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Co-musical Director, Founder of Les Arts Florissants.
William Christie, harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and teacher, is the inspiration behind one of the most exciting musical adventures of the last 40 years. A pioneer in the rediscovery of Baroque music, he has introduced the repertoire of 17th- and 18th-century France to a very wide audience across the globe. Born in Buffalo, and educated at Harvard and Yale, William Christie has lived in France since 1971. The turning point in his career came in 1979, when he founded Les Arts Florissants.
As director of this vocal and instrumental ensemble, William Christie soon made his mark as both a musician and man of the theatre, in the concert hall and the opera house. Major public recognition came in 1987 with the production of Lully’s Atys at the Opéra Comique in Paris.
From Charpentier to Rameau, through Couperin, Mondonville, William Christie is the uncontested master of tragédie-lyrique as well as opéra-ballet, and is just as comfortable with the French motet as with music of the court. But his affection for French music does not preclude him from exploring other European repertoires as Monteverdi, Rossi, Scarlatti, Landi, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Haydn or Bach.
Notable among his most recent operatic work are Handel’s Jephtha at the Opéra de Paris and Ariodante at the Wiener Staatsoper, The Beggar’s Opera on European tour and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Salzburg Festival, Rameau’s Platée at Theater an der Wien, Mondonville’s Titon et l’Aurore at the Opéra Comique and Handel’s Partenope on international tour.
As a guest conductor, William Christie often appears alongside the Berliner Philharmoniker or the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at opera festivals such as Glyndebourne or opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Zurich Opernhaus, or the Opéra National de Lyon.
His extensive discography includes more than 100 recordings. The most recent ones – Bach’s B Minor Mass; Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (CD/DVD); “N’espérez plus, mes yeux”; “Générations: Senaillé – Leclair”; Platée – were issued by harmonia mundi in the “Les Arts Florissants” collection.
Wishing to develop further his work as a teacher, in 2002 William Christie created Le Jardin des Voix, Les Arts Florissant’s biennial baroque Academy for young singers, now established at Thiré in Vendée. Since 2007 he has been artist in residence at the Juilliard School in New York, where he gives master classes twice a year. In 2021, he launches with Les Arts Florissants the first “Arts Flo Masterclasses” for young professional musicians at the Quartier des Artistes in Thiré (Vendée, Pays de la Loire – France).
In 2012, he created the festival Dans les Jardins de William Christie in his own gardens, located in the French village of Thiré in the Vendée, where he welcomes every summer young musicians from the Juilliard School and singers of the Jardin des Voix along with the musicians and singers of Les Arts Florissants.
William Christie has bequeathed his real-estate assets to the Foundation Les Arts Florissants–William Christie created in 2018.
In November 2008, William Christie was elected to France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts, and gave his official inaugural speech under the dome of the Institut de France in January 2010.
His projects for the 2022-23 season include: the show Molière and His Music for Molière’s 400th birthday; Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas directed by Blanca Li at the Teatros del Canal, Barcelona’s Liceu, and the Opéra Royal de Versailles; a cycle of exceptional concerts of French music for Christmas at Fontevraud; duo recitals with violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte or harpsichordist Justin Taylor; Haydn’s Seasons; Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; Charpentier’s music for the Nativity and for Holy Week; the fourth part of his series of “Airs sérieux et à boire”; and concert programs with great soloists (Véronique Gens and Lea Desandre, Carlo Vistoli and Hugh Cutting).
Born in 1986 composer, conductor and educator. He completed composition with honours in the class of Prof. Stanislaw Moryto (2010) and he graduated in the field of symphonic and opera conducting (also diploma with honours) in the class of Prof. Antoni Wit (2011) at the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. In 2016 he got doctorate and in 2020 habilitation.
Among his achievements are many awards won in various music competitions. He is the winner of the 1st award in the competition in the John Paul II 1st Composers’ Competition in Warsaw (2007), the 3rd award in the 4th International Composers’Competition “Musica Sacra” in Czestochowa (2008) and a distinction in the Tadeusz Baird All-Poland Competition for Young Composers in Warsaw (2010). He was a semi-finalist in Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London (2014). He is a winner of Opera composing competition organizing by Great Theatre in Lodz, in which chairman of the jury was Krzysztof Penderecki (2017). His opera “Czlowiek z Manufaktury” was performed in February 2019 with a great success.
