Antoni Wit
Honorary Conductor of the Krakow Philharmonic. In the years 2013–2018, Antoni Wit was Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra in Pamplona. Previously, he was also director of such ensembles as the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz (1974–1977), the Polish Radio and Television Orchestra and Choir in Krakow (1977–1983), the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (1983–2000), and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (1987–1992). Between 2002 and 2013, he was General and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic.
Antoni Wit studied conducting with Henryk Czyż and composing with Krzysztof Penderecki at the State Higher School of Music in Krakow, he also graduated in Law from the Jagiellonian University. He began his professional career as an assistant to Witold Rowicki at the Warsaw Philharmonic. After receiving Second Prize in the International Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin in 1971, he became assistant to the patron of the competition.
He has performed in almost all the great musical centres of Europe, Asia, Australia and both Americas. In recent seasons, he has conducted Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de España, Berner Symphonieorchester, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón), Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (at the Montreux festival), as well as orchestras in Lyon, Liège, Brussels, São Paulo, Bilbao, Barcelona and Sevilla.
Recordings of his performances have been included on over 200 albums, which have won numerous awards, among them a 2013 Grammy Award and six other nominations for this prize, Diapason d’Or and Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du Disque, Cannes Classical Award, Choc du Monde de la Musique, and four Fryderyk Awards. The recordings feature music by Polish most outstanding composers, as well as works from an international repertoire – including critically acclaimed interpretations of pieces by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. Antoni Wit is one of only a few artists in the world whose albums have sold almost six million copies.
He was a professor at the Chopin University of Music. His students were, among others, Krzysztof Urbański, Michał Dworzyński, Rafał Janiak, Maja Metelska, and Dawid Runtz, and his PhD students include Łukasz Borowicz, Jakub Chrenowicz and Wojciech Rodek. He has the title of honorary professor at the Chopin University of Music and Keimyung University (South Korea). In September 2025, he received an honorary doctorate from the Chopin University of Music.
[2025]