Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra

The Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra is a professional symphony orchestra based in Kraków, Poland. The national status of the orchestra is represented in its program of events including weekly symphonic concerts in the Wawel Royal Castle, or at the Jagiellonian University famous Collegium Novum, and at prominent Kraków churches.

The Symphony Orchestra now residing in the Kraków Philharmonic came into being in 1945. It was the first professional symphony orchestra in postwar Poland, formed at the local concert hall during the Soviet offensive. The first postwar director as well as the conductor of the historic first performance held on February 3, 1945; three months before the end of World War II in Europe, was Professor Zygmunt Latoszewski, survivor of the Warsaw Uprising.

As of 2013 the Orchestra has been around for almost sixty years. It consists of almost one hundred musicians in sixteen sections with five concert-masters. In 1962 it was named after composer Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937) whose abundant works the orchestra has performed regularly ever since; along with pieces by another great Polish composer living in Kraków, Krzysztof Penderecki. Penderecki served as the artistic director of the orchestra in 1988–1990, and from 1993 held the post of its honorary artistic director. Over the years, the Orchestra has made a host of popular recordings.

The Kraków Philharmonic performed in over 30 foreign countries including in almost all of Europe as well as in Iran, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Lebanon, Turkey and USA. Their concerts were led by the most prominent Polish conductors including Zygmunt Latoszewski, Bohdan Wodiczko, Witold Rowicki, Kazimierz Kord, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Krzysztof Penderecki, Antoni Wit, and from abroad: Hermann Abendroth, Nikolai Anosov, Roger Désormière, Dean Dixon, Antal Dorati, Christopher Hogwood, Konstantin Ivanov, Paweł Klecki, Kirill Kondrashin, Rafael Kubelik, Gilbert Levine, Jean Martinon, Sir John Pritchard, Helmuth Rilling, Jerzy Semkow, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Carlo Zecchi.

A number of world-renowned soloists also performed with the orchestra. The most prominent include Victoria de los Ángeles, Cathy Berberian, Stanislav Bunin, Zara Dolukhanova, Dorothy Dorow, Sidney Harth, Gary Karr, Nigel Kennedy, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, Witold Małcużyński, Yehudi Menuhin, Midori Gotō, Shlomo Mintz, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Garrick Ohlsson, David and Igor Oistrakh, Vlado Perlemuter, Maurizio Pollini, Ruggiero Ricci, Mstislav Rostropovich, Artur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Narciso Yepes, Yo-Yo Ma, and Teresa Żylis-Gara. Wikipedia