Jan Łukaszewski
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.
