A Polish countertenor who has quickly gained an international reputation as a singer of striking vocal beauty and stage presence. A graduate of vocal arts of the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, he continued his education at Juilliard School, New York. Mr. Orliński has won numerous singing competitions in Europe and the USA. He performs at famous operas and concert halls (Opéra de Lille, Oper Frankfurt, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center) and prestigious musical festivals (Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence). In 2018, he made his solo phonographic debut with Anima Sacra(Erato label) recorded with Il Pomo d’Oro and conducted by the Russian maestro Maksim Jemieljanyczew. In 2019 he released his second CD Facce d’amore. Jakub Józef Orliński won the “Gramophone Classical Music Award” for the best young artist (2019) and the title of Singer of the Year (2019) given by Opernwelt as well as “Polityka’s” 2020 Passport in the classical music category.

Jakub Józef Orliński appears courtesy of Erato/Warner Classics
https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/facce-damore
photo. Jiyang Chen

A dynamic and continually growing orchestra established in 2012, one of the leading Polish early music ensembles, {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna was created by a group of musicians who are passionate about historical performance and early music as well as their region. {oh!} is the first professional orchestra in Silesia playing historical instruments and has become the region’s cultural landmark, appreciated in Poland and abroad. The orchestra has recorded a number of well received CDs, including a 3-CD set of Leonardo Vinci’s Gismondo, re di Polonia, which was recently awarded the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkriti”, while its first performance in 2020 was nominated for the “Coryphaeus of Polish Music” award in the Event of the Year category. The ensemble regularly performs at Polish and foreign festivals. The orchestra’s concertmaster is Martyna Pastuszka, a violinist and “Polityka’s” nominee for its Passport in 2019.

Violinist, concertmaster and member of numerous international early music ensembles, she is also, since 2012, the leader and artistic director of {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, which quickly gained the trust and support of the biggest Polish musical institutions and international festivals. She serves as a guest concertmaster for such ensembles as Le Parlement de Musique or Capella Cracoviensis. As a chamber musician, she works with NeoBarock from Cologne, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie from Paris, Le Concert de la Loge, Hofkapelle München from Munich and Arte dei Suonatori from Poznań. Artistic encounters with such musicians as Rachel Podger, Giuliano Carmignola, Andrew Parrott, Julien Chauvin, Andreas Staier, Hidemi Suzuki, Barthold Kuijken, Dan Laurin and René Jacobs are for her a constant source of inspiration.

Created in 1970, Capella Cracoviensis is one of the most important and active Polish ensembles on the contemporary early music scene. It is famous for its semi-staged and concert productions of operas (baroque and early romantic) as well as its bold artistic gestures and surprising concert venues. The ensemble specialises in historical performance techniques and only performs on period instruments. It participates in numerous prestigious festivals like Bachfest Leipzig, Händel-Festspiele Halle, Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele and appears in concert halls around the world, including Opéra Royal Versailles, Theater an der Wien, Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Capella Cracoviensis is also a chamber choir with its repertoire ranging from Renaissance polyphony and mannerist madrigals to 19thand 20thcentury songs. The ensemble records for such labels as Alpha, Avi-Music and Decca. Its recording of Porpora’s Germanico in Germaniabrought the orchestra a prestigious “Diapason d’Or” award. Since 2008, the general and artistic director of Capella Cracoviensis has been Jan Tomasz Adamus.

A harpsichordist, organist, conductor and creator of culture, Jan Tomasz Adamus specialises in historically informed performance of a broad musical repertoire, from Renaissance polyphony to romantic symphony and opera. Since 2008, he has acted as general and artistic director ofa cultural institution, the Krakow early music orchestra and the mixed symphonic choir Capella Cracoviensis. He created and served as artistic director of the Harmonologia and Capella Claromontana ensembles. Jan Tomasz Adamus was also an artistic co-ordinator of Forum Musicum, a Wroclaw early music festival. Since 2000 he has been artistic director of the Bach Festival in Świdnica. He has recorded numerous CDs with solo organ works, baroque operas and the romantic repertoire on historical instruments (Chopin, Schubert, Moniuszko, Wagner). He lectured at the Academy of Music in Wroclaw and Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz.

