Jaroslaw (Jarek) Lis received his M.A. summa cum laude from the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland, and was a recipient of the prestigious Polish Ministry of Culture scholarship. As a youngest member of the Sinfonia Varsovia he has worked with Yehudi Menuhin, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Emannuel Krivine, as well as recorded for Denon and Aperto labels. He received an Artist Diploma and Master of Music degrees from the Yale School of Music. He has studied with Jan Jakuc, Wojciech Malinski, Zofia Kuberska, Julia Jakimowicz, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Syoko Aki, and the Tokyo String Quartet, and was a scholarship student of Nathan Milstein (Zurich, Switzerland). He has been a member of the Assai and Essex Quartets, receiving Second Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition with the Assai Quartet. He recorded on Roesch Records with Assai Quartet and Ahmad Jamal. He has been on the faculty of the Madeline Island Music Camp, the Palisade Arts Festival, Friends of Music Camp in South Korea and is a former director of the Music Adventure Camp at Tenuta di Spannocchia in Tuscany.
Jarek is currently a Principal second violin of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and is the chamber music coordinator and master teacher at the Trentino Music Festival. He is currently on the violin faculty at The Hartt School.