The Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir was founded in 2006 at the initiative of Professor Violetta Bielecka, currently its conductor and artistic director, and Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski.
The ensemble prides itself in collaborating with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. The choir appeared at subsequent editions of the Institute’s Chopin and His Europe Festival, performing concert versions of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Norma, and Verdi’s Macbeth together with Europa Galante, the Italian orchestra specialising in historically informed performance and led by Maestro Fabio Biondi. Their rendition of the original Florentine version of Macbeth was recorded and released by Glossa in 2018. Also in 2018 the two ensembles recorded Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka and The Haunted Manor, while in January 2019, they launched the Moniuszko Bicentenary Year with a concert performance of Halka in Italian at the Polish National Opera.
The choir’s fruitful collaboration with the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra yielded numerous joint performances as well as a recording of Feliks Nowowiejski’s Quo vadis and Moniuszko’s Mythological Cantatas (Nijoła and Milda) under Łukasz Borowicz.
Between 2009 and 2012 the ensemble gave concerts under Maestro Krzysztof Penderecki, performing his Symphony No. 7 (‘Seven Gates of Jerusalem’), Symphony No. 8 (‘Songs of Transience’), and Polish Requiem. As a result of its collaboration with the Ludwig van Beethoven Association, the choir recorded and performed concert versions of Weber’s Euryanthe and Donizetti’s Maria Padilla with the Polish Radio Orchestra under Łukasz Borowicz.
The ensemble has a busy concert schedule and regularly performs at such renowned festivals as the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, Chopin and His Europe Festival, Wratislavia Cantans, Warsaw Autumn, Gaude Mater, and Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture.
Its rich repertoire embraces a cappella chorus music, oratorios, operas, operettas, musicals, and the greatest pieces of sacred music, which the ensemble has performed with such outstanding orchestras as Europą Galante, NOSPR, Polish Radio Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Opera Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Sinfonia Iuventus, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, Podkarpacie Philharmonic Orchestra, Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra, and more.
The choir has performed world premieres of new works by such contemporary Polish composers as K. Penderecki, S. Moryta, M. Małecki, M. Borkowski, P. Łukaszewski, J. Świder, R. Twardowski, M. Bembinow, J. Krutul, M. Fedorov.
The ensemble has recorded 30 albums, receiving an International Classical Music Award (Feliks Nowowiejski’s Quo vadis, 2018) and five Fryderyk Awards (Pieśni Kurpiowskie: Górecki, Moryto, Szymanowski under V. Bielecka, 2009; P. Łukaszewski’s Symphony of Providence, 2016; Symphony on the Mercy of God, 2017; P. Łukaszewski’s Symphony No. 3 and 6, DUX Recording Producers, 2022; Kantyki Supraskie under V. Bielecka, DUX Recording Producers, 2023).
The Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir possess extensive acting and movement skills which allow the ensemble to successfully perform in staged works (The Haunted Manor, La traviata, The Magic Flute, Carmen, La bohème, Turandot, C. Williams’s Korczak, The Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, Doctor Zhivago, The Bat, Gypsy Baron, Merry Widow, P. Łukaszewski’s mystery play Via Crucis).
Assistant chorus master Joanna Jurczuk
Accompanist Monika Bierć
Inspector Karol Komenda
Librarian Dariusz Pruszyński
ROSTER
SOPRANOS
Hanna Baginska, Monika Bierć, Bożena Bojaryn-Przybyła, Paulina Boreczko, Anna Durniat, Joanna Kobylnik, Julita Korch, Arleta Krutul, Dariia Lahotska, Swietłana Łukaszewicz, Beata Malewicka-Macegoniuk, Magdalena Masiewicz
ALTOS
Jolanta Aleksiejuk, Izabela Bolesta, Oksana Gołambowska, Małgorzata Grytczuk, Małgorzata Kostrubiec-Karpiuk, Marta Kummer, Agnieszka Łomasko, Paulina Malinowska, Małgorzata Mukosiej, Małgorzata Putynkowska, Dorota Rosłaniec, Katarzyna Szymuś-Supronowicz
TENORS
Paweł Cichoński, Maksym Fedorov, Leszek Gaiński, Kirill Lepay, Wojciech Miastkowski, Paweł Mocarski, Piotr Pawlak, Piotr Rafałowski, Piotr Skibowski, Krzysztof Stankiewicz, Paweł Szypulski, Kamil Wróblewski
BASSES
Mariusz Bierć, Wojciech Bronakowski, Roman Chumakin, Krzysztof Drugow, Oleg Kobzar, Karol Komenda, Bogdan Kordy, Artur Mądry, Dariusz Pruszyński, Mateusz Stachura, Krzysztof Szyfman, Krzysztof Wojtecki
Founded in March 2006, the ensemble's core membership consists of artists who have sung for many years with the Cantica Cantamus Chamber Choir of Białystok, led by the Chorus’s conductor and artistic director Violetta Bielecka. The Chorus’s repertoire is extremely rich, covering oratorio, opera, sacred music and contemporary works, performed with outstanding Polish and foreign orchestras. The ensemble has taken part in many first performances of works by Polish contemporary composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki, with whom it regularly collaborates, as well as Stanisław Moryto, Maciej Małecki, Marian Borkowski, Paweł Łukaszewski, Józef Świder and Romuald Twardowski. It regularly participates in major musical events in Poland, including the Beethoven Easter Festival, Wratislavia Cantans International Festival, Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music, Gaude Mater Festival of Sacred Music and Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture. The Chorus has twice won a Fryderyk award from the Polish record industry: in 2009 for an album of Kurpian songs by Górecki, Moryto and Szymanowski (cond. Violetta Bielecka), and in 2016 for Paweł Łukaszewski’s Symphony of Providence (cond. Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski). In 2018, it triumphed at the International Classical Music Awards for its album of Feliks Nowowiejski’s Quo Vadis (cond. Łukasz Borowicz). In 2017, the Chorus was awarded the Honorary Badge of Podlasie Voivodeship for its outstanding achievements in choral music. It has performed with Europa Galante and soloists, under the baton of Fabio Biondi, already a few tims during the Chopin and His Europe festiwal, in Bellini’s Norma and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (2010, 2016) Verdi’s Macbeth (2017), and, this year, in Moniuszko’s Halka.