Bassem Akiki
A Lebanese-born Polish-Lebanese conductor, composer and lecturer at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław and Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, Bassem Akiki studied philosophy at the Lebanese International University in Beirut. He graduated with distinction from Stanisław Krawczyński’s choral conducting class at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, and from Marek Pijarowski’s symphonic-operatic conducting class at the Academy of Music in Wrocław. He was artistic director of the Silesian Opera in Bytom (2018–2019), artistic director of the NFM New Year Festival in Wrocław (2016–2020) and music director of the Wrocław Opera (2020–2022).
Bassem Akiki has been a guest conductor at opera houses and philharmonic halls in Poland (including the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw, Sinfonia Varsovia, NFM Wrocław, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, and the Szczecin and Łódź philharmonic halls) and around the world (La Monnaie in Brussels, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Vienna, Dutch National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Finnish National Opera and Ballet in Helsinki).
In 2020, the album 100 na 100. Muzyczne dekady wolności (100 for 100: Musical Decades of Freedom), on which some of the works were recorded under the baton of Bassem Akiki, received a Fryderyk award in the Album of the Year – Symphonic Music category. In 2022, the CD Paweł Mykietyn: Orchestral Works, with Bassem Akiki as one of the conductors, won Fryderyk as the Album of the Year – Contemporary Music. He was nominated in the ‘Best Young Conductor’ category at the International Opera Awards. Also, he won the Jan Kiepura Music Theatre Award twice in the ‘Best Conductor’ category (in 2018 and 2022).
[2023]