On May 5, 2022, a ceremony was held at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw to confer the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on Piotr Paleczny. The promoter of this act of the highest prestige was Maestro Krystian Zimerman.

Piotr Paleczny - One of the most outstanding Polish pianists, a prize-winner of five international piano competitions, Piotr Paleczny completed his piano studies under Jan Ekier at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Also hugely influential in shaping his artistic personality were his contacts with Arthur Rubinstein and Witold Lutosławski.

His success at the 8th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, where he finished behind only Garrick Ohlsson and Mitsuko Uchida, opened the doors for Paleczny to many prestigious concert halls around the world. His Third Prize, special prize for the best performance of a polonaise and Witold Małcużyński Prize launched his career, which he has continued to the present day, pursuing concert work on all the continents of the world.

He has performed as a soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, American Symphony, Concertgebouw, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon, Gewandhaus, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, RAI, Santa Cecilia, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Argentina, Warsaw Philharmonic and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He has performed in concert at such famous venues as the Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and UN General Assembly Hall in New York, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Berliner Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Royal Festival Hall in London and Festspielhaus in Salzburg.

He has given masterclasses in New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Bordeaux, Paris, Freiburg, Amsterdam, Hamamatsu, Montevideo, Toronto, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Lugano, Warsaw and elsewhere.

He has gained huge recognition as a juror of major international piano competitions, including in Warsaw (Chopin Competition), Leeds, Paris, London, Cleveland, Toronto, Seoul, Moscow (Tchaikovsky Competition), Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Montreal, Tel Aviv, Santander, Tokyo, Kitzingen, Casablanca, Prague, Hamamatsu, Sendai, Geneva, Taipei, Shenzhen, Weimar, Manchester, Los Angeles, Hilton Head and Takamatsu.

In 2007, he chaired the jury of the famous piano competition in Cleveland, thus becoming the first Pole to hold such a position at an international piano competition held in the US.

His recordings over recent years have included The Best of Fryderyk Chopin, recorded with the Prima Vista Quartet for DUX, which won a Fryderyk 1999 award from the Polish Phonographic Academy and also a platinum disc.

Since 1993 Paleczny has been artistic director of the world’s oldest piano festival, the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, and since 2004 he has also been artistic director of the International Ignacy Jan Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz.

In 1998, the President of the Republic of Poland awarded Paleczny the title of academic professor. He teaches piano at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and his students have already won dozens of prizes in national and international piano competitions.

In 2010, he inaugurated Chopin Year with a grand concert at the Polish Parliament and was also soloist in a gala concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic to mark that institution’s centenary.

He has received many lofty and prestigious awards in Poland and abroad, including the Commander’s Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland, the ‘Gloria Artis’ Gold Medal for services to Polish culture and the Mexican Aguila Azteca Order.

Since 1985, he has sat on the jury of successive editions of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, and in 2015 he will be judging the young pianists’ performances again.

He is a member of the Programme Committee of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.

In 2019, the Government of Japan awarded Piotr Paleczny one of the highest japanese honors – Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays with Ribbon.