Authors
Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa
Composer, conductor, and educator. In 1974 she graduated from the Kraków’s Academy of Music after conducting and composition studies with Krzysztof Penderecki. She continued her education at conducting masterclasses with Hans Swarowsky in Austria.
Music director of the Ludowy Theatre in Nowa Huta, later – of the Stary Theatre in Kraków; managing director of Kraków State Philharmonic in 1991–1997; Minister of Culture and Art in 1997–1999. As the managing and programme director of the NOSPR Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice in 2000–2018 she initiated all of the Orchestra’s projects, including ‘A Marathon of Górecki’s Music’, ‘Train to Kilar’s Music’, and the biennial Festival of Premieres – Polish Modern Music. The new NOSPR venue with a 1800-seat concert hall boasting unique acoustics was erected under her tenure. She also launched the International Karol Szymanowski Music Competition, whose aim is to promote Polish music worldwide as well as the importance of Szymanowski and his music. Lecturer at Kraków’s Academy of Music at the Chair of Music Analysis and Interpretation from 1974.
Music for the theatre occupies an important place in her output as a composer. She has written, among others music for such spectacles as Ionesco’s Exit the King and Moliere’s The Misanthrope (Stary Theatre, Kraków), Shakespeare’s Richard III (Wybrzeże Theatre, Gdańsk), Gombrowicz’s Operetta (Wilam Horzyca Theatre, Toruń) as well as Polish Television Theatre (e.g. Słowacki’s The Silver Dream of Salomea, listed among that series’ ‘golden hundred’, dir. Krzysztof Nazar). She has also created music arrangements for TV plays, including some directed by Kazimierz Kutz: Handling Bach, Antigone in New York, The Emigrants, Uncle Vanya, and Grain Washed in Blood). Having retired, in 2018 she intensely focused on composing music. Her most recent pieces were first presented during the Festival of Premieres (Preludē et Grande Fugue ‘La Catastrophe’, NOSPR, 2019) and at the Pomeranian Philharmonic (Listen, Nero! 2020).
Her works are published by PWM Edition.
Phot. Bartek Barczyk
Music director of the Ludowy Theatre in Nowa Huta, later – of the Stary Theatre in Kraków; managing director of Kraków State Philharmonic in 1991–1997; Minister of Culture and Art in 1997–1999. As the managing and programme director of the NOSPR Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice in 2000–2018 she initiated all of the Orchestra’s projects, including ‘A Marathon of Górecki’s Music’, ‘Train to Kilar’s Music’, and the biennial Festival of Premieres – Polish Modern Music. The new NOSPR venue with a 1800-seat concert hall boasting unique acoustics was erected under her tenure. She also launched the International Karol Szymanowski Music Competition, whose aim is to promote Polish music worldwide as well as the importance of Szymanowski and his music. Lecturer at Kraków’s Academy of Music at the Chair of Music Analysis and Interpretation from 1974.
Music for the theatre occupies an important place in her output as a composer. She has written, among others music for such spectacles as Ionesco’s Exit the King and Moliere’s The Misanthrope (Stary Theatre, Kraków), Shakespeare’s Richard III (Wybrzeże Theatre, Gdańsk), Gombrowicz’s Operetta (Wilam Horzyca Theatre, Toruń) as well as Polish Television Theatre (e.g. Słowacki’s The Silver Dream of Salomea, listed among that series’ ‘golden hundred’, dir. Krzysztof Nazar). She has also created music arrangements for TV plays, including some directed by Kazimierz Kutz: Handling Bach, Antigone in New York, The Emigrants, Uncle Vanya, and Grain Washed in Blood). Having retired, in 2018 she intensely focused on composing music. Her most recent pieces were first presented during the Festival of Premieres (Preludē et Grande Fugue ‘La Catastrophe’, NOSPR, 2019) and at the Pomeranian Philharmonic (Listen, Nero! 2020).
Her works are published by PWM Edition.
Phot. Bartek Barczyk
