Polski Chór Kameralny & Jan Łukaszewski
Biography Polski Chór Kameralny & Jan Łukaszewski
Polski Chór Kameralny Schola Cantorum Gedanensis
is an outstanding, fully professional ensemble whose hallmarks are its unique sound, supreme technical skills and depth of feeling, as well as a truly broad repertoire. It has won acclaim not only in Poland’s most renowned concert venues but also in many prestigious music centres across Europe, in North America and Asia. The ensemble was founded in 1978 in Gdańsk on the initiative of Ireneusz Łukaszewski, who became its first artistic director. In 1983, his duties were taken over by his brother Jan Łukaszewski. Over 140 singers have so far sung in this 24-strong ensemble.
The repertoire of the Polski Chór Kameralny comprises works of diverse form and style, ranging from unaccompanied music to large-scale oratorios, operas, and symphonies, and spanning works from Renaissance and Baroque to Classical and Romantic periods. The Choir has also established a high reputation for its performances of contemporary music, having given world premieres of over 700 works, including those by such composers as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar and Krzysztof Penderecki. Along with other Polish composers (Augustyn Bloch, Krzysztof Meyer, Edward Pallasz, Juliusz Łuciuk, Andrzej Koszewski and Paweł Łukaszewski) and several foreign composers, Kilar and Penderecki are among those who have dedicated their works to the ensemble. The composers who have entrusted their works to the Polski Chór Kameralny have been unanimous in recognizing its high-calibre vocal skills: its unified sound, excellent intonation, the perfect rendition of both the text and musical score, as well as its ability to probe the depths of a composer’s intentions.
Thanks to its excellent quality of sound and interpretation, and perfect command of the ‘vocal instrument’ in the most demanding of works, the Choir has been invited to perform with such leading orchestras as Sinfonia Varsovia, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, Divino Sospiro, Neue Düsseldorf Hofmusik, Concilium Musicum Wien, Sinfonia Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Venice Baroque Orchestra, and outstanding choral conductors such as Eric Ericson, Uwe Gronostay, and Stephen Layton. It has also been invited to numerous prestigious festivals, such as the Warsaw Autumn, Wratislavia Cantans, Soundstreams, Music in Old Kraków, Poznań Musical Spring, the Gaude Mater International Festival of Sacred Music, the Bydgoszcz Music Festival and Warsaw Musical Encounters. Foreign tours have taken the Choir to three continents, from Japan, through Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain, to the United States and Canada.
The discography of the Polski Chór Kmeralny comprises over 80 CDs, about 20 of which have been nominated for the Fryderyk Award of the Polish recording industry and six of which have received this prestigious accolade. The Choir has also recorded for Polish and foreign radio and television stations, among them Polish Television (including a set of 68 offertories by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) and abroad for Dutch Radio, Sender Freies Berlin, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and ZDF (Channel Two of German public television).
The recordings of the Polski Chór Kameralny have demonstrated not only its perfection in meeting all the technical and musical demands of a score, but also its charming, instantly recognizable timbre, which is often compared to that of the finest violins or the most beautiful birdsong.
The Polski Chór Kameralny under Jan Łukaszewski was the first choir in the world to have recorded Penderecki’s entire output for unaccompanied choir. In 2010 and 2014, these albums received Orphée D’or awards from the French Academie du Disque Lyrique. The choir gave the world premiere of the second version of Penderecki’s Missa Brevis, and performed many of his works in the composer’s presence, including some under his baton. In 2013, the Polish Chamber Choir joined forces with the Swiss instrumental ensemble Musica Fiorita, under Jan Łukaszewski, in a project featuring 55 extant motets by the Gdańsk composer Andreas Hakenberger (1574–1627). A 2-CD album with these works was released in 2018 on the Naxos label.
