Employees

dr hab.

Ireneusz Wyrwa

prof. UMFC

organ

Ireneusz Wyrwa was born in 1975 in Bochnia. He started to learn organ playing at the Fryderyk Chopin State Secondary School in Cracow under Mieczysław Tuleja. In 1999 he graduated with honours from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, organ class of Prof. Julian Gembalski. He has participated in a number of master courses in organ interpretation taught by such artists as: Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Martin Haselböck, André Isoir, Ton Koopman, Jon Laukvik, Ludger Lohmann, Herbert Wulf, Jean-Claude Zehnder and Wolfgang Zerer.

He won awards at two all-Poland organ competitions: in Wrocław (1st award, 1994) and in Rumia (2nd award, 1996). In 2000 he won the 2nd award at the International Feliks Nowowiejski Organ Competition in Poznań.

He has pursued a vivid concert career in Poland and abroad. He also performs together with renowned symphony orchestras. Part of his artistic achievements are archive recordings for the Polish Radio and the Polish Television.

For over 20 he was an active church musician, working in a few Polish dioceses.

In 2001 he obtained the 1st degree qualifications in the artistic discipline of instrumental studies, specialty of organ playing, and in 2012, on the basis of a thesis entitled Performance issues in organ pieces by Feliks Nowowiejski in the light of the composer’s aesthetical views on the basis of selected symphonies opus 45, as well as his artistic achievements, he obtained a post-doctoral degree as part of the same discipline and specialty.

In the period of 1999–2013 he was a research and teaching employee at the Institute of Musicology, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, where he taught organ playing, organ literature, liturgical accompaniment, improvisation, counterpoint and harmony.

Currently he is employed as Professor at the Unit of Church Music, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. He is also a lecturer at the Pope’s Theological Department, Collegium Bobolanum in Warsaw. He sits on the jury during organ auditions and competitions, he is invited to deliver guest speeches and lectures, he publishes scholarly and popular science texts, runs seminars and performance courses. He is active as an organizer of music life, and he is also an expert in historical and contemporary organ construction.