A graduate of Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg and Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Magdalena Karolak developed her historical performance skills at, inter alia, Conservatorio di Verona 'Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco' and Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg. Winner of top prizes at international competitions. She specialises in early music and historically informed performance and regularly plays with ensembles such as ll Giardino Armonico, Il Pomo d'Oro, Accademia Bizantina, Capella Cracoviensis, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, I Barocchisti, Arte dei Suonatori, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and La Capella Reial de Catalunya. As a soloist, she has performed alongside such distinguished artists as Philippe Jaroussky, Franco Fagioli, Joyce DiDonato and Sandrine Piau and under numerous conductors like Jerzy Semkow, Marc Minkowski, Nello Santi, Adam Fischer and Jordi Savall.

An early music ensemble created in 1993 that has made a name for itself on the international music scene. The orchestra has a repertoire of over 700 compositions from the Baroque, Classicism and early Romanticism. The ensemble specialises in early music, but its vast repertoire also includes works by 20thcentury composers as well as contemporary compositions. They co-operate with soloists and conductors from all over Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan, including names such as Rachel Podger, Bolette Roed, Martin Gester and Hidemi Suzuki. A winner of many prizes and distinctions, Arte dei Suonatori enjoys a lasting popularity among music critics and audiences. The ensemble’s recordings were distinguished with awards such “Diapason d’Or”, “Gramophone Editor's Choice”, “Choc du Monde de la Musique” and “Classics Today”. Arte dei Suonatori has also made numerous recordings for many radio stations, including the BBC, Polish Radio Programme II, SWR and Mezzo.

One of the most recognisable harpsichordists of the young generation, Świątkiewicz plays various types of harpsichords and clavichords, as well as period pianos and organs. He is particularly passionate about improvisation. As a soloist, conductor, and chamber musician he collaborates regularly with the forefront of Polish and international orchestras and ensembles, including Brecon Baroque, Arte dei Suonatori, {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, and AUKSO. In 2015, he recorded a solo album with Müthel’s late-Baroque harpsichord concertos, which was awarded the Diapason d’Or. Two years later he issued another solo recording entitled ‘Cromatica’, which won a series of awards. For the ‘Rosary Sonatas’ by Biber, recorded with Rachel Podger, David Miller, and Jonathan Manson, Świątkiewicz received the ‘Gramophone Award’. In he was also awarded the prestigious “Polityka” weekly’s Passport Award. The artist is also a lecturer at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He pays particular attention to the teaching of solo playing and to courses of partimento-based improvisation.

The launch of the Royal Baroque Ensemble was related to Dramma per musica, a festival of Baroque operas. The ensemble made its debut in 2014 with the premier performance of Handel’s Agrippinain the Royal Theatre of the Łazienki Royal Baths, Warsaw and has served as the festival host ever since. The Royal Baroque Ensemble specialises in vocal and instrumental music and staged performances. The ensemble made a name for itself as one of the leading baroque orchestras in Poland with performances of such baroque operas as Handel’s Orlando, Vinci’s Semiramide riconosciuta,Vivaldi’s Farnace, the Teatro alla Modaprogramme of Vivaldi’s arias based on Benedetto Marcello’s satirical pamphlet, the18thcentury music – all’italiana i alla polaccaconcert series and the choreo-opera Sognando la morte.The orchestra usually performs under the leadership of Lilianna Stawarz, a chamber harpsichordist and founder of the Royal Baroque Ensemble.

