Kaspszyk, Jacek

A graduate of the State High School of Music in Warsaw (1975), he won the 3rd Prize at the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Competition (1977). He has conducted the leading world orchestras including the Berlin and New York philharmonics, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philharmonia, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Vienna Symphony, Munich Radio, Cincinnati Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has also been very active as an opera conductor. In 1976, he became guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, and has subsequently worked at theatres such as the English National Opera, Opera North in Leeds, Opéra Comique in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Zurich, Stockholm, Seville's Teatro de la Maestranza, and Buenos Aires' Teatro Colón. In 1998 he became artistic and musical director and in 2002, general director of the Grand Theatre - National Opera in Warsaw. In 2006-8, he regularly cooperated with the Lithuanian National Opera, which he took to festivals in Ljubljana, Ravenna, and Tel Aviv. In 2011 he was awarded the prestigious Elgar Medal. On special invitation from Martha Argerich, he regularly appears at the Lugano Festival. From his early years, he has cooperated with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which he became the head conductor in 1978 and musical director in 1980, a post he held again in 2009-12. In 2006-13 he was artistic director of the Witold Lutosławski Philharmonic Orchestra in Wrocław.

On 1 September 2013, Jacek Kaspszyk became artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic. He conducted the Philharmonic's first online broadcasts. In May 2015 with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, he toured Great Britain, followed in 2016 by a tour of Japan and South Korea (with award winners of the 2015 Chopin Piano Competition), both tours enthusiastically received by critics.

He has recorded numerous CD, with his recording of Szymanowski's King Roger with the Grand Theatre - National Opera on CD Accord nominated for BBC Music Magazine's Record of the Year. A Gramophone critic wrote about the CD: "In all, even the tiniest details, he managed to achieve absolutely everything."