Performers

He graduated with an honours degree in opera and orchestra conducting from Katowice’s Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, where he is currently a lecturer. In 2006–2013 he was the artistic director of the Karol Szymanowski Academic Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. He also graduated in oboe from Academy of Music in Kraków. He received scholarships from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and the Polish Minister of Culture and Art, as well as prizes in numerous conducting competitions, and the President of the City of Katowice Award.

He is the permanent conductor of Ensemble OMN (Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej), with which he has appeared at prestigious contemporary music festivals. He has conducted numerous world and Polish premieres. The albums he recorded with OMN have won the record industry’s numerous accolades in Poland and abroad (incl. a Fryderyk nomination and the Danish Radio’s Lyt til Nyt Pris). He has recorded for Polish Radio and such labels as Decca, DUX, Aurora, Anaklasis, and others.

Bywalec has conducted orchestras in Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Italy. In Poland he has led the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR). Sinfonia Varsovia, and Polish Radio Orchestra. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Warsaw Autumn Programme Board; in 2013–2016 he held the position of director of Musica Polonica Nova festival.

In 2023 and 2024 he led the International Courses of Contemporary Music in Boswil/Lucerne (Switzerland).


Phot. Izabela Lechowicz