Damian Walentek - NOSPR

Born in 1965, Damian Walentek pursued his musical education at the Academy of Music in Katowice, studying French horn in the class of senior lecturer Mieczysław Korcz and chamber music with Professor Henryk Kierski and Professor Tomasz Miczka. He subsequently completed postgraduate studies in copyright, publishing, and press law at the Faculty of Management and Social Communication of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

He continued to hone his skills through masterclasses, among them sessions in Weimar with Peter Damm. He also participated in workshops run by such renowned teachers and artists as Bruce Heim, Christian-Friedrich Dallmann, Stefan de Leval Jezierski, Xiao-Ming Han, Kazimierz Machala, Jennifer Montone, Radovan Vlatković, and Wolfgang Tomböck.

Following a short engagement at the Silesian Opera in Bytom, he joined the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice in 1989 as a French horn player, a position he has held ever since.

Over the years, he has worked with many orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Gorzów Philharmonic, the Łódź Philharmonic, the Wrocław Philharmonic, the Wrocław Opera, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio in Poznań, Sinfonia Varsovia in Warsaw, Sinfonietta Cracovia in Kraków, the Wratislavia Chamber Orchestra, the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, the Ricordanza Chamber Orchestra in Wrocław, the Silesian Chamber Orchestra in Katowice, the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, and the Silesian String Quartet.

He has performed under such remarkable conductors as Christian Arming, Gabriel Chmura, Lawrence Foster, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Alexander Liebreich, Witold Lutosławski, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Krzysztof Penderecki, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jerzy Semkow, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and Antoni Wit.

As an orchestra musician, he has collaborated with many eminent soloists, among them Radek Baborák, Piotr Beczała, Rafał Blechacz, Rudolf Buchbinder, Plácido Domingo, Aleksandra Kurzak, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Radovan Vlatković, and Krystian Zimerman.

Since 2012, he has run the Young Horn Player Academy Festival in Katowice as its Artistic Director.

Damian Walentek began his academic and teaching career at the Academy of Music in Katowice in 1996. He was granted the doctoral degree in 2006, followed by the postdoctoral degree in musical arts (Habilitation) in 2014. As of 2024, he holds the title of full professor, i.e. the highest academic degree, granted by the president of the Republic of Poland.