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WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA & CHOIR
THE ORCHESTRA
The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert on 5 November 1901 at the newly built Philharmonic Hall. The Orchestra was conducted by Emil Młynarski, the Philharmonic’s co-founder, first Music Director and Principal Conductor, while the soloist was Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Both before the First World War and between the world wars, the Philharmonic became a key centre of musical life in Poland and one of Europe’s leading musical institutions.
In the early years after the Second World War, the Orchestra’s concerts were held in theatres and sport halls. On 21 February 1955, the Philharmonic moved to a new seat (its old hall had been destroyed by German bombs) and was granted the status of Poland’s national orchestra. Under its new director, Witold Rowicki, it regained its reputation as Poland’s foremost symphony orchestra.
From 1955 to 1958, the position of Artistic Director was held by Bohdan Wodiczko, before Rowicki’s second stint, ending in 1977, when Kazimierz Kord took over. Between January 2002 and August 2013, Antoni Wit was the Philharmonic’s Managing and Artistic Director. From the 2013/2014 season, the post of Artistic Director was held by Jacek Kaspszyk, who was succeeded in 2019 by Andrzej Boreyko.
Today the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys worldwide popularity and acclaim. It has made over 150 concert tours on five continents, appearing in all of the world’s major concert halls. It also regularly performs during the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ International Festival of Contemporary Music, and records for Polish state radio and television (TVP), as well as Polish and foreign record labels and film companies. The Orchestra has frequently received prestigious awards, including a Grammy in 2013 (and six other Grammy nominations) for its recordings of large-scale vocal-instrumental works by Penderecki and Szymanowski, Diapason d’Or, ICMA, Gramophone Award, Record Geijutsu, Classical Internet Award, Cannes Classical Award and Fryderyk award from the Polish Phonographic Academy. In 2016 the Orchestra also launched regular online streaming of selected concerts.
THE CHOIR
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir began its professional artistic activity in 1953, under the direction of Zbigniew Soja. Its successive choirmasters were: Roman Kuklewicz (1955-71), Józef Bok (1971-74), Antoni Szaliński (1974–1978), and Henryk Wojnarowski (1978–2016), and since January 2017, the post has been held by Bartosz Michałowski.
The Choir has performed in the most important centres of European music life along with such major orchestras as e.g. the Berliner Philharmoniker (September 2013). Highlights of the Choir’s career include appearances in opera productions at Milan’s La Scala, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, as well as operas in Pesaro, Palermo and Paris. The singers also took part in three gala concerts for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir has sung under such eminent Polish and foreign masters of the baton as Gary Bertini, Andrzej Boreyko, Sergiu Comissiona, Henryk Czyż, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Lorin Maazel, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Zubin Mehta, Grzegorz Nowak, Seiji Ozawa, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Simon Rattle, Witold Rowicki, Jerzy Semkow, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, Stanisław Wisłocki, Antoni Wit, and Bohdan Wodiczko.
Warsaw Philharmonic Choir’s vast repertoire comprises more than 400 large-scale vocal-instrumental and unaccompanied works from the Middle Ages to the present day. Polish music, and in particular – the works of Krzysztof Penderecki – takes pride of place in this repertoire. The Choir has performed all of the latter composer’s large-scale vocal-instrumental and unaccompanied works. In February 2017, the Choir received the most prestigious award of the phonographic industry, a Grammy, in the “Best Choral Performance” category, for the first CD in the Penderecki Conducts Penderecki series. The Choir’s released recordings have earned them six Grammy nominations (five for Penderecki’s music, one for Szymanowski), as well as a Fryderyk Award (for Moniuszko’s Masses Vol. I) and the “Orphée d'Or - Prix Arturo Toscanini” of the French Academie du Disque Lyrique (Masses Vol. II).