abroad (Maestro Pianiste, Pizzicato Supersonic, 5 de Diapason, four Fryderyk nominations, Opera Nederland’s album of the month, La Clef Res Musica, ICMA 2020 nomination). He has also recorded for Polish Radio Programme 2, the Belgian radio station Musiq3, Deutschlandradio and HR2. For PWM Edition, he recorded Władysław Szpilman’s Concertino with the AUKSO orchestra as part of PWM’s 100 for 100 project.
He also takes part in numerous film and theatre projects. With NOSPR, he recorded fragments of Andrzej Panufnik’s Piano Concerto for the soundtrack of Andrzej Wajda’s last film, Afterimage.
Piotr Sałajczyk teaches piano at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, from which he graduated after studying piano with Józef Stompel. He continued his studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Pavel Gililov. He was also a pianist of the Sommerakademie Salzburg.
