THE CZĘSTOCHOWA PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

First official symphonic concert took place in March 1945 - the orchestra was the second one in the post-war Poland. In 1965 the orchestra moved to its new seat, and has been residing there till now. From this time to Częstochowa have come renowned musicians, conductors and foreign orchestras. Besides symphonic concerts, chamber music concerts, education ones, the orchestra was a host and an organizer of the following music festivals: The Polish Violin Festival, Jeunesses Musicales “Pro Musica”, The Youth Music Festival and “Ars Chori”. First two of them was continued for years. In 1976 when The Voivodeship of Częstochowa started exist and the orchestra got name The Philharmonic then there was more number and forms of concerts. Almost every kind of music was played: oratorio and cantata mastepieces, symphonic, popular, chamber music as well as recitals. Musicians of the orchestra played also in small esembles. The Częstochowa Orchestra ensemble many times  participated in the festivals organized by Philharmonics: Częstochowa Guitar Meetings and Traditional Jazz Festival “Hot Jazz Spring”. It always takes part in the Bronisław Huberman Violin Festival. Besides our activity in concerting in our concert halls the orchestra is also invited to many festivals concert tours in Poland and abroad to: Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and South Korea. The Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra played during the most important international feasts. The orchestra of The Częstochowa Philharmonic has recorded several CDs and take a part in TV and radio recordings. Since February 2006 Beata Młynarczyk has been the Direktor of the Philharmonic.

JERZY SALWAROWSKI

He was born in Cracow, where he graduated from the Academyof Music – composition under Tadeusz Machl and Krzysztof Penderecki, conducting under Henryk Czyż and Krzysztof Missona. He perfected his conducting skills at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena under Franco Ferrara. He is a winner of numerous national and international conducting competitions – 1st and 2nd contest in Katowice (1st Prize and the Award of the Music Criticism), in Siena (1st Prize) and Budapest (2nd Prize – 1st was not awarded). He conducts the chamber and symphony orchestras as well as opera performances in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, cooperates with the leading orchestras and operas of Poland. He performed at many international festivals: Warsaw Autumn, Flanders Festival, Pražske Jaro and Millenium Pace. He made numerous archival recordings with Polish Radio Orchestras. His contribution includes many CDs for foreign (Amreco, Adda, Thorofon) and Polish (Tonpress, Selene, Wifon, DUX, Polish Recordings) record labels. For the last of the labels listed, he recorded an album of G. Gershwin’s music, for which in 1994 he received the Gold Record Award and in 1999 it was recorded on a CD. Jerzy Salwarowski recorded Mieczysław Karłowicz’s Symphony Poems, which were edited on CDs and nominated for the Fryderyk‘99 award. He also recorded two CDs with the Chamber Orchestra of Toruń and with The Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra – Famous Caprices (the first CD in the history of the Szczecin Philharmonic) nominated for the Fryderyk Prize in 1998. In the spring of 2002, together with his son Hubert he recorded a new CD which contains Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 (assisted by the National Radio Orchestra)  and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (assisted by The Szczecin Philharmonic). This CD was also nominated to the Fryderyk 2002 Prize. Furthermore, Jerzy Salwatorski leads also the Summer Courses for Young Conductors in Toruń (first such undertaking in Poland) and is a creator of the Festival “Toruń: Music and Architecture”, of which he is an artistic director since 1996. He has been performing in Hamburg, Cairo, Osaka, Skopje, Porto, Luxembourg, Lucca, Everett (Washington), La Crosse (Wisconsin), Kiev, Berlin, Essen, Bergamo, Milan, Valencia and Copenhagen. Since 2000 he has been also Professor at the Music Academy in Poznań where he is the head of the Orchestra and Opera Conductorship Department. In September 2005 Jerzy Salwarowski became the artistic director of the Częstochowa Philharmonic. With the Częstochowa Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra he recorded 2 CDs: First one – New Orleans Suite – with The Five O'Clock Orchestra, the band of traditional jazz. On the second one the Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra supports jazz pianist Adam Makowicz. This CD includes composition dedicated especially for Częstochowa.