The Warsaw Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1953. The ensemble has given concerts in the most important musical centres of Europe, collaborating with outstanding orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker. It has taken part in opera performances at La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice and the opera theatres in Pesaro, Palermo and Paris. Three times the choir took part in gala concerts organised for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The choir’s wide repertoire comprises several hundred oratorios and a cappella works, ranging from the Middle Ages to contemporary pieces, especially works by Krzysztof Penderecki. The ensemble has performed and recorded all of his oratorios and a cappella works. Released in 2016, album Penderecki conducts Penderecki vol. 1 was honoured with a 2017 Grammy Award, and their CDs had been nominated for a Grammy six times before (five times for its recordings of Penderecki’s works and one for a Karol Szymanowski album). The recording of the complete Masses by Stanisław Moniuszko won the Fryderyk Award and the Golden Orpheus – Arturo Toscanini from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique. The ensemble also won a Fryderyk Award for its phonographic achievements in the years 2011, 2018 and 2020, and the choir’s latest CD Paweł Łukaszewski. The Adoration, released in 2024, received a nomination for the award. Since 2017, the choir has been directed by Bartosz Michałowski.
Grzesiek Mart