Harpsichordist and teacher, Professor at the Chopin University of Music. Graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Music and Conservatoire National de Region de Rueil-Malmaison. Laureate of harpsichord competitions in Poland and abroad. For 20 years, she was a member of the early music ensemble Il Tempo specialised in instrumental as well as instrumental and vocal music, from Early Baroque to Classicism, with which she appeared at numerous concerts and prestigious early music festivals, i.a. in Bruges, Brussels, Utrecht, Moscow, New York, New Brunswick, Rome and Berlin. Since 1991, she has worked with the Warsaw Chamber Opera as a harpsichordist and chamber musician as well as conductor. She has conducted works by Bach, Purcell and Handel, as well as providing basso continuo. Her interest in early music in Poland manifests itself in her recordings and concerts of the repertoire of Marcin Mielczewski, Damian Stachowicz, Marcin Żebrowski, Antoni Milwid. In 2015–2017, she was the artistic director of Baroque Opera at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. She is also a cofounder of the Baroque Opera Festival “Dramma Per Musica”.

Multiinstrumentalist, singer, composer, and educator, Pomianowska is among leading Polish performers of folk and ethnic music (world music). Since the beginning of her activities in the field of music and musical research, she has focussed on unique performance practices of various European, Asian, and Middle-Eastern cultures. As a soloist, she has been concerting all over the world. Pomianowska collaborates with musicians from the Arab world, from Pakistan, Senegal, Iran, Korea, China, Japan, and India. She was the ambassadress of Polish classical and folk music in Japan during her stay in that country in 1997–2002. She took part in the reconstruction of extinct Polish string instruments: the Biłgoraj Suka and Płock fiddle, as well as of the Mielec Suka. She initiated the formation of such ensembles as Zespół Polski, San-Nin Trio, and Arcus Poloniae; besides, she established the Raga Sangit, the first Polish group performing Indian music. Maria Pomianowska is also a Ph.D. of Musical Arts and professor of the Academy of Music in Kraków.

Singer of traditional music; depositary and performer of the oral tradition of Polish music. Born in 1970 and brought up in north-eastern Mazovia, he digested a repertoire of devotional songs while growing up under the care of his grandmother who was the daughter of a village chanter and then took over his role in the local community. From childhood, he absorbed a manner of performed hymns that dated back to the period before World War I and most importantly involved solely the natural scales. At the age of twenty-two he returned to the countryside where he would sing with the local chanter Wincenty Nasiadko, doing, as he put it himself, ‘his apprenticeship under the guidance of a master’. Strug is currently active as a singer and song-writer; he is also the leader of the Monodia Polska ensemble and hosts numerous meetings during which, together with some volunteers, he performs a repertoire of traditional Polish songs. In addition, he records albums with both traditional, and his own, music, and also assists in contemporary renderings of historic repertoire (see, for instance, the ‘Requiem ludowe’ recorded with the Kwadrofonik ensemble). listen

Graduate of the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk and the Nederlandse Beiaardschool in Amersfoort, and the bursary of the City of Gdańsk (holder of the Mayor’s Scholarship and Cultural Scholarship) and of the Government of the Netherlands (Huygens Scholarship). She started to learn the carillon in 2000 during courses taught by Gert Oldenbeuving, organised by the Historical Museum of the City of Gdańsk. Since 2001, she has held the position of Municipal Carillonist. In 2005, Kaźmierczak took part in master courses in Belgium taught by Geert D’hollander. She is a prize-winner of international carillon competitions. She gives numerous concerts in Poland and worldwide, for instance in Lithuania, France, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, and the United States. She also holds the position of Assistant Professor at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk.

One of the most distinguished Baroque violinists of the young generation, he graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków, the Maastricht Academy of Music, and the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse). As a concertmaster, he has led the most eminent ensembles such as Contrasto Armonico, Ensemble Marguerite Louise, and Orchester 1756. He has given concerts and recorded with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations, as well as with Marco Vitale and Contrasto Armonico. He has also performed at the most important festivals in Europe and the United States. He is the founder of the Cantate.fr ensemble and the Il Giardino d’Amore orchestra and leader of the Cappella dell'Ospedale della Pietà and of The FeelHarmony Symphony Orchestra. He regularly runs master classes in Oslo, Los Angeles, and San Diego. He also works on productions of Baroque operas and ballets.

