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11th edition
2021
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.
Václav Luks is the founder and artistic director of the Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and of the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. He studied at the Pilsen Conservatoire and at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He then crowned his training with the specialised study of early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland in the studios of Jörg-Andreas Bötticher and Jesper Christensen (in the fields of historical keyboard instruments and historical performance practice). During his studies in Basel and in the years that followed, he gave concerts all over Europe and overseas as the principal horn player of the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin.
After returning from abroad in 2005, he transformed the chamber ensemble Collegium 1704, which he had already established during his studies, into a baroque orchestra, and he founded the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. The immediate stimulus for their formation was the project Bach – Prague – 2005, which was launched at Václav Luks’s own initiative. Under his leadership, the ensembles make guest appearances at prestigious festivals and appear in important concert halls. Their recordings have earned both public success and critical acclaim (Diapason d’Or, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Coup de coeur TV Mezzo etc.).
In addition to his intensive work with Collegium 1704, Václav Luks also collaborates with other distinguished ensembles including Camerata Salzburg, the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, and the Dresdner Kammerchor. Amongst his recent projects have been performances of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas with Ensemble Pygmalion at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and a programme with works by Polish composers with the ensemble Orkiestra Historyczna. At a benefit concert for the restoration of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Václav Luks conducted the Orchestre nationale de France.
Václav Luks has collaborated on operatic and theatrical performances with such stage directors as David Radok, Ondřej Havelka, Louise Moaty, J. A. Pitínský, Willi Decker, and Ursel Herrmann. Under his direction, Collegium 1704 recorded the music for Petr Václav’s documentary Zpověď zapomenutého (Confession of the Vanished) and for his planned feature film Il Boemo about the life of Josef Mysliveček.
Václav Luks works in cooperation with a number of broadcasting networks such as Deutschlandradio Berlin, Schweizer Radio DRS, the Austrian Broadcasting Company (ÖRF), and Radio France and with music publishers including Supraphon, Pan Classics, Zig-Zag Territoires, Arta, and Accent.
Conductor, founder and artistic director of the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot. He was born in Warsaw, where he studied at the Higher State School of Music in the class of Bogusław Madey (diploma with honours). Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to study at the Hochschule für Musik Köln in Cologne and participate in masterclasses in Vienna.
He began his career as a conductor in 1971 at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw with the ballet Giselle by Adam. At the same time, from 1974 to 1978, he was the conductor and artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Poznań. From 1978 to 1980, he was the first conductor of the Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn. In 1982, he established the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot and has been performing with it ever since in the greatest concert halls all over the world. In 1993–2006, Wojciech Rajski was the artistic director of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (now Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw), with which he actively performed and registered many recordings for the Polish Radio.
In 1993, he launched his pedagogical career at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, where he received the title of professor. In 1998–2014, he was a conducting professor at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main; in 2008–2020, he ran a conducting class at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk.
In addition to his regular co-operation with Polish orchestras, Wojciech Rajski has performed as a guest conductor with numerous orchestras in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Mexico, England, Sweden, Greece, Spain and Germany, e.g. the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hannover) or the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Munich). He has led many world-renowned soloists, including Mstislav Rostropovich, Henryk Szeryng, Sabine Meyer, Ivo Pogorelić, Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna, Piotr Beczała or Krystian Zimerman, with whom he has toured Germany twice.
Mr Rajski has participated in such international festivals as the Prague Spring, the Flanders Festival, the Gran Canaria Festival, the Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival as well as in festivals in Evian, Montpellier, La Chaise-Dieu and Copenhagen. Originator and artistic director of the Sopot Classic International Music Festival.
Wojciech Rajski’s recording output includes over 80 albums released by such labels as Sony Classical, DUX, EMI, Universal Music, Le Chant du Monde, Claves, Thorofon, Tacet, Midas, Bis, Wifon, Koch and many others. He records for radio and television both in Poland and abroad. He has received many distinctions and decorations, e.g. the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2002), the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture ‘Gloria Artis’ (2005) or the Pomeranian Artistic Award (2008); in 2022, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture ‘Gloria Artis.’
Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk graduated with honors from the vocal department at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław in the singing class of professor Danuta Paziuk-Zipser. She perfected her skills at the University of Music in Vienna. Awarded many times, Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk received, among others: First Prize at the Solomiya Krushelnytska International Vocal Competition in Lviv, Special Prize at the International Singing Competition of Toulouse, First Prize and Special Prize at the Stanisław Moniuszko International Vocal Competition in Warsaw, as well as the First Prize at the the Karol Szymanowski International Music Competition in Łódź. Moreover, she received the Special Award at the Toti dal Monte International Competition for Opera Singers in Treviso and the Audience Award at the International Vocal Competition in Malmӧ.
Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk’s professional opera debut took place at the Wrocław Opera where she performed the part of Gilda in Rigoletto. She made her international debut with the role of Cunegonde in Candide at theaters in Lucca, Ravenna, Livorno and Pisa. At the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, she made her stage debut as the Tsaritsa of Shemakha in The Golden Cockerel, and then appeared as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and as Le feu, La princesse and Le rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges. At the opera in Bonn, she appeared in the title role in Lakmé.
The artist’s permanent cooperation with the Polish National Opera began in 2015 with the role of Gilda. In the 2016/2017 season, she performed the following parts: Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Opera de Toulon, Gilda and Amina in La sonnambula at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and Sigismondo in Arminio at the International Händel Festival in Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. In the 2017/2018 season, she appeared as Violetta Valery in La traviata at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and in the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste. Performing on one stage with Anne Sophie von Otter, she sang the part of Cunegonde in Candide at the Warsaw National Philharmonic at the end of the season, and afterwards alongside José Cura she performed there in the New Year’s concert. She also made her debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in the title part of the opera The Golden Cockerel.
In the 2018/2019 season, the Polish soprano played one of her favourite roles – Gilda at the opera theaters of Novara, Sassari, Warsaw, Poznań and Wiesbaden. She also made her stage debuts in Tokyo (Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall) and in Zurich (Tonhalle and Opernhaus). In the male role of Primislao in Gismondo, re di Polonia she performed at the Theater an der Wien, at the International Festival of Early Improvised Music All’Improvviso and at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. As Morgana in Alcina, she participated in the Händel Festival in Karlsruhe (2018, 2019).
In the 2019/2020 season Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk performed, among others in the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Concert Hall of the Berlin University of the Arts, the Poznań Philharmonic (performing the song cycle by R. Strauss, Op. 68 for soprano and orchestra), the National Philharmonic (concert performance of L. Różycki’s opera Casanova) as well as at the Polish National Opera and the Zurich Opera (as Fiakermilli in Arabella, a new production by Robert Carsen).
As a soloist of the Wrocław Opera in the years 2008-2017 she performed many leading roles, just to name a few: Violetta in La traviata, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda in Rigoletto, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Sophie in the Der Rosenkavalier, Nannetta in Falstaff, Adina in the L’elisir d’amore, Hanna in The Haunted Manor, Angel in the Angels in America.
She has sung under the baton of such conductors as: Jordi Bernàcer, Patrick Fournillier, Vassily Sinaisky, Péter Eötvös, Elio Boncompagni, John Axelrod, Stefan Blunier, Christopher Moulds, Jacek Kaspszyk, Andriy Yurkevych, Francesco Bottigliero, Łukasz Borowicz, Tadeusz Kozłowski, Tadeusz Strugała, Ewa Michnik, Pavel Klinichev, Marek Pijarowski, Michał Klauza, Jan Miłosz Zarzycki, Sławomir Chrzanowski, Paweł Przytocki.
Among the artist’s engagements in the 2020/2021 season, it is especially worth mentioning Norina in Don Pasquale at the Zurich Opera House and at the Grand Theatre in Łódź, Gilda at the Polish National Opera as well as the title role in the opera The Fairy-Queen at the Budapest State Opera.
