Ignacy Miecznikowski was born in Krakow into a family of artists. He started violin lessons at the age of five. At the age of sixteen, he moved to France to study with Péter Csaba in Lyon. In 1998 he enrolled in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon to study viola under Tasso Adamopoulos, graduating in 2000. Starting in 1996, he began to acquire orchestral experience in various French ensembles. In 1998 he became principal viola of the Orchestre de l’Opéra National in Lyon, a position he held until joining the Berlin Philharmonic in 2009.