Paweł Kroczek – musician – clarinetist, soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher.
Currently, he works as an assistant professor at the Academy of Music in Poznań, where he obtained a PhD in art in 2016.
In 2011 he graduated with honours from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in the clarinet class of Professor Zdzisław Nowak. In the years 2011 – 2013 he continued hisnstudies at Lund University – Musikhogskolan I Malmo under the direction of the world-famous soloist – Olli Leppäniemi. He also studied at the Academy of Music in Wrocław in the clarinet class of Professor Jan Tatarczyk.
In 2013 he passed the exam for the Opus International Youth Festival Orchestra (Innsbruck). In 2012 he received the First Prize in the Chamber Music Category and the Third Prize in the Soloists Category at the International Competition in Svirel (Slovenia). In 2011 he won the third prize at the V National Competition of Musical Interpretation (Krasiczyn). In 2010 he won the Third Prize at the 12th International Chamber Music Competition (Jawor) and the Honorable Mention in the Chamber Category at the 4th West Pomeranian Clarinet Festival (Szczecin). In 2009, he was a scholarship holder of the Socrates – Erasmus programme – studies in the clarinet class of Dr Igor Frantisak – Ostravska Univerzita (Ostrava, Czech Republic).
He is the principal clarinetist of the Collegium F and L’autunno orchestras. He is a member of the wind octet Kapela Farna and Feroce Trio. He has collaborated with many excellent conductors, such as: Gabriel Chmura, Jacek Kasprzyk, Marcin Sompoliński, Nikolai Znaider, Jakub Chrenowicz, Wojciech Rodek, Przemysław Neumann, Paweł Przytocki, Marek Pijarowski, Jerzy Salwarowski, taking part in numerous orchestral projects throughout the country.
He has performed at numerous festivals, including: Animator, Malta Festival, Poznań Music Spring, Przemyśl Music Autumn, Transatlantyk, Nostalgia Festival, Karol Szymanowski Festival in Beijing; International Clarinet Festival and Congress in Gyro (2018, 2021), Camerino (2019), Krakow (2022).
He has performed numerous world premieres of works by contemporary composers, as well as radio, television and CD recordings. As a soloist, he has performed with the orchestras of the Kalisz Philharmonic, the Poznań Opera, the Academy of Music in Poznań and the Collegium F orchestra.
Paweł Kroczek is a co-founder and vice-president of the Józef Madeja Association, http://festiwalmadei.pl/stowarzyszenie/ He is also a member of the board of the Karol Kurpiński Music Society in Włoszakowice and a co-organizer of the Karol Kurpiński Academic Clarinet Competition.
He is very active as a teacher and his students have won numerous awards and distinctions in national and international competitions. He is a CEA consultant, as well as a lecturer of many master classes for clarinetists. He sits on the jury of national and international competitions and CEA auditions.
Since 2020, Paweł Kroczek has been an artist of the Royal Global Clarinets manufactory. He uses Royal Global Firebaird and Buffet Crampon Festival clarinets.
In 2024, Paweł Kroczek became an artist of the Sax Clinic’s SCV ligatures. He uses Tonus Mundi ligature.