The artist has made many recordings. Her discographic output includes: Leonardo Vinci’s opera Gismondo, re di Polonia / Zygmunt, Król Polski, which is enjoying increasing popularity and excellent reviews (3 CD Parnassus Arts Productions 2020), award winning Armino (2 DVD C MAJOR UNITEL 2018), Musica Sacromontana – Józef Zeidler – Missa D major nominated to the Fryderyki 2019 award (DUX 2018) as well as Widma S. Moniuszko – winner of the Fryderyk 2019 Award (CD Accord 2018).
In the 2019/2020 artistic season, Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk acted as the Representative for Artistic Director of the Wrocław Opera. Since 2012, he has been working as a singing teacher at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. In September 2019, she received a postdoctoral degree.
Ildar Abdrazakov has established himself as one of opera’s most sought-after basses. Since making his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 2001 at 25, the Russian native has become a mainstay at leading houses worldwide, including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Paris National Opera, the Vienna State Opera and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. His powerful yet refined voice coupled with his compelling stage presence have prompted critics to hail him as a “sensational bass … who has just about everything – imposing sound, beautiful legato, oodles of finesse” (The Independent). Being also an active concert artist, he has performed at London’s BBC Proms and at New York’s Carnegie Hall, as well as with leading international orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic.
Ildar Abdrazakov conquers the 20-21 season as Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo. He opens the season at the Bolshoi Theatre and returns to Berlin’s Deutsche Oper. Another highlight of the season is a new production of Boris Godunov at Opera de Monte-Carlo, where the bass performs one of his signature roles. On the concert stage, Ildar Abdrazakov can be heard in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with Staatskapelle Berlin under the baton of Zubin Mehta. He can also be heard in solo recital with Mzia Bakhtouridze at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal.
Ildar Abdrazakov has appeared with virtually every major opera company in the United States and Europe such as Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, the San Francisco Opera, the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera.
Since his house debut in Don Giovanni (2004) Ildar Abdrazakov has become a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera. He headlined the gala opening of the company’s 2015-16 season in the title role in a new Sir Richard Eyre production of Le nozze di Figaro. Previously, he sang the title role in a new Dmitry Tcherniakov’s staging of Borodin’s Prince Igor – a performance captured on DVD and Blu-ray by Deutsche Grammophon. Other notable Met productions include his role debut as Henry VIII opposite Anna Netrebko in Anna Bolena, Dosifey in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, Escamillo in two productions of Carmen, the title role of Attila under the baton of Riccardo Muti, the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro, Assur in Rossini’s Semiramide, Leoporello in Don Giovanni and most recently Banquo in Verdi’s Macbeth and Mephistopheles in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust.
Ildar Abdrazakov is a frequent guest at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he joined Riccardo Muti in concert for the reopening of the theatre in 2004-05 and sang Moses in a production of Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon that was recorded and released on CD and DVD. In the 18-19 season, he starred as Verdi’s Attila in a season opening new production televised globally. He has also sung three solo recitals and Don Ruy da Silva in Verdi’s Ernani at the famous house. His many triumphant performances on one of the most prestigious opera stages has resulted in the award of the Franco Abbiati in the category “Best Singer”.
The bass made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2009 in a new production of Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon. Since then, he has returned regularly, singing amongst others Méphistophélès in a new production of Faust, Mustafà alongside Cecilia Bartoli in the Festival’s new production of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri and performances of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem conducted by Riccardo Muti.
His first appearance at London’s Royal Opera House in 2009 was made with Verdi’s Requiem in concert with Sir Antonio Pappano. Since then he returned there to sing Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo. The title role in Le Nozze di Figaro was the vehicle for Abdrazakov’s 1998 house debut at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. Among his other signature roles are both the title role and Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust and Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, Oroveso in Bellini’s Norma; Selim in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia and Assur in his Semiramide. The Russian bass is noted for Verdi roles including Walter in Luisa Miller and the title character in Oberto and Attila, as well as Banquo in Macbeth and Filippo II in Don Carlo. The French version of this role took Ildar Abdrazakov to the Paris National Opera in 17-18, where he also made his triumphant debut in the title role of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, broadcast live in cinemas all over the world and sang Prince Igor in a new production by Barrie Kosky.
In 2018-19, Ildar Abdrazakov made his debut as a stage director in a production of Attila for Bashkir State Opera in which he also performed the title role.
