Agata Zając

Polish conductor Agata Zając leads an active international career, featuring performances across Europe and a distinguished series of debuts in the 2026/27 season, including the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orquestra Gulbenkian, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg, and Polish Royal Opera.

A prize-winner at major international competitions, she was awarded Second Prize at the Princess Astrid International Conducting Competition in Trondheim and both Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition in Manchester.

Based in the UK, her recent engagements include performances with The Hallé, Teatro Regio di Torino, Britten Sinfonia, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Grazer Philharmoniker, and Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est, alongside leading Polish ensembles such as NOSPR, Szczecin Philharmonic, and Poznań Philharmonic.

Agata’s career has been shaped by prestigious fellowships and assistantships under world-renowned conductors. She served as Conductor Fellow with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester under Alan Gilbert, Assistant Conductor to Ludovic Morlot at the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood under the mentorship of Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She also held the Mills Williams Junior Fellowship in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she is now an Associate Member.

Her repertoire spans the symphonic and operatic traditions, ranging from early Classicism and historically informed performance through to Romanticism and new music written nowadays. A committed advocate for Polish music, she has a particular affinity for Central and Eastern European literature and the works of Grażyna Bacewicz. Grounded in her background as a violinist, Agata’s conducting combines gestural precision with an expressive, energetic physical language — bringing acoustic clarity, rhythmic drive, and collaborative warmth to the orchestral podium.

Born in Poznań, Poland, Agata completed her initial musical training as a violinist before earning her conducting degree from the Poznań Academy of Music in 2020. She subsequently refined her craft with mentors including Paavo Järvi, Marin Alsop, Mark Heron, Jorma Panula, Johannes Schlaefli, and Peter Eötvös.

Full biography on request