He studied cello at the music academies in Poznań and Łódź, and also completed postgraduate studies at the Universität der Künste in Berlin in the Baroque cello class of Phoebe Carrai and Markus Möllenbeck (diploma with honours).
In his work, he focuses primarily on the issues of historical performance practices. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician – in this role he has appeared at many Polish and international festivals of early music. He has collaborated with the most important Polish ensembles performing Baroque music. For several years he was the first cellist of the Dresdner Barockorchester, and for many years he also collaborated with the FestspielOrchester Göttingen. He has also performed with other leading German ensembles such as Cantus Cölln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Gaechinger Cantoray. He is a professor at the Academy of Music in Poznań, where he teaches a historical cello class. He also lectures at numerous masterclasses, above all as part of the Varmia Musica festival in Lidzbark Warmiński
Since 2006, Jarosław Thiel has been Artistic Director of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra – a resident ensemble of the National Forum of Music in Wrocław. From 2017–2022, he served as Deputy Director of Programming at the NFM. His discography includes a number of chamber music recordings, incl. an album with Cello Sonatas op. 5 and Beethoven’s Variations WoO 45 (CD Accord), which was nominated for a Fryderyk 2018 award. In recent years, Jarosław Thiels has also appeared more and more often as a conductor. The first recording of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra under his baton (Koželuh – Rejcha – Voříšek – Symphonies; CD Accord) won a Fryderyk 2011 in the “Phonographic Debut of the Year” category, and his other albums received a number of nominations for this award. Released in 2020, a CD with works by Kurpiński, Dobrzyński and Moniuszko (CD Accord) was nominated for an International Classical Music Award 2022. In 2022, new albums recorded under the artist’s baton were released: Kings in the North with the Czech baritone Tomáš Král (Aparté) and a premiere recording – Johann David Heinichen’s Dresden Vespers with Ensemble Polyharmonique (Accent). It has been nominated for an International Classical Music Award 2023 in the “Baroque Vocal” category.