On the concert stage, he has given recitals in Russia, Italy, Japan and the United States, and has performed with orchestras including the Orchestre Metropolitain, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Deutsches Symphony Orchester, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Among the noted conductors with whom he has collaborated are Riccardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, James Levine, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Bertrand de Billy, Riccardo Frizza and Riccardo Chailly. In November and December 2017 Ildar Abdrazakov toured Europe with Rolando Villazón. The concerts in Prague, Berlin, Baden-Baden, Stuttgart, Munich, Paris and Vienna presented the repertoire of their first joint album “Duets”, featuring duets from Italian and French operas. The album was launched in September 2017 by Deutsche Grammophon.
Ildar Abdrazakov’s debut solo album Power Players, a celebration of the great Russian bass roles, was released in early 2014 on Delos, to great critical acclaim. His recording of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra won a Grammy Award. He also has recorded unpublished arias by Rossini with Riccardo Chailly and the Symphony Orchestra of Milan, as well as Giuseppe Verdi for Decca, and Cherubini’s Mass with Muti and the Bayerischer Rundfunk for EMI Classics. For Chandos he has recorded Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight, both with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic. In early 2017 Abdrazakov signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His first solo album Verdi was released in summer 2019. The bass’s DVD releases include Moïse et Pharaon from La Scala, Oberto from Bilbao, Norma from Parma and Lucia di Lammermoor from the Metropolitan Opera. Marking the Verdi bicentennial, May 2013 saw Abdrazakov’s star turn in the title role of Attila immortalized on the Mariinsky label’s first DVD/Blu-ray release.
Abdrazakov was born in Ufa, the today’s capital of the republic of Bashkiria in Russia. Both of his parents were artists: his mother was a painter and his late father a director. At age four Abdrazakov began acting in his father’s stage and film productions, and these early experiences inspired him to pursue a career in the arts. Upon graduating from the Ufa State Institute of Arts, he joined the Bashkirian Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the late 1990s he won a string of prestigious vocal competitions: the Moscow Grand Prix named after Irina Arkhipova, the Glinka International Vocal Competition, the Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition, and the International Obraztsova competition. His 2000 win at the Maria Callas International Television Competition in Parma thrust him into the international spotlight and led to his debut at La Scala the following year.
Ildar Abdrazakov has his own foundation, created to support and promote young talented musicians. Since 2018 he is annually organizing festivals in Russia, inviting renowned singers to give concerts and masterclasses there. Since 2014, Ildar Abdrazakov is also Artistic Director of the Elena Obraztsova International Academy of Music.
International award winning violinist Janusz Wawrowski has appeared to critical acclaim in major concert halls throughout the world.
A double winner of the Fryderyk Award, decorated by the Polish Ministry of Culture, and appointed as one of the youngest tenured Professors in Europe at the prestigious Chopin University of Music in Warsaw: Both at home and abroad Janusz is considered to be the leading Polish violinist of our time. As a tribute to his efforts in promoting Polish culture worldwide, he has been gifted the Antonio Stradivari “Polonia” violin (1685) on an indefinite loan (courtesy Roman Ziemian)..
A student of Mirosław Ławrynowicz, Yair Kless and Salvatore Accardo, Janusz gained public attention early with his complete performances of the 24 Paganini Caprices. A debut CD was released and following numerous accolades in his home country he was invited all over the world to sold out halls (Berlin Philharmonic, Wigmore Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Hall Moscow, Musikverein Wien…), international festivals (Chopin and His Europe, Salzburger Festspiele…) and prominent orchestras (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic…).
In 2013, Janusz Wawrowski released his first album on Warner Classics and has recorded five albums to date. Encompassing a broad repertoire with works for solo violin, violin and piano, and concerti with orchestra – they received glowing reviews and top ratings in major publications, featured internationally on TV & Radio and nominated for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).
His interest of contemporary music has led to working closely with living composers, including world premieres of violin concerti by Tomasz Opałka, Dariusz Przybylski and Polish premieres by Max Richter and Sukhi Kang. This interest in modern music culminated with his album Sequenza, which explores violin solo repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Sequenza received outstanding recognition by the press and was featured in a live performance on BBC Radio 3.
