Diakun was born in Koszalin, Poland, in 1981, and was drawn to the conductor's podium from an early age. At concerts, her eyes fixed on the conductor and his baton. She began trying her hand at a profession largely dominated by men. Her idols are men: Günter Wand with his Bruckner symphonies, Arturo Toscanini's Wagner, George Szell's Brahms, Gergive's Shostakovich. She often returns to vintage recordings by Witold Rowicki; for inspiration in 20th-century repertoire, she sits in on rehearsals of Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Jerzy Salwarowski, to name a few. As she shared in an interview with Przegląd magazine, she's most interested in the final effect and the sound of the orchestra, not necessarily conducting technique in itself.
Diakun's skill as a conductor has been praised by Richard Rosenberg, conductor, producer and artistic director of the National Music Festival and the Union Symphony Orchestra. Rosenberg remarked that "her musicality is exceptional and based upon solid scholarship paired with fine instinct. I would rate her at the very top 5 percentile of her profession".
She began conducting before graduating from the Karol Lipiński Music Academy in Wrocław, and earned her Master's at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna and her Ph.D at the Music Academy in Kraków. She also studied with Howard Griffiths and Colin Metters in Zurich (2003) and with Pierre Boulez at the Luzern Festival (2011).
Her debut came during her second year of studies, in 2002, conducting the finale concert of the 17th International Percussion Music Days Symphony Gala in Koszalin. She has conducted the symphonic orchestras of Wroclaw, Katowice and Kraków. In 2003 she toured Germany, Switzerland and Denmark as the assisting conductor of the Orchestra of the Polish Opera. She worked with the National Radio Orchestra in Prague, the National Polish Radio Orchestra in Katowice, the philharmonic orchestras of Zielona Gora, Wrocław, Kalisz and Rzeszow, and the Young Wrocław Orchestra.
