Jakub Józef Orliński

A pioneer of the countertenor voice in Poland, Jakub Józef Orliński has become a rising star of international opera in the 2010s and 2020s. He has made critically acclaimed appearances in the U.S. and Germany and has released several albums on Ëvoe and on the major Erato label. After he won the Gramophone Classical Music Award as Young Artist of the Year in 2019, Orliński found new opportunities. The role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice is among his specialties, and he recorded that opera on Erato in 2024. Orliński was backed by pianist Michał Biel in 2026 for the recording If Music....Orliński was born in Warsaw on December 8, 1990. He sang as a youth in the newly formed male choir Gregorianum and got a taste of international touring with that group. Orliński attended the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and went on for a master's degree there, studying vocal performance with Anna Radziejewska. Orliński earned a second graduate degree at the Juilliard School in New York, receiving his diploma in 2017; his teacher there was Edith Wiens. Orliński performed in Polish productions of Handel's Agrippina (as Narciso) and John Blow's Venus and Adonis. A sojourn in Germany, during which he played Ruggiero in Handel's Alcina at the Theater Aachen and gave a Purcell song recital at the Leipzig Opera, helped spread his name beyond Poland, as did several major first-place finishes in U.S. vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He made his recording debut with the album Vivaldi: Carnevale de Venezia on the Ëvoe label in 2017.His competition wins led to important roles, focusing on Handel, in the 2017 and 2018 seasons: Ottone in Agrippina at Carnegie Hall with La Serenissima; Handel's Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York; Jonathan Dove's Flight with the Juilliard Opera; the title role in Handel's Rinaldo at the Frankfurt Opera, and sacred works by Handel and Vivaldi at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival in Germany. A widely publicized video recording of Vivaldi's "Vedrò con mio diletto" released on a France Musique online video channel made the charismatic young countertenor an Internet star. In 2018, he released Anima Sacra, an album of little-known 18th century sacred arias, with the historical-performance orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro.In 2019 and 2020, Orliński received a series of awards, including the Best Singer of the Year title from the readers of Germany's Opernwelt magazine in September 2020. He continued to record for Erato, issuing the album Anima Æterna, a recital of unusual Italian Baroque arias. In 2022, he issued the recital Farewells with pianist Michał Biel, and 2023 saw the release of Beyond, a collection of Baroque arias recorded with Il Pomo d'Oro. Orliński returned in 2024 on Erato with a recording of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice with his own early music group, Il Giardino d'Amore. That year, he appeared before a worldwide audience in a performance at the Paris Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony. In 2026, Orliński's appearance at Le Gala des Pièces Jaunes saw the singer performing "Vedrò con mio diletto" as well as joining the Lamoureux Orchestra and conductor Adrien Perruchon in backing A$AP Rocky for "I Smoked Away My Brain (I'm God x Demons Mashup)." Orliński's recording If Music..., with backing once more by Biel, was issued in 2026.In addition to his busy operatic schedule, Orliński finds time to maintain his championship-level breakdancing skills; he is a member of the breakdancing group Skill Fanatikz Crew.
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