Penderecki in Memoriam Podcast is produced and hosted by Max Horowitz, Crossover Media. Created by Anna Perzanowska and Klaudia Ofwona Draber, and presented by Polish Cultural Institute New York.
Penderecki in Memoriam Podcast unveils a multifaceted portrait of Krzysztof Penderecki, with commentary from musicians, colleagues, radio programmers, and writers who lend insight and memories of Poland’s greatest modern composer. This podcast is part of Penderecki in Memoriam Worldwide project, honoring the life and legacy of the great composer. Thank you to project partners DUX, NAXOS, Ludwig van Beethoven Association, and Schott EAM for sharing Krzysztof Penderecki’s music with the world.
Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow. As Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland, the only all-Ireland orchestra and the Clandeboye Festival, he continues to celebrate his Irish heritage whilst also maintaining a busy international touring schedule.
Sergey Smbatyan enjoys an acclaimed and prolific musical career extending far beyond his native Armenia. Smbatyan has earned an array of achievements for the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, of which he is the founder, artistic director and principal conductor, and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, which he has led as the principal conductor since September 2019.
“We are speaking about a genius. So he is the creator of new language in music, classical music. He is inventor, he is genius. He is more than physical body.”
Fantastic energy
The 20-21 season marks Rafael Payare’s second season as Music Director of San Diego Symphony and already their relationship has been recognised as one of the most dynamic in North America. He has also recently been announced as the next Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal where he will take the title of Music Director Designate from September 2021 and will commence as Music Director from the 22-23 season for an initial period of 5 years.
Laura Kaminsky “makes the most of textures, sometimes delicate and almost weightless, sometimes thick and convoluted, but always vivid.” (Washington Post) “Full of fire as well as ice, contrasting dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection, (her music) is strong stuff.” (American Record Guide) As One (American Opera Projects/BAM), the most produced contemporary opera in the U.S., has played in Canada, Europe and Australia.
Antoni Wit is one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors and a champion of Polish music. A top prizewinner at the Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition in 1971 and an assistant to Karajan at the Easter Festival in Salzburg, he subsequently worked with all of the leading orchestras in Poland (including the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra) before taking up the position of general and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic in 2001 for twelve years until the end of the 2012–13 season.
Kent Nagano is considered one of the outstanding conductors for both operatic and orchestral repertoire. He has been General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra since September 2015. From 2006 to 2020, he was Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and was appointed Conductor Emeritus in February 2021.
GRAMMY-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center and Artistic Adviser of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Hailed for having ‘Toscanini’s tight control over ensemble, Walter’s affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski’s gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein’, she is a leading force for the music of our time.
Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), and Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author, and educator.
One of the most versatile conductors of his generation, Łukasz Borowicz regularly leads the major European orchestras in the core Germanic repertoire as well as important Russian, Polish, Czech and Hungarian works. He conducts opera and has received numerous prizes for his over 100 recordings. From 2007 to 2015 he was Chief Conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, and in 2006 he was appointed Chief Guest Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic, a title he retains.
Composer Elliot Goldenthal creates works for film, orchestra, theater, opera, and ballet. Goldenthal received an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for his score for Frida directed by Julie Taymor, having also received Oscar nominations for the film’s original song “Burn It Blue” with lyrics by Taymor, and Oscar nominations for his music for Interview With the Vampire and Michael Collins, both directed by Neil Jordan.
Osmo Vänskä, the Minnesota Orchestra’s tenth music director, is renowned internationally for his compelling interpretations of the standard, contemporary and Nordic repertoires. He has led the Orchestra on five major European tours, as well as an August 2018 visit to London’s BBC Proms, and on historic tours to Cuba in 2015 and South Africa in 2018.