Organist and carillonist, she graduated from the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, where she had studied at the Faulty of Instrumental Music and Faculty of Choral Conducting. She also received her master’s degree in the class of Frans Haagen at the Nederlandse Beiaardschool at Amersfoort. Fiebig is the winner of numerous prizes in carillon competitions in Holland, Belgium, and Germany. She has given concerts in many European countries, as well as in Curaçao and the United States. In 1999 she assumed the post of municipal carillonist in Gdańsk, and in 2011 she became the first foreign – and female – carillonist in Utrecht. Her repertoire comprises carillon adaptations of not only early, but also contemporary, and even pop, music. Since 2012 she has co-organised the Early Music Carillon Festival that is held within the framework of Festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht.

Born in 1985, Robert Bachara started to play the violin at the age of eight. He studied at the Academy of Music in Wrocław and took part in master classes with Ida Haendel, Grigorij Żyslin and Jadwiga Kaliszewskiej. He also studied the historical principles of violin playing with Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch in Krakow. His fields of interest include early music and solo violin music. In his recitals, Robert wishes to present the violin as a self-sufficient instrument that can meet the requirements of early and contemporary music. Performing early music, Robert Bachara takes on a number of non-standard challenges. He chooses a particularly demanding repertoire, i.e. performs the entire Biber’s ‘Rosary Sonatas’ in a single concert and holds his violin in a historical position, i.e. at his chest and not his collar-bone.

A player of double bass and the viola da Gamba. Graduate of Akademia Muzyczna of Katowice, Poland, and of Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg. A laureate of the ‘Młoda Polska’ scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and of Polish and international bass competitions. He is active on both the Polish and the international concert scene as a soloist and as a member of chamber groups and orchestras. Involved with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, and a member of numerous chamber and early music ensembles, including: {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna, Extempore, Gambasada, Ensemble Reversio and Ensemble Chimérique, of which he is the founder. His past involvements included Kwartet Śląski, Capella Cracoviensis and the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy. Krzysztof Firlus teaches a viola da Gamba class at the Akademia Muzyczna in Katowice and a bass class at Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland.

Orchestra in the Time of Plague was created as an attempt to recover George Phillip Telemann’s Polish music from his own notes. The German composer developed close links with Poland. When touring the country, he noted his observations on Polish dances and music performed in inns and at court. Telemann’s manuscript with notes on the music dating from 1717–1722 was discovered in 1987. His manuscripts and Polish-style dances are the main elements of the ensemble’s repertoire. Their live performances include improvisations that capture the spirit of the old times. The name of the ensemble refers to the tragic times of early 18th century Poland, which saw Polish musical culture developing amid wars and epidemics.

A musician and multi-instrumentalist specialising in performing on period winds. Apart from recorder and transverse flute, he also plays the shawm, bagpipes and dulcian. He dedicates himself to the traditional repertoire as well as music spanning from the mediaeval period until contemporary times. He has co-operated with numerous period and ethical music ensembles and has recorded over 30 CDs. Founder and leader of the Orkiestra Czasów Zarazy (Orchestra in Time of Plague), Dancerye, Open Folk and Yełdyryn ensembles, he is also a co-founder of a Renaissance transverse flute quartet Epithalamion. He participates in a Polish-Scandinavian musical project Paths of Dance, rediscovering the common roots of Polish and Swedish traditional music. Paweł Iwaszkiewicz runs master classes for recorder and medieval reeds. He also writes music for theatre.

Born in 1975. Violinist, graduate of the Warsaw University of Music, has received awards both as a soloist and chamber musician. He improved his early music skills on master's courses run by Simon Standage and Anton Steck. He works with ensembles specialised in stylish performance of early music. Since 2007, he has been the concertmaster of the period instruments ensemble of the Warsaw Chamber Opera where he also performs as a soloist.   He uses period instruments to perform a repertoire ranging from Early Baroque to Early Romanticism, putting particular stress on virtuosity. He founded Ensemble Hyacinthus which made its debut at the Gstaad New Year Music Festival in 2009.