A graduate of Prof. Kazimierz Pustelak’s class at the Academy of Music in Warsaw (Magna cum Laude), he won prizes at international competitions: a first at the Ada Sari (1999), a second at Bilbao (2000), a third at the Premio Caruso in Milan (2001), and another third at the F. Vinas in Barcelona (2004). He made his debut in the title part in Haendel’s Idomeneo at the Warsaw Chamber Opera (1999), where he also sang Mozart’s Don Giovanni; he was Leporello at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw and at Cape Town’s Nico Theatre, and Figaro at the Teatro Piccini in Bari. Parts in works by G. Rossini took him to the Teatro Alighieri (Ravenna), the Teatro Verdi (Pisa), the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki and to the Rossini Festival (Pesaro), the Belcanto Festival (Wildbad) and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence. His major successes include the parts of Salieri in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri at the Teatro Fiarmonico (Oviedo) and Douglas in Rossini’s La Donna del Lago under A. Zedda (Naxos). W. Gierlach is also a successful performer of oratorios and cantatas, including Bach’s Mass in B minor under H. Rilling and Haydn’s Harmonien-Messe under M. Bamert in Warsaw. He sang in Salieri’s Passion with I Solisti Veneti under Claudio Scimone (a RAI broadcast), Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Orquesta Simfonica de Asturias under A. Zedda and in Arvo Pärt’s St. John Passion at the Prague Spring Festival.