Martyna Pastuszka was born in Silesia, Poland. Over the years she has established herself as one of the most compelling musicians of her generation performing throughout Europe as a soloist, concertmaster, chamber musician and orchestra leader.

She made regular appearances with prominent baroque ensembles including Collegium 1704, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie and Philippe Herreweghe’s Collegium Vocale Gent. She also performed as a concertmaster with Ensemble Pygmalion, Le Concert de la Loge, Capella Cracoviensis and as a soloist with Concerto Copenhagen, Le Parlement de Musique and Aukso Chamber Orchestra. As an artistic leader and conductor Martyna has been invited to lead many ensembles including Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Iuventus and Polska Opera Kameralna.

In 2012, Martyna Pastuszka founded {oh!} Orkiestra, ensemble specialising with historically informed performance with which she appears regularly at renowned festivals and concert halls. {oh!} Orkiestra’s particular interest focuses on opera and oratorio repertoire. Martyna Pastuszka as the artistic director of the orchestra has restored many forgotten baroque pieces. Much repertoire has been brought back to the stages for the first time after hundreds of years, for instance Domenico Sarri’s Didone abbandonata, Johann Adolf Hasse’s Arminio, Leonardo Vinci’s Alessandro nell’Indie and Gismondo, re di Polonia, Antonio Cadara’s Il Venceslao and Jakob Schuback’s oratorio Die Jünger zu Emaus.

Martyna was appointed Artistic Director of the 2022 edition of Misteria Paschalia Festival in Cracow. While programming the whole edition she performed Mozart’s Davide Penitente as a leader of {oh!} Orkiestra in collaboration with Vox Luminis and Lionel Mounier.

In September 2022, Martyna together with {oh!} Orkiestra being a resident ensemble returned to Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival to lead a new staged opera production of Leonardo Vinci’s Alessandro nell’Indie, as well as a concert version of Tomaso Albinoni’s Il Nascimento dell’Aurora.

To date Martyna Pastuszka took part in an impressive number of over 60 CD releases. Her recent recordings were nominated for numerous prestigious awards including the Fryderyk Award, ICMA, Corypheus Polish Music Award and Polish Cultural Prize Paszport Polityki in the category “personality of the year”. In 2021, she was nominated for OPUS Klassik award in the category "conductor of the year" for the recording of Leonardo Vinci’s Gismondo, re di Polonia.

In 2021, Polish Public Television ‘Kultura' has recorded a documentary about Martyna Pastuszka and {oh!} Orkiestra titled ‘Nie jestem maestro’ [Don’t call me maestro].

Since 2007, in addition to her concert activities, Martyna Pastuszka teaches baroque violin at Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland.

Photo (c) Magdalena Hałas