MENU
SZYMON MORUS
Artistic Director of the International Music Festival Sopot Classic.
A conductor from the young generation, who earned a reputation for not shying away from performing the most demanding masterpieces. Morus feels perfectly at ease with all musical genres. Since the beginning of June 2023, he has been holding the position of the first guest conductor at the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot. Szymon Morus promotes the most recent music through numerous premieres and partners with Polish composers of the young generation. He also brings to life innovative educational projects for the youngest enthusiasts of classical music. He is the founder and the Artistic Director of Progress Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has been regularly performing since 2009, partnering with guests performers with broad artistic perspectives. His orchestra specializes in contemporary music and has release 8 CDs.
Morus had his debut at the stage of The National Philharmonic in Warsaw during The Krzysztof Penderecki Festival on the occasion of Penderecki’s 85th birthday in 2018. In March 2016, Morus assumed the musical direction of the premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s The Black Mask in The Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, which was presented to the Tri-City audience with a spectacular success and appreciated even more by the Warsaw audience of The Grand Theatre – The Polish National Opera (April 2016). Morus entered into a longer partnership with The Baltic Opera and directed other productions including The Final Judgment by Krzysztof Knittel, The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko, and The Nutcracker by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Since the beginning of 2021/2022 season, he has been holding the position of the first guest conductor at the Wojciech Kilar Polish Philharmonic Sinfonia Baltica in Słupsk. He partners among others with The Polish Royal Opera, The Grand Theatre in Łódź, The Silesian Opera, The Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, The Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, The Cracow Philharmonic, The Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, The Baltic Philharmonic, The Podkarpacka Philharmonic, The Zielona Góra Philharmonic, The Koszalin Philharmonic, The Polish Chamber Philharmonic, The Silesian Chamber Orchestra, and The Radom Chamber Orchestra. Among the most eminent soloists performing under his lead were Pierre Génisson, Massimo Mercelli, Miroslava Yordanova, Alexander Krichel, Olga Pasiecznik, Robert Gierlach and Leszek Możdżer.
Morus was recognized for his accomplishments with the Pomeranian Artistic Award in 2016. He is the President of The Pomeranian Association Musica Giovane, whose goal is to partner with cultural institutions, ensembles, and individual artists in an effort to collaborate on creation of joint projects which combine music with poetry, theatre, and visual arts.
Morus graduated from the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk (opera and symphonic conducting class of Wojciech Rajski and violin class of Andrzej Kacprzak), where he was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy title in musical arts in the field of conducting. Since October 2013, he has been affiliated with his Alma Mater where he serves as a lecturer at the Faculty of Conducting, Composition and Theory of Music.
WOJCIECH RAJSKI
Artistic Director of the International Music Festival Sopot Classic from 2011 to 2023.
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.’
