After graduating from the High School of Music in Wrocław, he studied violin under the supervision of Tadeusz Wroński in the years 1958-63 at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music from which he graduated with honours. From 1965 to 1966 he continued his studies at the Indiana University Bloomington in the United States, guided by Josef Gingold and Janos Starker.
His first successes came when the artist was still studying: in 1959 he won the first prize in Eugène Ysaÿe International Competition and the third prize in the music contest within the framework of the International Youth Festival in Vienna. In 1962 he was awarded the third prize as well as the special prize at the 4th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań. In 1970 Jakowicz received the special prize at George Enescu Festival in Bucharest.
Krzysztof Jakowicz leads a very active concert life, having performed in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Israel as a soloist and with numerous orchestras: the English Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Spanish National Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Orchestra of the National Philharmonic, and Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra. the abovementioned orchestras performed under the baton of such conductors as Jiří Bělohlávek, Riccardo Chailly, Leopold Hager, Pinchas Steinberg, Michael Tabachnik, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jerzy Semkow, Antoni Wit and Marek Pijarowski. He was asked to participate in numerous prestigious festivals, such as Warsaw Autumn, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, the Berliner Festspiele, Festival de Paris, Festival Vlaanderen, the Wiener Festwochen and some more festivals in Edinburgh, London and Bregenz. In 1995, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, Jakowicz participated in the ceremony in Paris, performing Karol Szymanowski's first violin concert together with the Orchestre National de France under the baton of Jerzy Semkow.
Jakowicz is also involved with chamber music. He has performed with such artists as Krzysztof Jabłoński, Stefan Kamasa, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Tomasz Strahl, Waldemar Malicki, Krystyna Borucińska, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Vadim Brodski, and Jakub Jakowicz. In the years 1966-68 he collaborated with the Warsaw Piano Quintet, at first as the second and later – after Bronisław Gimpla left the group – as the first violinist.
In 1986 he was given the Orpheus Prize – an award given by the Polish Artists and Musicians Association for the best interpretation of a Polish piece of work during the Warsaw Autumn Festival for his rendition of Witold Lutosławski's Chain 2: Dialogue for Violin and Orchestra. In 1989 the artist was awarded the Diapason d'Or, an award given by French critics, for the record of Chain 2 and in 1997, the Fryderyk prize for the record of Lutosławski's Partita for Violin and Orchestra.
He is the first Polish violinist to have recorded all Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas and partitas (for the Polish Radio). He has recorded many albums for Polish (DUX, Polish Recordings) and international (EMI, Angel, Le Chant du Monde and Riikskonsert) recording studios.
Since 1966 Jakowicz has run a violin class at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. He is also a visiting scholar at SOAI University in Osaka in Japan and a lecturer in France, Austria (Salzburg) and Japan (Tokyo and Osaka). He sits in the jury of many prestigious international violin contests, including Niccolò Paganini Competition in Genoa, Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznań, Carl Nielsen Competition in Odense, Tadeusz Wroński Competition in Warsaw, and Yehudi Menuhina in Folkestone.
He is a laureate of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Prize of the First and the Second Degree for the promotion of Polish Culture abroad and the prize of the Polish Composers' Union for the numerous performances of Polish contemporary music. He was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit.
The artist plays on a violin made by the Italian luthier Paolo Albani in 1698.
You can find more information on the artist’s website.
Author: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Polish Composers' Union, August 2002, updated: December 2009, translated by AW, November 2016.