JAN ŁUKASZEWSKI

has come to be accepted as one of Europe’s most accomplished choral music specialists. He is conductor and director of Polski Chór Kameralny. Much in demand as a guest conductor, he e.g. regularly worked with the Polish Radio Choir and works with the Philharmonic Choir Cracow and the Philharmonic Choir Wroclaw as well as guest conducting abroad. As an orchestral conductor he enjoys cooperating with such ensembles as, for examle, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Sopot, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, The Academy of Ancient Music, or Venice Baroque Orchestra. His main artistic interests lie in the fields of romantic and of contemporary music, and, especially in connection with Polski Chór Kameralny he has gained a reputation of being able to make possible the impossible and prepare musically valid interpretations of even the most complex of works in a very short time, indeed. Hence the number of premier performances directed by him is vast. He regularly receives invitations worldwide to hold master classes and seminars for choral conductors (in Japan, for example or as a lecturer at the 'World Symposium on Choral Music'). Jan Łukaszewski holds the title of Professor of Musical Arts. Taking an educational interest in amateur singing, he frequently works in the juries of internationally renowned choral contests, among others in Japan [Takarazuka, Karuizawa], Wales [Llangollen], Lithuania, Italy, Switzerland, and of composers’ competitions in Poland, England [Cambridge], and in France [Rouen].

While advertising abroad the musical heritage of his nation and of his home town of Gdansk (e.g. the choral works of Andrzej Hakenberger), in Poland, Jan Łukaszewski is regarded as one of the few that propagate the music of such composers as Schönberg, Messiaen, Xenakis, Globokar, Castiglioni, Takemitsu, R. Strauss, Pepping, Tippett, Ives, and Barber. His abundant recordings for Polish Radio, Dutch Radio, Sender Freies Berlin, Bayrischer Rundfunk, Südwestrundfunk, and Westdeutscher Rundfunk and for Polish and German Television as well as his numerous CD-, MC-, LP- and video recordings reflect the quality of his work, for which, in addition, he has received countless prestigious awards. The high artistic level of Polski Chór Kameralny under his direction time and again inspires composers to write works for unaccompanied choir and world premiere performances conducted by Jan Łukaszewski are counted in their many hundreds. Apart from all that, always keen to share his unique knowledge and appreciation of music with the public, Jan Łukaszewski has given many a stimulus to musical life in general. In Gdansk alone, to date he initiated and directed, among others, 10 International Symposia on Choral Music, the “Bach Days”, the “Chopin Festival”, and last but not least is founder and director of the hugely popular annual International Mozart Festival “Mozartiana” which attracts thousands of visitors every year.

BOGUSŁAW GRABOWSKI

organist and composer born in 1955 in Sopot. Today, he is a Full Professor at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, where he teaches e.g. organ performance, harmony in practice, liturgical accompaniment, organ improvisation, as well as the structure of the organ with musical acoustics. He is the founder of the Chair of Church Music at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, which he headed for many years. Moreover, he gives lectures at numerous universities of the theological profile. He is a specialist in organ designing, construction, and maintenance. He cooperates with many organ building companies, offering them consultations and preparing expert opinions. The instruments built to his own proprietary designs include e.g. the organ at the Chair of Church Music (Academy of Music in Gdańsk), or the instrument at the Sanctuary of God’s Mercy in Gdańsk. Before he became the chief organist at the St. Mary’s Co-cathedral Basilica in Gdańsk in 1985, he had been a member of the committee in charge of the project of constructing the organ in the Basilica (at the stage of technological acceptance of the instrument he was the head of the Polish body of the international commission which approved and accepted the built instrument). He is an animator of musical life in Gdańsk and Pomerania, where he has already organized more than 1000 concerts within the framework of international festivals and concert cycles (e.g. the Organ Evenings at St. Mary’s, or Music at the Sanctuary of God’s Mercy in Gdańsk). He is the director of the International Festival of the Organ, Choir, and Chamber Music, held annually basis at St. Mary’s Basilica in Gdańsk. He has given concerts at almost all major Polish centres of musical life, and abroad in Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, the USA, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Russia. He has recorded a dozen-or-so CDs of e.g. organ music (Poland, Germany, USA), and his own compositions featuring choirs and symphonic orchestras, as well as improvisations.