JAKUB STEFEK PHD, PHD

Organist, lecturer, author

Doctor of arts and doctor of economics, assistant professor at the Department of Music Theory and Didactics at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, organist at the Synagogue Pestalozzistrasse in Berlin, member of the board of the SPOT.ON ART Foundation.

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In 2015, he graduated with an excellent grade in organ playing at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the organ class of prof. Andrzej Chorosiński. As part of the Erasmus program, he also studied at the Kunstuniversitaet Graz in the class of prof. Gunther Rost. Since 2017, Jakub Stefek has been a lecturer at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, where he conducts classes in organ, chamber music, liturgical accompaniment, organization of artistic events, social communication and music lectures. In 2021, he obtained a PhD in musical arts at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. In 2022, he obtained a PhD in economics at the University of Economics in Katowice.

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As a musician, Jakub Stefek is active in the field of Jewish organ music. In February 2018, he participated in the first concert in the post-war history of Warsaw synagogues, during which organ works were performed in the Nożyk Synagogue. In the same year, he initiated the annual festival "Jewish Music Days in Szczecin". Since 2019, he has been cooperating with cantor Isidoro Abramowicz, director of cantorial studies at the Abraham Geiger Kolleg - rabbinical school in Berlin. Since 2020, he has been constantly cooperating with the Jewish Community in Berlin as the organist of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue - the only synagogue in Germany, which continues the 19th-century musical tradition of Reform Judaism to this day. With an artistic program called "Music of the New Synagogue" he performed at concerts in several cities in Poland, Germany and Israel. Thanks to the work of Jakub Stefek, organ works by many Jewish composers were performed for the first time since war in Poland.

The subject of his doctoral thesis was "The Organ Solo Works of Jewish composers of Central Europe in the years 1810–1938". It is the first book on this subject in Polish literature. In 2022, it received third prize at the 10th Majer Balaban Competition for the best doctoral theses on Jews and Israel, organized by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, as the first PhD thesis in the field of musical arts in the history of the competition.

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In 2021, the University of Potsdam released his album "Arno Nadel - Schire Simroh" with cantor Isidoro Abramowicz and the Choir of the Pestalozzisttrasse Synagogue in Berlin. In 2023 CD "Jakub Weiss - Psalms and Hymns" with Isidoro Abramowicz, Barbara Halec and the Chamber Choir of the Academy of Art in Szczecin has been released by DUX label. In 2023, he received the Creative Scholarship of the City of Szczecin to record another album. In 2023, Requiem Records in Warsaw released his solo album "THE ECHO OF THE TEMPLE", containing the world premieres of dedicated him works by Adam Porębski, Aleksandra Chmielewska, Anna Maria Huszcza, Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, Dariusz Przybylski and Ignacy Zalewski.

Further pioneering projects are under preparation, both restoring the cultural heritage of Central Europe and inspiring composers, artists and performers to constantly search for new paths of artistic expression.

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His greatest interests include performing arts marketing. He completed post-graduate studies "Academy of Management - modern company management practices" at the Warsaw School of Economics. He participated in artistic and scientific conferences, and also collaborated with, among others with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Main Board of the Polish Association of Choirs and Orchestras and the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin. He was a speaker at TEDx Warsaw, where his speeches about organ inspiration were listened live by several thousand people. Since 2017, he has been a board member of the SPOT.ON ART Foundation based in Szczecin, under which he has carried out over a dozen original projects. In addition, he takes part in initiatives popularizing knowledge about the history of culture in Szczecin. Since 2017, he has also been a lecturer at the "Culture Manager" postgraduate studies conducted by the University of Economics in Katowice. He is the author of publications, among others: "Defining recipients of organ music", "Cultural products in the opinion of consumers on the example of POLIN Museum" and "Was the organ hipster? A Historical Instrument in Contemporary Culture ”. The subject of his doctoral dissertation in this area was modeling consumer behavior on the performing arts market in Poland.