Marzena Diakun (born 3 April 1981,

Koszalin Koszalin (; ; , ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomera ...

) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

conductor.

Biography

Born in 1981 in

in northern Poland, Diakun attended the

Grażyna Bacewicz Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka (; 5 February 1909 – 17 January 1969) was a Polish composer and violinist of Lithuanian origin. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Ma ...

Music School in Koszalin. In 2005, she graduated with honours from the

Karol Lipiński Academy of Music Karol may refer to: Places * Karol, Gujarat, a village on Saurashtra peninsula in Gujarat, west India ** Karol State, a former Rajput petty princely state with seat in the above town *Karol Bagh, neighbourhood of Central Delhi, Delhi, India **Ka ...

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

where she studied conducting. She made her conducting debut when she was still a student at the academy. She conducted at the 17th International Festival of Drum Music with the Koszalin Philharmonic. She then became an assistant of

Jerzy Maksymiuk Jerzy Jan Maksymiuk (born 9 April 1936) is a Polish composer, pianist and orchestra conductor. Personal life Maksymiuk was born in Grodno, Second Polish Republic (now Belarus). He studied violin, piano, conducting and composition at the Warsaw ...

. In 2006, she continued her studies at the

University of Music and Performing Arts The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

under

Uroš Lajovic Uroš Lajovic is a Slovenian conductor and professor. He has served as guest conductor, permanent conductor, artistic director and artistic advisor at numerous prominent European orchestras. He is professor emeritus at the University of Music a ...

. Her conducting mentors have included Gabriel Chmura,

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (; 18 July 192719 December 2015) was a German Conducting, conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewand ...

Colin Metters Colin Metters is an English conductor, orchestral trainer and conducting pedagogue. He is Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he founded the Conductors' Course in 1983. In September 2013, he retired as Head of ...

, Howard Griffiths,

David Zinman David Zinman (born July 9, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York) is a retired American conductor and violinist. Education After violin studies at Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, earning his M.A. ...

and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

. She worked as an assistant to

Andrey Boreyko Andrey Boreyko (, ; born 22 July 1957) is a Polish people, Polish-Russian conductor. Biography Boreyko has Polish ancestry on his father's side and Russian ancestry on his mother's side. Boreyko was born in Saint Petersburg. At the Rimsky-Korsa ...

with the

Bern Symphony Orchestra The Bern Symphony Orchestra (Berner Symphonie-Orchester) is a Swiss orchestra based in Bern. The orchestra primarily gives concerts at the ''Kursaal'' in Bern, and also acts as the orchestra of the Bern Theatre, for opera and dance performances. ...

. Between 2009 and 2012, Diakun headed the Spanish

contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to: Genres or audiences * Adult contemporary music * British contemporary R&B * Christian adult contemporary * Christian contemporary hit radio * Con ...

band ''Smash Ensemble''. In 2010, she obtained a doctoral degree from the

Academy of Music in Kraków The Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków () is a music school, conservatory located in central Kraków, Poland. It is the ''alma mater'' of the renowned Polish contemporary composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who was also its rector for 15 ...

. Since 2011, she has worked as an assistant professor at the

in Wrocław. In 2012, she won second prize at the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

. She also won second prize at the 59th Prague Spring Competition for Conductors in the Czech Republic. Between 2015 and 2017, she was an assistant to

Mikko Franck Mikko Franck (born 1 April 1979) is a Finnish conductor and violinist. Biography Franck was born in Helsinki. He began learning the violin at the age of 5 and started violin studies at the Sibelius Academy in 1992. The Academy let Franck conduct ...

, the principal conductor of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. In 2015, she received a scholarship from the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

at the

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, c ...

. In 2016, she was awarded the Paszport Polityki Award in the category of classical music. In September 2019, Diakun first guest-conducted the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie. From 2021 to 2024, Diakun was principal conductor and artistic director of the

Community of Madrid Orchestra The Community of Madrid Orchestra () is a Spanish symphony orchestra based in Madrid. It is the resident orchestra at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid and performs its concert programmes at the Auditorio Nacional de Música. History Founded in ...

(''Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid''), the first female conductor to hold the post's in the orchestra's history. In March 2025, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie announced the appointment of Diakun as its next chief conductor, the first female conductor ever named to the post, effective with the 2026-2027 season.

References

External links

Official English-language homepage of Marzena Diakun

Schimmer PR German-language agency page on Marzena Diakun

Taki-Alsop Conducting Fellowship page on Marzena Diakun

Biography

References

External links

See also