He was assistant conductor in National Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra to Antoni Wit (2012/13) and Jacek Kaspszyk (2013/14).
As a conductor he is regularly invited by main polish orchestras including Warsaw Philharmonic, National Polish Radio Orchestra in Katowice, Krakow Philharmonic, Silesian Philharmonic, Polish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Juventus, Baltic Philharmonic, Polish Chamber Orchestra Sopot and many others.
During 55. Warsaw Autumn festival he conducted one of the symphonic concerts with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (2012). After this concert, he got special invitation to conduct Final Concert in next festival (September 2013), doing polish premiere (second world performance) of extremely demanding new piece by Thomas Adès Totentanz.
In his repertoire are also operatic pieces. He has already prepared and conducted premiere stage performance of Mozart’s opera Cosi fan tutte (2011), and Don Giovanni (2014) in Warsaw Chamber Opera. He was musical director of Tchaikovsky’s Onegin which was performed in Great Theatre in Warsaw (2017). He conducts regularly in Great Theatre in Lodz operas: Strauss’s Ziguenerbaron and Pucini’s Turandot.
From 2017 Rafal Janiak is an artistic director of Chopin University Chamber Orchestra. From many achievements of this young ensemble is worth to mention last orchestra tour in China, on which they play under his baton over 20 concerts (July 2019), several published CDs, which the last is nominated to “Fryderyki 2021” award.
Currently he is a lecturer at the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, on which from 2020 he hold a position of dean of Symphonic and Operatic Conducting department.
Artistic Director of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2013-2015 he served as Music Director of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, where, in addition to regular symphonic concerts he prepared several opera productions (Verdi’s La Traviata, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Bizet’s Carmen). He also worked as Associate Conductor of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (2009-2015). In 2004-2008 he served as Associate Conductor of the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, where he prepared and conducted Carmen, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff (with Bryn Terfel in the title role), Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Puccini’s La Boheme, and Lehar’s The Merry Widow (recorded for the BBC).
In July 2015 he conducted a world premiere concert version of Zaid Jabri new opera City of Salt at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.
In 2019 he prepared and conducted at Polish National Opera in Warsaw first ever polish production of Benjamin Britten opera Billy Budd and in 2023 he was invited back to conduct premiere of new production of Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes.
In December 2011, he conducted Szymanowski’s King Roger with the National Ukrainian Opera in Kiev as the closing event of the cultural programme of Poland’s presidency in the European Council.
He has worked as guest conductor with numerous orchestras in Poland and abroad, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, most of Polish symphony orchestras, the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Orchestre National Capitole de Toulouse, Foreign tours have also taken him to France, Germany, Switzerland (a gala concert in tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich, with Ivan Monighetti, Sol Gabetta and Misha Maisky), Great Britain, Armenia, Italy, South Korea and the Persian Gulf countries. He has worked closely with the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk (Strauss’s Salome and Mozart’s Die Zauberfloete, Shostakovich/Meyer The Gamblers, Fleichman’s Rotschild’s Violin) and the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz (Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust), Poznań Opera (Aida).
From 2016 until February 2022 he was guest conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, where he conducted performances of Donizetti Don Pasquale, Weinberg The Idiot, Tchaikovsky Eugene Oniegin, Schostakovich Katerina Izmailova. He ended his artistic relation with statement after barbarian, russian military agression over Ukraine.
Earlier in his career, in 1998-2003, he worked at the National Opera in Warsaw. He has made numerous recordings for radio and television, including the first ever recording of Szymanowski’s operetta – Lottery for a Husband (with the National Polish Radio SO) and live recording of King Roger (with Warsaw’s National Opera). His recording of Szymanowski’s opera Hagith with Polish Radio SO received prestigious polish music award “Fryderyk” for “The best opera recording in 2020”.