Highlights of the 2019/20 season take Janusz Wawrowski to the USA on a major tour under Giancarlo Guerrero, debuts in the new Elbphilharmonie with Hamburger Symphoniker under Patrick Hahn, in the Wigmore Hall, a return to the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and continued collaboration with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Grzegorz Nowak.
Janusz Wawrowski is based in Warsaw, Poland and enjoys not only playing string trio with his children – but also shares their fascination with playing many different board games!
Mechlinski’s 2020/21 Season sees the baritone making such important house debuts as Teatro alla Scala Milano with the title role of Krol Roger (cover), Glasgow Scottish Opera with the Duke in The Miserly Knight, Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza with Guglielmo Cosi fan tutti, Finnish National Opera with LeoncavalloI Pagliacci.
2019/2020 highlights included Mechlinski’s return to Wexford Opera Festival for the production of The Veiled Prophet, appearances with the Opera de Lyon as Strahlbusch in the new production of Schreker’s Irrelohe, Nationaltheater Mannheim as Fillipe Maria Visconti Beatrice di Tenda, Polish Warsaw National Philharmonic in the role of Ryx in Cassanova, Poznan Opera as Lescaut
Manon Lescaut, and Opera Wroclaw in the role of Dandini La Cenerentola. Recent engagements of note include Dr Malatesta in Don Pasquale and Luigi in Il Bravo with the Wexford Festival Opera, Foka in Enchantress at the Opera de Lyon, the title role in Eugene Onegin at the Theater Dortmund and Opera de Toulon, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly at the Glyndebourne Festival, Fritz Die Tote Stadt at the Polish National Opera on tour, Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory at the Dorset Opera Festival, and Marcello La bohème at the Gdansk’s Baltic State Opera.
Mechlisnki’s other notable artistic collaborations include Opera Śląska in Bytom, Silesian Philharmonic, National Museum in Warsaw (Królikarnia Palace) and Feliks Nowowiejski Museum in Poznań where he is a regularny invited recitalist and could be heard as Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Clock in L’enfant et les Sortileges, 3rd Slave in Die Zauberflöte, The Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Baritone in Stabat Mater by Szymanowski, Marcello in La Boheme.
Mechlinski holds BM and MM degrees with distinction from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music Academy, Poznań where he studied with Prof. Jerzy Mechliński, Prof. Iwona Kowalkowska and Gabriela Klima – Kściuczyk. Mechlinski continues studies Maestro Giorgio Zancanaro.
completed his education at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw under the tutelage of Professor Jerzy Artysz. He is a laureate of the Jan Kiepura Theatrical Music Award in the category The Best Singer, as well as Second Prize at the Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award – Countertenor Competition. In 2011 he was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Opernhaus Zürich.
In 2004, Jan Jakub Monowid made his operatic debut in the part of Ottone in C. Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and since then he has been permanently cooperating with this venue. The artist also appeared at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, the Polish National Opera and the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk. He has sung baroque repertoire (the title role in Orlando, Goffredo in Rinaldo and Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare in Egitto), classical repertoire (Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Ramiro in La finta giardiniera, Farnace in Mitridate, re di Ponto, Ascanio in Ascanio in Alba), 19th century repertoire (the title role in Tancredi) and modern repertoire (Z. Krauze’s Polieukt, E. Pałłasz’s Ja, Kain and L’Ospite in S. Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici). As a soloist of the International Opera Studio in Zürich he performed the part of Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Opernhaus Zürich.
In the years 2017-2020 Jan Jakub Monowid, took part in the world premiere of Tango composed by M. Dobrzyński at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and a new production of Sąd Ostateczny by K. Knittel at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk. He has performed the parts of Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and the title part in Imeneo and at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. He came back as L’Ospite in Luci mie traditrici to the New Opera Days Ostrava at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre. The artist debuted in the part of Horse-Sailor at the Grand Theatre in Łódź in a world premiere of The Man from Manufaktura by Rafał Janiak. His further debuts included Ottone in Agrippina at the Festival of Baroque Operas Dramma per musica in Warsaw, the title part in a world premiere of Alek Nowak’s opera Drach at the Auksodrone Festival in Poland, as well as the title part in a newly composed opera entitled Anhelli by Dariusz Pyrzybylski at the Grand Theatre in Poznań.
