Bartosz Michałowski
Bartosz Michałowski graduated with distinction in choral conducting from Poznań Music Academy. In 1998–2005, he was assistant to Stefan Stuligrosz and conductor of the ‘Poznań Nightingales’ Boys’ and Men’s Choir, with which he performed extensively in Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Russia and Japan.
He won first prize in the 9th Polish National Choral Conductors Competition in Poznań, as well as a special prize for his diligent work on voice production with choirs. In 2015, he won the Orphée d‘Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique, and was nominated for one of the Polish record industry’s Fryderyk awards. In 2020, he received a Fryderyk for a recording of Szymanowski’s opera Hagith (with the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir). He also received two nominations for the International Classial Music Awards 2022. Bartosz Michałowski is the founder and artistic director of Poznań Chamber Choir, one of the leading Polish ensembles of its kind, and of the ‘Opus 966’ Polish Composition Competition. He also devised the ‘Pisz muzykę – to proste!’ (‘Write music – it’s easy!’) composing workshops for children and co-produced the ‘Obrazogranie’ (‘Picture playing’) project at the National Museum in Poznań.
As Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, he has conducted Szymanowski’s Kurpian Songs, masses by Kodály and Gretchaninov, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (the recording has been nominated for an ICMA award), Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, and oratorios: Paulus by Mendelssohn, Messiah by Handel, Christ on the Mount of Olives by Beethoven and Litanies of Ostra Brama by Moniuszko. He prepared the ensemble for the first ever performance of Anton Rubinstein’s sacred opera Moses (conducted by Michail Jurowski and recorded in 2018) and for a performance and the first ever recording of Moniuszko’s opera The Pariah in Italian, and has also helped prepare vocal-instrumental concerts of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, collaborating with such eminent conductors as Andrzej Boreyko, Ton Koopman, Christoph König, Matthew Halls, Martin Haselböck, Jacek Kaspszyk and Krzysztof Penderecki.
In April 2024, the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir under his direction recorded a new album – Paweł Łukaszewski. The Adoration.
Bartosz Michałowski has participated in renowned festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, and has collaborated regularly with renowned institutions and orchestras. He has numerous first performances to his credit.
In addition to gaining experience as a conductor, Bartosz Michałowski has spent many years working on enhancing his skills and knowledge in the field of voice production, completing masterclasses with Poppy Holden (Great Britain), Christian Elsner (Germany) and Józef Frakstein (Poland). He holds a PhD and is a lecturer at the Chopin University of Music.
[2025]