During the early life his music was associated with Poznań. It was here that he studied law, dreaming of a career as a diplomat. The communist reality verified the young man's plans who realized that there was no place for him in politics so he decided to focus on music. It seemed a natural choice - Kaczmarek came from a very musical family. His grandfather was a violinist, and his mother an enthusiast of Poznań Philharmonic. The future composer took piano lessons as a child and composed music for school productions.

The beginnings of Kaczmarek's professional music career were connected with the theatre. In the seventies, he did an internship in the avant-garde Theatre Laboratory, and then took a job in a politically active Theatre of the Eighth Day, where he managed to create his own Orchestra of the Eighth Day.

The next step was the conquest of foreign markets. In 1982 Kaczmarek went with his group of musicians on a tour of the United States, where he recorded his debut album Music For The End for an independent label Flying Fish Records in Chicago. The next few years are a success story, providing the composer with international fame. To fully develop his career in 1989 Kaczmarek chose to reside permanently in Los Angeles.

The nineties begin a particularly prolific period in the creative work of Jan Kaczmarek. He works for the leading US theatres and wins many prestigious awards, among them Drama Desk prize awarded by the New York critics for the best theatre music of the year for Joanne Akalaitis' play Tis Pity She's a Whore in 1992.

Kaczmarek achieves even greater triumphs in the field of film music. In total, he has composed soundtracks for more than 50 feature films and documentaries, such as Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, Washington Square by Agnieszka Holland, Lost Souls by Janusz Kaminski, Quo Vadis by Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Marc Forster's Finding Neverland. The score for the last film won the composer an Academy Award in 2005 and nominations for Golden Globe and BAFTA.

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Do you know?

• Jan Kaczmarek is a virtuoso of the double bow instrument called Fidolia Fischer – a stringed instrument similar to the zither. In 1983 Kaczmarek designed his own instrument, based Fidolia called niewkacz.
• The composer makes records for many renowned music labels, including Sony Classical, Decca, EMI and Savitor Records.
• Kaczmarek plays regular concerts in the US and Europe. He is also a member of the American and European Film Academies.
• In 2004 Jan A.P. Kaczmarek founded Instytut Rozbitek, conceived as a place for working meetings of representatives of film, music and theatre, promoting artistic freedom and cultural educational activities.
• Another initiative of Kaczmarek is the Transatlantic Festival - an international festival of music and film held in Poland since 2011.