Michał Klauza is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw, where he studied conducting with Ryszard Dudek. He developed his skills as a postgraduate student of Ilya Musin at the Rimski-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and at international courses given by Kurt Redel (Rome, 1996).
He pursues a teaching career as a member of conducting faculty at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw.
He was born in 1972 in Gdynia. In 1996, he graduated with honours from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in the symphony and opera conducting class of Prof. Bogusław Madey.
From January 1997 to April 2011, he was the chief and artistic director of the Białystok Philharmonic (since 2005 the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic). From September 2016 to September 2019, he was the director of the Wrocław Opera.
The artist is involved in intense concert activities – he co-operates with leading opera houses and philharmonic orchestras in Poland. He also performs on many stages around the world, e.g. in the USA, Great Britain, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Sweden, France, Belgium and Portugal.
He is also the artistic director and conductor of the “Filharmonia” Warsaw Chamber Orchestra and a guest conductor of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw. He was on a number of foreign concert tours with the Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. In August 2005, together with pianist Stanisław Drzewiecki, he performed in the European Parliament in Brussels in the concert inaugurating the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement.
In June 2006, he conducted Krzysztof Penderecki’s Utrenja at the Smol’nyy Sobor in St. Petersburg with the participation of soloists and Russian choirs. In 2009, he performed in the Berwald Hall in Stockholm and in the headquarters of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. In December 2009, under his baton, the Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic performed concerts in Great Britain, where, as part of the celebrations of the Polish Year “Polska! Year,” it performed in London’s Cadogan Hall as well as at the Royal College of Music.
The artist often includes Polish music in his concert programmes, e.g. works of lesser-known artists creating in exile. His recordings of compositions by Alexandre Tansman and Zygmunt Stojowski were very well received both in Poland (nominations for a Fryderyk) and abroad (the album featuring pieces by Stojowski received the prestigious Gramophone Editor’s Choice award in February 2009). In April 2012, he received a Fryderyk for an album with works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski – Piano Concerto and Polish Fantasy.
Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski boasts a rich recording output, i.e. over 25 CDs/DVDs. He has also made a number of radio, television and film music recordings (including by M. Zieliński, W. Pawlik, J.A.P. Kaczmarek, Z. Preisner). The other area of his interests and artistic activities is solo singing – he graduated from the Academy of Music in Łódź under the supervision of Prof. Leonard Andrzej Mróz.
The artist has won numerous awards and distinctions – he has received, among others, the “Ad Astra” award of the Minister of Culture for young, talented creators of culture (2001), the Silver Cross of Merit for his contribution to the development of national culture and professional achievements (2004) and the Silver Medal “For Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis” (2006).
In 2007, at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts; in 2010 – the degree of Habilitated Doctor. In October 2012, he began to work as a professor at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, where he runs a symphony and opera conducting class. In February 2021, by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland, he received the title of Professor of Art.
On June 4, 2014, in the presence of, among others, President of the Republic of Poland Bronisław Komorowski and President of the United States of America Barack Obama and other distinguished guests, during a gala concert at the Castle Square in Warsaw, summarizing the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of Freedom, he conducted the world premiere of the Cantata “Freedom” by Włodek Pawlik. In November 2014, he conducted the premiere performance of the ballet 1914 at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, and in February 2015, at the Wrocław Opera, the premiere of Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
In April 2016, he received another Fryderyk, this time in the category “Album of the Year – Contemporary Music” for Paweł Łukaszewski’s Symphony of Providence. In November 2016, he again conducted a ballet premiere at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Chopiniana/Bolero/Chroma, featuring, among others, the piece Chroma by Joby Talbot in the choreography of Wayne McGregor, originally staged at the Royal Opera House in London.
In September 2018, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage appointed him to the newly inaugurated Council for Artistic Education as one of the 13 representatives of various creative communities related to artistic education.
In November 2018, he was nominated for the Wrocław Music Award 2018 in the category “Classical Music” for a “masterful performance of Paweł Łukaszewski’s oratorio Via Crucis at the Wrocław Opera.”
