Performers

The Great Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio (WOSPR) in Katowice (now as the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NOSPR) was founded in 1935 in Warsaw by Grzegorz Fitelberg, who directed it until World War II. In 1945 it was reactivated by Witold Rowicki in Katowice.

Born in Dunajowce (now Dunaivtsi in Ukraine), he learned the piano with Aleksander Wielhorski. He studied at universities in Kiev (a doctorate in Slavic philology) and Warsaw (law and mathemat-ics), as well as piano with Aleksander Michałowski and composition with Felicjan Szopski and Witold Maliszewski at the conservatory in Warsaw. He continued his composition studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1929–1932).
In 1927 he received an honourable mention in the 1st International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

NFM Orchestra (formerly Wrocław Symphony, and
Wrocław State Philharmonic in 1958–2014) is now
part of the National Forum of Music, established in
2014 on the initiative of Andrzej Kosendiak. Witold
Lutosławski has been the Orchestra’s patron since
1994.

He studied violin with Józef Jarzębski at Warsaw Conservatory and with André Gertler at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (1947–1948). Leader of Sopot Philharmonic Orchestra from 1945. From 1949 he taught at Warsaw’s State Higher School of Music, whose vice-chancellor he was in 1973–1975, and where he organised an Institute of Music Pedagogy. He also taught at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington (1965–1986).
Wroński gave performances throughout Europe as well as in Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, and the United States. He performed with orchestras, in a duo with Władysław Szpilman, with his own string quartet, and the Warsaw Quintet.

Artistic director and conductor of the Jan Szyrocki Academic Choir at Szczecin’s West Pomeranian University of Technology. He graduated in choral conducting from Jan Szyrocki’s class at the Szczecin branch of Poznań’s Academy of Music as well as in orchestra and opera conducting from Antoni Wit’s class at the Chopin Academy (now – University) of Music in Warsaw. He has conducted numerous ensembles in Poland, including the Sinfonia Varsovia, the philharmonic symphony orchestras in Szczecin and Kielce (Świętokrzyska Philharmonic), the Polish Radio Choir. In 2006 he became the artistic director and conductor of the Academic Choir at Szczecin Technical University.

Soprano, graduate of the Faculty of Voice and Drama at Kraków’s Academy of Music. In 2004 she received a Minister of Culture scholarship. She developed her vocal skills with Ingrid Kremling, Neil Semer, Kai Wessel, Charles Daniels, Olga Pasichnyk, and Vincent Dumestre. She focuses on early and contemporary classical music, collaborating as a soloist and chamber musician with such ensembles as the Gabrieli Consort, Le Poème Harmonique, Vox Luminis, Collegium 1704, Vasa Consort, Cappella Neapolitana, and Capella Cracoviensis.

He studied cello with Andrzej Bauer at Warsaw’s Chopin University of Music (an honours degree and the medal ‘Magna cum Laude’), with Julius Berger at the Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum Augsburg, as well as musicology at the University of Warsaw. He won the Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition in Warsaw (2007) and represented Polish Radio at the International Forum of Young Performers New Talent in Bratislava, winning its main prize (2008). Zdunik’s repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to contemporary; he is also a music composer.

He graduated in percussion from Edward Iwicki’s class at Warsaw’s Chopin Academy (now University) of Music. He has given performances in Europe, the United States, the Near East and Asia. He is the winner of a bronze medal of the Delphic Games of the Modern Era in South Korea (2009) in the category of solo percussion. As a highly regarded performer of contemporary classical music. Zemler has given performances with artists representing the experimental, free jazz, ethnic, rock, and popular music scenes.