CAMERATA SILESIA Zespół Śpiewaków Miasta Katowice

Poland’s leading chamber group of singers, founded in 1990 by Anna Szostak, who leads the ensemble to this day. The ensemble is predominantly renowned for contemporary music performance, but is equally at home in ancient music. It has performed in the leading concert halls of Europe and Asia, including London’s Royal Festival Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Rome’s Parco della Musica, Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, Venice’s Gran Teatro La Fenice, and Beijing’s Lanfang Theatre. The ensemble also regularly performs at international festivals, including yearly appearances at Warsaw Autumn, Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw, and Wratislavia Cantans, where it performs both in chamber a cappella casts and in extended format in oratorio and cantata genres. The ensemble’s outstanding level was acknowledged by Krzysztof Penderecki, with Camerata Silesia performing the composer’s St Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, and Seven Gates of Jerusalem under his baton, notably in Münster, Cracow, and Hamburg, as well as giving the first performance of Canticum Canticorum at Warsaw Autumn. In 2012, Camerata Silesia’s extended cast was invited to stage performances and a DVD recording of Penderecki’s St Luke Passion directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna. Through its close relationship with many leading proponents of contemporary music, Camerata Silesia performs many premieres of new works, including those composed specially for the ensemble. 

The ensemble boasts several dozens of CD recordings. In 2017, it again was nominated to Fryderyk Awards for the disk Camerata Silesia sings Szymański and Józef Zeidler: Missa ex D – Musica Sacromontana, with works from the collections of the sanctuary of the Holy Mountain in Gostyń, recorded in cooperation with Sinfonia Varsovia under Jerzy Maksymiuk. Latest projects include concerts with the London Baroque Orchestra, the first performance of Marcel Pérès’s Missa Ex tempore, and a performance of Penderecki’s St Luke Passion in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski. Since 2014, Camerata Silesia have operated their own concert cycle at the new seat of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, presenting an eclectic repertoire spanning from classical music to jazz/pop crossover.