25th Anniversary of the Chamber Orchestra FILHARMONIA Filharmonia Narodowa

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25th Anniversary of the Chamber Orchestra FILHARMONIA
Chamber Orchestra FILHARMONIA, photo: Grzesiek Mart

They perform with the country’s leading orchestras on a daily basis, taking on some of the greatest symphonic works ever written and collaborating with distinguished soloists, singers, choirs and conductors. At the same time, they also perform repertoire written for chamber ensembles.

In the 1960s, Karol Teutsch (1921–1992) founded the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, drawing on the pre-war chamber music tradition of the Warsaw Philharmonic. Building on that tradition, Jan Lewtak established the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra in 2002, under the patronage of Antoni Wit, and became its Artistic Director. Over the past twenty-five years—from the ensemble’s inaugural concert on 10 January 2002—the orchestra, now performing under the name Chamber Orchestra FILHARMONIA, has earned an international reputation through collaborations with such artists as Salvatore Accardo, Lorenzo Gatto, Philippe Giusiano, Evelyn Glennie, Ian Hobson, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Isabelle van Keulen, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Mischa Maissky and Shlomo Mintz, as well as through recordings for the Naxos, Sony and CD Accord labels. Its discography includes three monographic albums devoted to the music of Grażyna Bacewicz, Krzysztof Penderecki and Mikołaj Piotr Górecki. The orchestra also appears on the Warsaw Philharmonic’s 2013 Grammy Award-winning album, performing Penderecki’s Fonogrammi under the baton of Antoni Wit.

To mark the 25th anniversary of its concert activity, the Chamber Orchestra FILHARMONIA has joined forces with the celebrated mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital to present a programme that provides a fitting continuation of this story. The concert features works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Antonio Vivaldi and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, whose emotionally charged writing for strings touches the deepest chords of the human soul.
 

We wish them continued success.

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Jan Lewtak

Graduated from the Chopin Academy (now University) of Music in Warsaw, where he studied violin with Zenon Brzewski and Mirosław Ławrynowicz. A winner of prizes at various music competitions, he has participated in a number of national and international masterclasses, as well as in the Talents Week Festival in Tarnów. Since 1983, a member of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed as a chamber musician in Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK, South Korea, China and Japan, and as a soloist in Germany, the US, the UAE, Spain and Japan.

He has made many disc and archive recordings. He has also presented a series of original programmes on Niccolo Paganini’s Caprices for Solo Violin on Polish Radio, for which he received an award from the Radio and Television Commission.

Jan Lewtak has written numerous arrangements for chamber orchestra; for Chopin Year 2010, to a commission from PWM Edition, he arranged for piano and string orchestra both of Chopin’s piano concertos.

He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, with which, in 2003, he recorded Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as a soloist under the baton of Antoni Wit.

 

[2024]

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