was founded in 1984 on the basis of the former Polish Chamber Orchestra. It was initiated by Franciszek Wybrańczyk in cooperation with Yehudi Menuhin, who became the orchestra’s first guest conductor. Krzysztof Penderecki followed as musical director in 1997 and artistic director in 2003. In the years 2008–12, worldfamous French conductor Marc Minkowski was the orchestra’s musical director. Since 2004, Sinfonia Varsovia’s general director is Janusz Marynowski.
Sinfonia Varsovia has played in the world’s most prestigious concert venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, London’s Barbican Centre, Vienna’s Musikverein, Buenos Aires’s Teatro Colón, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and Munich’s Herkulessaal.
It has participated in leading festivals including Salzburg, Yehudi Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Aix-en-Provence, Montreux, La Roque d’Anthéron, Schleswig-Holstein, Pablo Casals Festival, Würzburg, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Sea Music Festival, and the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. It is particularly committed to the famous international music festival La Folle Journée, organised by the French CREA association and its director René Martin, taking place in Nantes, Bilbao, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. In 2010 Sinfonia Varsovia and CREA organised the first edition of La Folle Journée in Warsaw. The festival’s fifth Warsaw edition will take place on 26–28 September 2014.
The orchestra has appeared on stage with leading conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Gerd Albrecht, Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Hans Graf, Leopold Hager, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Emmanuel Krivine, Witold Lutosławski, Paul McCreesh, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Marc Minkowski, Grzegorz Nowak, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michel Plasson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach, Jerzy Semkow, Antoni Wit, and Bruno Weil, and with soloists such as Salvatore Accardo, Piotr Anderszewski, Maurice André, Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Teresa Berganza, Rafał Blechacz, Alfred Brendel, José Carreras, Kyung-Wha Chung, José Cura, Plácido Domingo, Augustin Dumay, Nelson Freire, James Galway, Fou Ts’ong, Sharon Kam, Kiri Te Kanawa, Nigel Kennedy, Gidon Kremer, Alicia de Larrocha, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Christa Ludwig, Radu Lupu, Albrecht Mayer, Mischa Maisky, Yehudi Menuhin, Shlomo Mintz, Olli Mustonen, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Olga Pasiecznik, Murray Perahia, Maria João Pires, Ivo Pogorelich, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Vadim Repin, Katia Ricciarelli, Heinrich Schiff, Howard Shelley, Henryk Szeryng, Maxim Vengerov, Christian Zacharias, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Tabea Zimmermann, and Grigori Zhislin.
Sinfonia Varsovia is also committed to promoting the most talented young Polish musicians, including conductors Iwona Sowińska, Wojciech Rodek, and Krzysztof Urbański, violinists Agata Szymczewska, Jakub Jakowicz, Mariusz Patyra, Aleksandra Bucholc, and Anna Gutowska, singers Iwona Sobotka and Aleksandra Kurzak, and pianists Beata Bilińska and Jan Lisiecki.
Sinfonia Varsovia has made around 230 recordings for labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Sony, EMI, Virgin Classics, Naxos, Denon Nippon Columbia, Naïve, DUX, Polish Radio, BeArTon, CD Accord, Polskie Nagrania. Many of this recordings received prestigious phonographic awards, including the Diapason d’Or, Diapason Découverte, Grand Prix du Disque, and several Fryderyk Awards.
In 2000, the Sinfonia Varsovia Foundation was established by Franciszek Wybrańczyk in order to initiate and support the orchestra’s activities, as well as promote Polish composers around the world. Every year, the Franciszek Wybrańczyk Sinfonia Varsovia to its City festival is organised.
Until the year 2007, the orchestra was based at the Studio Arts Centre in Warsaw, before becoming a cultural institution of the City of Warsaw in 2008. In 2010, the orchestra received its own headquarters: the former Veterinary Institute in the Praga district in Warsaw.
Sinfonia Varsovia has received many accolades, including a Warsaw Order of Merit, Honorary Award from the Polish Minister of Culture for outstanding achievements in the arts and promotion of culture, and a diploma from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting Poland abroad.
In 2014, Sinfonia Varsovia is celebrating its 30 years of musical activity.
