graduated with distinction in orchestral and operatic conducting  from Jan Wincenty Hawel’s class at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he now heads the Department  of Symphony and Opera Conducting. From 2006 to 2013, he was  artistic director of the Karol Szymanowski Academic Symphony  Orchestra, working with conductors including Gabriel Chmura,  Takuo Yuasa, François-Xavier Roth, Arturo Tamayo, Jacek Kaspszyk, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Paul McCreesh. He is also a graduate of the Academy of Music in Cracow, where he studied oboe  with Jerzy Kotyczka. As a scholarship holder at Siena’s Accademia  Musicale Chigiana, he developed his conducting in masterclasses  with Gianluigi Gelmetti (2001) and Lothar Zagrosek (2002). Further masterclasses were led by Gabriel Chmura, Kurt Masur, Zoltán Peskó, and Pierre Boulez. His awards include the 1st Prize  at the 2nd National Review of Young Conductors in Białystok  (1998) and two special awards at the 6th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Kato wice (1999). He has  repeatedly held scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture  and the Arts. 

In 2014, the Polish Composers’ Union gave him its  Honorary Award for his contribution to promoting Polish contemporary music. He is artistic director and conductor of Ensemble OMN and works  regularly with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra  in Katowice. His record encompasses more than 140 world and  Polish premieres. With OMN, he has made numerous awardwinning broadcast and commercial recordings. His recording  of Pa weł Sz ymański’s Three Songs to Words by Trakl was recommended by the International Rostrum of Composers in June 2007.  The same distinction followed in 2009 for Magdalena Długosz’s  Gemisatos, performed with Sinfonia Varsovia, and Ewa Trę bacz’s  things lost things invisible, performed with the Karol Szy ma nowski  Academic Symphony Orchestra. An album of cello concertos by  Scandinavian composers Per Nørgård, Arne Nordheim, and Kaija  Saariaho, recorded with cellist Jakob Kullberg, won Danish Radio’s  Lyt til Nyt Pris for 2012 in January 2013. A Decca album with  Italian clarinettist Michele Marelli and OMN followed in 2016.

Since 2011, he has served on Warsaw Autumn’s Programme  Committee. From 2013 to 2016, he was artistic director of Musica  Polonica Nova; since 2014, he has run OMN’s concert series at  the home of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in  Katowice. He has conducted philharmonic, radio, and chamber  orchestras throughout Poland and abroad. In 2023 and 2024, he  led the International Contemporary Music Courses in Boswil  and Lucerne, Switzerland. At the 2023 Warsaw Autumn, it was  Bywalec who conducted the Festival’s opening concert at Warsaw Philharmonic, featuring a complete performance of Gérard  Grisey’s Les Espaces acoustiques.

In 2024, he was awarded the title of Professor of Arts. For his  work promoting Polish contemporary music abroad, the Polish Composers’ Union honoured him again with its 2025 annual  award. Under his direction – above all in performances by OMN  – Polish music has been heard in Austria, Belgium, Czechia,  Denmark, Estonia, France, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden,  Hungary, China, South Korea, and Kyrgyzstan.

In September 2026, he became general and artistic director of  Zabrze Philharmonic.