Since 2014 Krzysztof Specjal is the Principal of the Second Violins at the Staatskapelle Berlin. He is a mentor for violin at the Orchesterakademie of the Staatskapelle Berlin as well as teacher for chamber music at the Barenboim-Said Akademie. He also belongs to the String Quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin, founded in 2016.

Krzysztof Specjal was born into a musical family in Warsaw in 1985. At the age of seven he started playing the violin. After graduating from the music high school in Warsaw with honours he went on to study with Prof. Krzysztof Wegrzyn at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media in Germany. At the same time he was accepted at the distinguished Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona with Salvatore Accardo. In 2007 he founded a quartet with fellow students with whom he successfully completed his studies of the degree programme “Kammermusik Master??? of the Szymanowski Quartet. Following his scholarship to attend the Orchesterakademie of the Staatskapelle Berlin from 2011 to 2012 he joined the Staatskapelle Berlin in 2012. Important sources of artistic inspiration were master classes with Wolfgang Marschner, Hatto Beyerle, Johannes Meissl, Shmuel Ashkenazy and Nam Yun Kim. Scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Gundlach Music Prize and the Friedrich-Juergen-Sellheim Foundation furthered Krzysztof Specjal’s education and made him the sought-after violinist he is today.

As chamber musician Krzysztof Specjal performed at festivals including the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, the Zeist Chamber Music Festival, the Braunschweig Classix Festival as well as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. On a regular basis he participates in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Boulez Ensemble.