Krych, Lilianna

Born in 1986 in Warsaw, she is a conductor focusing on opera, contemporary music, and early music. She graduated in orchestra and opera conducting from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw (2011) after studies with Marek Pijarowski. In 2009 she obtained a master’s degree in music theory from the same University. She developed her conducting skills at masterclasses with Collin Metters, Jonathan Brett, and Jerzy Salwarowski. She has led the Jelenia Góra and Kielce Philharmonic ensembles. She is also engaged in music education on many levels, notably as director of the mixed orchestra of the Oskar Kolberg State Music School in Warsaw. 

She made her Warsaw Autumn debut in 2016 with the Polish stage premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici, later presented at the 2018 New Opera Days in Ostrava. She has conducted new music ensembles such as Spółdzielnia Muzyczna and Hashtag. Since October 2017 she has been a member of the latter group. 

She cooperates with composers such as Wojciech Błażejczyk, Piotr Tabakiernik, Adam Porębski, and Agnieszka Stulgińska on performances and premieres of their works. She has prepared music for theatrical shows such as The Runners with music by Nikolet Burzyńska (Stage Songs Review, Wrocław 2014), Trojan Women after Euripides (dir. Kamila Michalak, music by Marta Śniady, Polski Theatre in Poznań, premiered in March 2016). As a conductor she has cooperated with Wrocław’s Song of the Goat Theatre on such performances as Return to the Voice and Hamlet (dir. Grzegorz Bral), notably during the Warsaw Theatre Meetings and the Sibiu International Theatre Festival. In 2016–17 she directed the Vocal Ensemble at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and currently holds the same post at the Polish Royal Opera. 

Since 2013 she has worked at the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw as assistant conductor to, among others, Gabriel Chmura, Stefan Soltesz, Judith Yan, Carlo Montanaro, Łukasz Borowicz, Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, and Andriy Yurkevych. She cocreated the independent production of Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (2013, Old PAP Printing House in Warsaw; 2014 SZEM Festival in Miskolc, Hungary). She has conducted operas such as Joseph Haydn’s Orlando paladino (a joint production of Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, Fryderyk Chopin Music University and Theatre Academy, dir. Waldemar Raźniak, 2014) and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Warsaw Chamber Opera’s Youth Stage, 2014). She is the artistic director and conductor of Warsaw Stage Society Choir, which she leads in performances, workshops, and recording sessions in Poland and abroad. With this choir, she has interpreted Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise (2016 Warsaw Autumn), Bach’s St Matthew Passion (with COV Haarlem Choir, Poland 2010 / The Netherlands 2011) and St John Passion (2012 and 2014). 

In 2010–14 she directed the Tslil Jewish Choir, Poland’s only amateur choir singing in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino, and Polish, with which she recorded the CD Shabbat Songs in 2011.