Professor and Doctor of Musical Arts, born in Bydgoszcz in 1970, where he graduated from the Academy of Music in the piano class of K. Popowa-Zydroń (diploma 1993). He is perhaps the only artist in Poland to combine intensive work in the fields of classical, jazz, and pop music, in roles that demand completely different competences and experiences: composer of contemporary music, film music orchestrator, arranger, symphony conductor, jazz pianist, chamber pianist, songwriter, record producer, and academic lecturer.
He has performed with orchestras (G. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, E. Grieg’s Concerto in A minor, W. A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, and his own Concertino for piano and orchestra); chamber music recordings for the Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich; Chamber music concerts with clarinetist Wojtek Mrozek, world-renowned violinists Vadim Brodsky and Mariusz Patyra, saxophonist Paweł Gusnar, and outstanding Polish flutists Jadwiga Kotnowska and Agata Igras; collaboration with the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Foundation operating in Germany. He has collaborated with almost all of the greatest Polish song stars. In the 1990s, he played in the Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski Quartet, for 6 years he was the pianist in the Zbigniew Namysłowski Quartet, from 2002 to 2012 he performed in a duet with Edyta Geppert, and from 2011 to 2021 he led the Anna Maria Jopek ensemble. He has recorded over 200 CDs, including 25 original albums, and is the holder of 19 Gold and 4 Platinum Arranger Records. He has produced over 20 albums for Polish vocalists, including Irena Santor, Maryla Rodowicz, Edyta Geppert, Katarzyna Groniec, Anna Serafińska, Olga Bończyk, and Wojciech Gąssowski. He orchestrated Jan A.P. Kaczmarek’s music for the film Finding Neverland, which won an Oscar in 2005. He has also orchestrated and arranged over a dozen film scores by other composers, including Henri Serok (U Pana Boga w Ogródku), Robert Janson (Testimony), Adam Skorupa (Kinematograf, Animated History of Poland), and Tomasz Gąssowski (Miasto Z Morza). He was the musical director of the following musicals: Singin’ in the Rain at the Musical Theatre in Poznań, Sunset Boulevard at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, At the End of the Rainbow, Blue Shrimps and Songs of Stu at the Stu Theatre in Kraków, Five Brothers Moe and Singin’ in the Rain at the Roma Theatre in Warsaw, his own musical Cyrano at the Musical Theatre in Łódź and Soldier of the Queen of Madagascar at the Polish Theatre in Warsaw.
He has performed as a jazz musician and chamber musician in Mexico, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, Turkey, Israel, and almost all European countries. He has conducted over 40 orchestras, including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, National Orchestra of Belgium, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, NOSPR, Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Capella Bydgostiensis, Capella Gedanensis, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Silesian Chamber Orchestra, Elbląg Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Avenna, Ricordanza Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva Orchestra, Sinfonia Artis Orchestra, L’Autunno Orchestra, Orchestra of the Grand Theatre in Łódź, Orchestra of the Opera NOVA in Bydgoszcz, Orchestra of the Musical Theatre in Łódź, Orchestra of the Musical Theatre in Poznań, Toruń Symphony Orchestra; The orchestras of the Łódź Philharmonic, the Pomeranian Philharmonic, the Lower Silesian Philharmonic, the Kalisz Philharmonic, the Opole Philharmonic, the Szczecin Philharmonic, the Baltic Philharmonic, the Rybnik Philharmonic, the Płock Philharmonic, and the Karol Namysłowski Symphony Orchestra in Zamość. In 2015, he was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis. He is a recipient of the 2012 Fryderyk Award (jazz composer/arranger of the year), the 2014 ‘Mateusze Trójki’ Program 3 Award (in the lifetime achievement category), the 2011 RMF Classic ‘Mozarty’ Award, two-time ‘Artist of the Year’ at the Melomani Grand Prix in 2011 and 2014, the International Jazz Improvisation Competition in Katowice in 1993, the 2005 Mayor of Bydgoszcz Award, the 2006 Gazeta Wyborcza Feliks Award, fourteen times voted arranger and composer of the year in the Jazz Forum ‘Jazz Top’ readers’ poll, and twelve times nominated for the Fryderyk Award. His compositional output includes a number of contemporary works for various instrumental ensembles. He is a regular participant in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage’s composer commissioning program. His album Symphonicum was nominated for the 2011 Fryderyk Award (Composer of the Year – Classical Music / Album of the Year – Contemporary Music), alongside Wojciech Kilar and Rafał Augustyn. His album Suite on Polish Themes was nominated for the 2017 Fryderyk Award (Album of the Year – Contemporary Music). His album Concerto & Concertino was nominated for the 2019 Fryderyk Award in two categories: Album of the Year – Contemporary Music and Most Outstanding Recording of Polish Music. His album Requiem was nominated for the 2025 Fryderyk Award in the Oratorio and Opera Music categories. He was the first Polish composer to record a monographic album at London’s renowned Abbey Road Studio with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Orchestra.
www.herdzin.com.pl