Marian Polin comes from South Tyrol (Italy). He received his first organ lessons there and, already in his early teens, gained initial experience as a choir conductor and organist. He studied church music and organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and then deepened his studies at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. As a scholarship holder of the “Fondation d’Orgue de Fribourg”, he studied organ (“Master concert”) at the Haute École de Musique Lausanne/Fribourg; his master’s thesis, An Organ Manuscript around 1700 as a Source for Monastic Music-Making Practice in the Benedictine Nuns’ Monastery of Müstair, was awarded the “Prix d’excellence”. At the same time, he pursued postgraduate studies in basso continuo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Among his most influential teachers are Pier Damiano Peretti, Wolfgang Glüxam, Maurizio Croci and Jörg-Andreas Bötticher.
In 2017, as a finalist in the Paul Hofhaimer Competition (Innsbruck), he won third prize at the “Grand Prix d’ECHO” in Treviso; in 2022 he won first prize at the International Daniel Herz Organ Competition in Brixen (Italy).
From 2016 to 2022, Polin worked as a church musician and organist, among others, at Chur Cathedral (Switzerland), the Catholic All Saints’ Church in Zurich (Switzerland), and the Jesuit/University Church in the centre of Innsbruck (Austria), where he was able to build up the “Capella Claudiana”, a professional vocal and instrumental ensemble specialising in historical church music.
Since 2023, Marian Polin has held the chair of church music and choral conducting at the Claudio Monteverdi Conservatory in Bolzano (Italy). Since 2022 he has been the artistic director of the international early-music concert series “Innsbrucker Hofmusik”, which he co-founded, in the Court Church of Innsbruck (in cooperation with the Tyrolean State Museums), as well as of “OrgelKunst – Festival of the International Organ Academy Vinschgau–Meran” (formerly the Schloss Goldrain Organ Academy, founded in 1990 by Andrea Marcon and Dietrich Oberdörfer). He is also choirmaster of the ensemble VocalArt Brixen (Italy).
As an advisor for new organ projects and restorations, he has worked, among others, with Hendrik Ahrend, Yves Koenig and Giovanni Pradella.
He received decisive impulses for his artistic development through musical assistantships in the masterclasses of “Urbino Musica Antica” (Alessandro Quarta / “Motetti romani”) and of the “BarockOperJung” programme at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music (J. Mattheson: Boris Goudenow), where he took part in the production under conductor Andrea Marchiol as “Maestro al cembalo”.
The ensemble “La florida Capella”, founded by Marian Polin, received the I. H. F. Biber Prize (St. Florian/Austria) in 2021 and made its debut at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, followed by invitations to renowned early-music festivals, radio recordings, and CD recordings featuring music by Barbara Strozzi and Alessandro Melani.
As a concert organist, ensemble leader or ensemble partner, he has appeared in numerous European countries, including at festivals such as the “Innsbruck Festival of Early Music”, “Festival Musica Sacra Bolzano/Trento”, “Musik & Kirche Brixen”, “Canne al Vento” (Bolzano), “I Tesori d’Orfeo” (Pavia), “LanAntiqua” (Lana), “Semana Internacional de Órgano Madrid” (Spain), “Festival Internacional de Órgão de Braga” (Portugal), “Tage Alter Musik Herne” / WDR 3, “Stockholm Early Music Festival”, “Biržai Baroque Spring” (Lithuania), “Festival International d’Orgue de Fribourg”, and “VielKlang” Tübingen (Germany).
He has also collaborated with ensembles such as “Concerto dei Venti”, “Cappella dell’Halla”, Ensemble Antiphonus (Zagreb), “Theresia Orchestra”, “Labirinti armonici”, “Tiroler Barockinstrumentalisten”, “InVocare”, “Quadriga Musica”, “Rosarum Flores” and the “Marini Consort”; in 2022 he devised a concert programme for the “Basler Abendmusiken”.
A series of CD, YouTube and radio recordings (ORF, RAI, WDR) documents his versatile work; as part of a fruitful collaboration with the Tyrolean State Museums, several (first) recordings of Baroque vocal and keyboard music were produced under his direction.