Marcin Szelest – organ

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Marcin Szelest has appeard as a soloist and with many period instrument ensembles, including Concerto Palatino, The Bach Ensemble, Vasa Consort, Weser-Renaissance Bremen and Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, and recorded for Accent, CD Accord, Claves, cpo, Motette, Musicon and Warner Classics. He teaches at the masterclasses for the European Hanseatic Ensemble in Lübeck and the Varmia Musica Academia in Lidzbark Warmiński.

His habilitation thesis, ‘Stylistic changes in Italian organ music at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’ (2007), was awarded the Polish Prime Minister prize. In 2014, he was granted the title of Professor of Art. To date, he has promoted eight doctors, and seventeen students graduated from his organ class.

He has authored many scholarly works, including editions of the complete works of Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński (2015) and Adam Jarzębski (2021), as well as of the Braunsberg/Oliva Tablatures (2021) and the ‘Warsaw Organ Tablature’ (2024), published in the ‘Monumenta Musicae in Polonia’ and ‘Fontes Musicae in Polonia’ series.

Marcin Szelest studied at the Academy of Music in Krakow (diploma with distinction, 1997) and at The Boston Conservatory (Artist Diploma in Organ Performance, 1999). He was president of the Polish Early Music Society (1999–2019), organist of the historic instrument in the Holy Cross Church in Krakow (2003–22) and head of the Early Music Department at the Academy of Music in Krakow (2012–16). Since 2013, he has been artistic director of the Omnia Beneficia Festival in Stary Sącz, and since 2024 also of the organ festival 1679.org.