The Polski Chór Kameralny is a cultural institution of the City of Gdańsk. A member of TENSO (the European Network for Professional Chamber Choirs), it is the driving force behind many major artistic projects in the local community, such as ‘Bach Days’ and an International Chopin Festival. Since 2006 the Choir has organized the ‘Mozartiana’ International Mozart Festival, being one of its featured ensembles.The Polski Chór Kameralny is a cultural institution of the City of Gdańsk. A member of TENSO (the European Network for Professional Chamber Choirs), it is the driving force behind many major artistic projects in the local community, such as ‘Bach Days’ and an International Chopin Festival. Since 2006 the Choir has organized the ‘Mozartiana’ International Mozart Festival, being one of its featured ensembles.
The Polski Chór Kameralny under Jan Łukaszewski is a unique artistic phenomenon on a world scale. In its quest for perfection, it tackles ever new ambitious tasks that enrich the choral music scene and chart aesthetic models for successive generations of conductors and singers.
In 2023 the Polski Chór Kameralny celebrates the 45th anniversary of its artistic activity.
Jan Łukaszewski
is an outstanding conductor, a highly regarded teacher and an accomplished organizer of musical life. Since 1983 he has directed the Polski Chór Kameralny Schola Cantorum Gedanensis, with which he has given almost 700 premieres and made several hundred recordings for radio and television, as well as over 80 CDs. Twenty two of the latter were nominated for the Fryderyk Award of the Polish recording industry, five received this prestigious accolade, and two received Orphée D’or awards from the French Academie du Disque Lyrique. He has conducted several thousand concerts in Poland, almost all European countries, the United States, Canada, China and Japan. He has sat on the jury of the Musica Sacra Nova International Composers’ Competition and conducted the performances of prize-winning works.
an Łukaszewski was born in the Gdańsk district of Oliwa. Its picturesque park is the venue of the ‘Mozartiana’ International Mozart Festival, which he initiated in 2006 and has served as its artistic director. The event’s final concerts under his baton have attracted many leading soloists and renowned European instrumental ensembles to the historic Oliwa Cathedral, and have been broadcast to many European countries. Together with his wife, the singer Wiesława Łukaszewska, he also directs the Pueri Cantores Olivenses Boys’ and Men’s Choir, which has given acclaimed concerts on several continents.
The list of composers who have dedicated their works to Jan Łukaszewski includes such outstanding names as Krzysztof Penderecki, Wojciech Kilar, Augustyn Bloch, Edward Pałłasz, Paweł Łukaszewski, Andrzej Koszewski, Krzesimir Dębski, and Juliusz Łuciuk. He has worked closely with the singers Julia Lezhneva, Simone Kermes and Emma Kirkby. As an orchestral conductor, he has performed with Sinfonia Varsovia, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and Venice Baroque Orchestra. It was in collaboration with these household names in the musical world that numerous concerts of the highest calibre were given and excellent recordings were made. Jan Łukaszewski conducted the Polski Chór Kameralny in the world’s first recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s entire a cappella choral output and, in partnership with the Swiss period instrument ensemble Musica Fiorita, they have made a pioneering recording of the complete set of 55 extant motets by Andreas Hakenberger, a Gdańsk composer who flourished from the late 16th into the early 17th century.
A conductor of rare distinction, Jan Łukaszewski feels equally at home in the choral and oratorio repertoire and is able to delve into the intentions both of composers from previous periods, such as Hakenberger, and those who have been active in recent decades, such as Penderecki. The hallmarks of his art of conducting are the perfection of intonation, the ideal vocal balance and precision in reading a composer’s score, all this blended with a creative courage of interpretation. He has gained a reputation for masterful performances of texturally, harmonically and rhythmically complex contemporary pieces.
A professor of musical arts, Jan Łukaszewski has several prestigious honours to his name, including the Gloria Artis Silver Medal of Cultural Merit (2008), the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Reborn Poland (2018) and an award from the Board of the ZAiKS Authors’ and Composers’ Association (2020). In 2021, following a decision by the Council of the Phonographic Academy, he received the Golden Fryderyk for outstanding artistic achievements. What he claims to be his greatest achievement, though, is his large and faithful audience who have been enthusiastically receiving his concerts for almost four decades.
