composer and cellist; b. 28th March 1984 in Łódź. He attended the Henryk Wieniawski Secondary School of Music in Łódź, where he studied cello with Robert Fender. In 2003 he won the 2nd prize at the Student Music Forum in Warsaw for Two Arabesques for chamber orchestra. He studied musicology at the Jagiellonian University for a year, then composition (2004-2009) at the Academy of Music in Krakow under Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar and Wojciech Widłak. In the 2006/2007 academic year, thanks to a Socrates-Erasmus scholarship, he studied at Birmingham Conservatoire under Joe Cutler and Edwin Roxburgh. In 2009 he graduated with honours from his alma mater and began the Masters of Music programme at Rotterdam Conservatory. He studied composition with Peter-Jan Wagemans and Rene Uijlenhoet (electronic music), and graduated with honours in 2011. In 2010 he started his PhD studies at the Academy of Music in Krakow, where he currently works and organises academic sessions as an assistant at the Composition Department.
He participated in the "Composer Collider" workshops run by musikFabrik, well-known ensemble specializing in performing new music.
Płonka's works have been performed at such prestigious festivals as Festival of Contermporary Music "Warsaw Autumn", International Days of Kraków Composers, or Birmingham Chamber Music Society Festival. In 2006 he won the f1st prize at the Tadeusz Ochlewski Composition Competition held by PWM Edition for Konstrukcja w metalu (Construction in Metal) for trumpet solo.