Oriana Masternak
violin
Oriana Masternak is a violinist, chamber musician and professor of the arts, currently serving as Head of the Department of Violin and Viola at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków. She was awarded the title of professor at the age of 39, becoming one of the youngest individuals in Poland to receive this distinction.
She is widely recognized for her exceptional interpretative sensitivity and deep understanding of repertoire, with a particular focus on Polish music—both newly rediscovered works and contemporary compositions. She performs throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, appearing in venues such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and at prestigious festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Carinthischer Sommer, the Pacific Music Festival, Warsaw Autumn and Sacrum Profanum. She has given nearly forty world premieres of contemporary works. Since 2014 she has been a member of the Messages Quartet, one of Poland’s leading string quartets.
A laureate of numerous national and international awards, she has received scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture, the “Young Poland” program, the European Chamber Music Academy and the Yale School of Music. She has been nominated several times for the Fryderyk Award and the Koryfeusz of Polish Music Award, and is a recipient of the “Musical Eagles” award (2022, 2024). In 2023 she was honored with the “Meritorious for Polish Culture” distinction.
She studied in Kraków, Brussels, Vienna and at the Yale School of Music. Her teachers included Johannes Meissl, Katalin Sebestyén, Roman Reiner, Małgorzata Skorupa, as well as members of the Tokyo Quartet. She has an extensive discography of over fifteen albums released by labels such as DUX, Acte Préalable, SOLITON and UMFC. She regularly collaborates with Polish Radio and other media.
Alongside her concert career she maintains an active pedagogical and organizational profile, giving masterclasses in Poland and abroad, initiating artistic and educational projects, and serving on the juries of major Polish violin competitions, including the National Violin Competition named after Eugenia Umińska and the National Violin Competition named after Zdzisław Jahnke. Her artistic and research interests focus on Polish music and the tradition of the Kraków violin school. In 2024 she received a prestigious research grant from the National Science Centre for a project devoted to this subject.
In her artistic and pedagogical work she is guided by the conviction that performance is a form of responsible dialogue with a musical work—based on stylistic awareness, deep knowledge and the search for authentic expression. She combines a strong emphasis on technical mastery with a commitment to nurturing the artistic individuality and creative freedom of young musicians.
She performs on an instrument made by Sebastian Lang in 1788.