An acclaimed British conductor, composer, producer and performer, Robert Busiakiewicz trained at the Frank Schmidt Musikschule, Vienna, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and was a choral scholar at both King's College Cambridge, and King's College London, where he was a recipient of multiple awards and scholarships.
In July 2024 he was appointed director of music at St. Paul’s, Bloor Street, the largest church in Toronto. Recently, he was director of music at Toronto Cathedral (St. James, Anglican) in the heart of Canada’s largest diocese, from 2015-2020. There he ran multiple choirs and oversaw an ambitious programme with a vast repertoire of liturgies, concerts, recordings, and national broadcasts. Since 2021 he has worked as guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, served as director of music at the University of King's College Halifax (interim), and as consultant for the Emmy award-winning show The Handmaid's Tale. He has guest conducted the award-winning Soundstreams Choir 21, the Theatre of Early Music, and collaborated in creating a new production with the Dance Umbrella of Ontario. He is the founding artistic director of the celebrated vocal octet, Opus 8, and is an internationally recognised composer.
Much in demand as a choral practitioner and educator, he has led masterclasses and workshops across the Anglosphere with organisations such as One World Baroque, Eton Choral Courses, and Podium. After teaching harmony and counterpoint at King's College London, his work as a competition adjudicator and animateur has taken him to countless schools in collaboration with outreach groups such as Sing Up!
As a conductor he has worked with many soloists and ensembles including Angela Hewitt, David Briggs, The Band of the Royal Regiment, Gerald Finley, and The Talisker Players. He has conducted for the theatrical stage, live national radio & TV, and appears on recordings for Decca, Priory, Delphian Records, Hyperion, Orchid Classics, Regent, Warner and Analekta. A championer of contemporary music, he has led many world premiere performances including recent works by Cris Derksen, Robert Rival, Owen Pallett, John Gzowski, Matthew Larkin, Nancy Wertsch, Gareth Wilson, and Luna Pearl Woolf. He was shortlisted for the Canadian national Leslie Bell Prize for Conducting, and held music directorships with the King's Big Band, and the ADC Theatre.
His compositions have been commissioned and performed by The Cincinnati May Festival, Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, The Britten Sinfonia, Siglo de Oro, Victoria Cathedral, Bradford Cathedral, The Lontano Ensemble, Southwell Minster, The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, All Saints' Northampton, KCL Chapel Choir, and the Choir of King's College Cambridge, among others. He has composed full-scale works for dancers (Rest – Hercinia Arts), theatre (The Tempest – ADC), and screen (Electric Vision - Cannes Film Festival). He was awarded the Lord Mayor of London's prize for composition in 2013, and became a yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has also produced critical editions of renaissance choral polyphony for Mapa Mundi with David Trendell.
As a tenor he has performed and organised choral tours across the USA, Australia, Russia, and Europe at venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Hermitage Theatre St. Petersburg, the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Washington D.C. National Cathedral, and the Royal Albert Hall. He sang as a Lay Clerk at Southwell Minster, and was a founding member of the Gesualdo Six. As a soloist he has worked extensively across a wide repertoire from Gabrieli In Ecclesiis to Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Bach St. John Passion, Mozart Requiem & Le Nozze di Figaro, Tippett A Child of Our Time, Porter Anything Goes, Pärt Passio, Styne Funny Girl, Handel Messiah, Loesser Guys and Dolls, Britten War Requiem, and Haydn Die Schöpfung.
As a jazz pianist, saxophonist, and big band leader he has performed across Europe from the Barcelona Jazz Festival and Blenheim Palace, to the illustrious 100 Club, London Waldorf and Hilton hotels. In his student days he was nominated for the BBC Young Composer of the Year and Sibelius Young Composer of the Year, in the jazz category. The majority of his weekends between 2010-2013 were spent playing jazz piano in restaurants.
His mentors have included Stephen Cleobury, Paul Hale, Richard Causton, John Hopkins, Jeremy Thurlow, Justin Lavender, David Lowe, Gareth Wilson, Richard Meehan, Tom Lowe, David Trendell, Daniel Laubacher, Anton Hafenscher, Sarah Riad, and Stephen Dodsworth.