The 2020/2021 season is marked with Jan Jakub Monowid’s performances as Dantes innere Stimme in the world premiere of Inferno by Lucia Ronchetti at the Oper Frankfurt, main part in Keiko Fujiie’s Vermilion Calm, opera composed especially for Jan Jakub Monowid’s voice as well as the part of Ramiro in premiere production of La finta giardiniera at the Polish Royal Opera.
Jan Jakub Monowid appears on a growing number of CD recordings, amongst which some of the most interesting are a unique collection of Polish baroque – complete works of Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki and Stanisław Sylwester Szarzyński published by „Pro Musica Camerata” Foundation and a recording of a live performance of Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the Warsaw Chamber Opera. To his credit he also has numerous recordings of modern music such as: Sonnets for countertenor and symphonic orchestra by M.-A. Dalbavie, And Farewell Goes Out Sighing by G. Kancheli also for a countertenor with symphonic orchestra, Lamentacja and Brewiarz for a male soprano and string quartet by Z. Penherski, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo by B. Britten and Shakespeare’s Sonnets by P. Mykietyn.
The harpsichordist and conductor Václav Luks founded the two ensembles on the occasion of the project Bach — Prague — 2005. Since 2007, they have been making regular guest appearances at festivals all over Europe. In 2008, Music Bridge Prague — Dresden began, bringing together the two cities’ wealth of cultural traditions. Their collaborations with such world-famous soloists as Magdalena Kožená, Vivica Genaux, and Bejun Mehta in 2012 led seamlessly to a second Collegium 1704 concert series at the Rudolfinum. Since autumn 2015, the two cycles have been merged into a single concert season that continues to take place in parallel in Prague and Dresden. In 2019 Collegium Vocale 1704 launched a series of chamber choir concerts in Prague.
In the field of opera, Collegium 1704 followed up on the international successes of its production of Handel’s Rinaldo with performances of Josef Mysliveček’s L’olimpiade, nominated for the 2014 International Opera Awards, and of Antonio Vivaldi’s Arsilda, regina di Ponto in its modern-era world premiere. Collegium 1704 has received invitations recently from such prestigious presenters as the Salzburger Festspiele (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019), the Berliner Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Theater an der Wien and Konzerthaus, the Lucerne Festival, BOZAR (Palais des Beaux-Arts) in Brussels, the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, Wratislavia Cantans, and the Elbphilharmonie, and it is an ensemble-in-residence at the prestigious festival Oude Muziek in Utrecht, at the Leipzig Bachfest and Château de Versailles. In 2014, under the baton of Václav Luks Collegium 1704 collaborated with Bejun Mehta on a DVD of Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice with the stage director Ondřej Havelka and with Rolando Villazón on the making of the BBC 2 documentary Mozart in Prague. The ensemble took part in making the director Petr Václav’s epic film Il Boemo about the life of Josef Mysliveček.
The recordings of Collegium 1704 are popular with listeners and music critics (they have repeatedly won the Diapason d’Or, CD of the Month & Editor’s Choice, and nominations for CD of the Year Gramophone Magazine). Among their successful CD recordings have been the violin concertos of Josef Mysliveček, oboe concertos, cantatas, and the B Minor Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach, the world premiere of J. D. Zelenka’s Missa Divi Xaverii, and sonatas by Zelenka (both Zelenka recordings were honoured with the prestigious Diapason d’Or). In 2019, Collegium 1704 issued the first complete Czech recording of Handel’s Messiah and a collection titled Ilgiardinodeisospiri with selections from Baroque secular cantatas sung by Magdalena Kožená. The latest recordings are an imaginary mass by J. D. Zelenka, Missa 1724, and the opera Les Boréades by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which won the Trophées 2020 award for the best opera recording of the year.
