Fiona Pollak was born in Vienna in 1986. She received her first piano lessons at Vienna Music School
at the age of five. In 1997 she was accepted as a young student into the organ class of Rudolf Scholz at
Vienna University of Music and the Performing Arts. At the same institution she specialized in piano
chamber music in the class of Avedis Kouyoumdjian from 2005 to 2007, and successfully concluded
her organ studies in 2010.
From 2012 to 2015, Fiona Pollak was the titular organist of the municipal parish church of Korneuburg
and curator of the Heiller organ. For the 2013/14 academic year she switched over to the class of
Graham Johnson at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She went on studying vocal
accompaniment in the class of David Lutz at Vienna University of Music and the Performing Arts,
where she obtained her diploma in 2016, unanimously awarded summa cum laude by the jury.
Fiona Pollak was a prizewinner at the First International Competition for Voice and Organ in Neuss,
Germany. In tandem with her brother, tenor Angelo Pollak, she won First Prize at the Vocallis Festival
in Vaals/NL in 2014; soon thereafter, the duo won Third Prize at the International Song Duo Competition
in Enschede/NL.
In 2016 Fiona Pollak was awarded the Special Prize as Best Vocal Accompanist at the renowned
Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau. That same year, with duo partner Ilker Arcayürek, she
was awarded First Prize at the International Art Song Competition in Stuttgart. Fiona Pollak teaches
solo piano and piano accompaniment at the Musikum Music School in Salzburg.
English Translation: Stanley Hanks