Janusz Olejniczak

Janusz Olejniczak (2 October 1952 – 20 October 2024) was a Polish classical pianist, academic teacher and actor. He made an international career as a pianist, especially with the piano music of Chopin which he played on modern and period instruments. He portrayed the composer in the 1991 film Blue Note, and played piano music in the 2002 film The Pianist, also appearing as the hand double. Olejniczak was born in Wrocław on 2 October 1952. He began playing piano at the age of six. The family moved to Warsaw where he had piano lessons from Luiza Walewska; he was trained by Ryszard Bakst and Zbigniew Drzewiecki from 1967 to 1969. In 1970, he placed sixth in the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, and two years later he placed fourth in the Alfredo Casella Piano Competition in Naples. He studied in Paris with Constantine Schmaeling and Witold Małcużyński from 1971 to 1973. He returned to Poland where he studied at the Higher State School of Music in Warsaw with Barbara Hesse-Bukowska. He completed post-graduate studies from 1977 to 1978 with Victor Merzhanov in Warsaw and with Paul Badura-Skoda at the Folkwangschule in Essen.