Jarosław Zieliński studied at the Conservatory of Lviv in Mikuli, and later at the Vienna Conservatory of Julius Schulhoff. He fought in the January Uprising and was wounded. He emigrated in 1864 to the United States, where he joined the cavalry and participated in the Civil War on the Union side. After the war he returned to the music profession. He lived in New York, Buffalo, and from 1910 in Los Angeles, where he founded a piano trio and was director of the music school. He composed many works for piano and vocal, and gained recognition as a music critic and expert on Eastern European music.