Choir of the Cracow Philharmonic

Choir of the Cracow Philharmonic consists of 80 artists, graduates of middle and high schools of music. The Choir of the Cracow Philharmonic was established in 1945. Since the moment of its creation it has performed almost 2000 concerts (including over 300 abroad). The choir's repertoire includes about 400 works from the old music to pre-performances works by Polish contemporary composers (H. Górecki, K. Penderecki, and R. Palester). The Choir accompanied many European orchestras, including, among others: Wiener "Symphoniker", "Beethovenhalleorchester", "Orchestre Radiotelevision Belge", or "Orchestra Radiotelevisione Italiana di Roma".

It participated in 39 festivals all over Europe. From its first edition, the ensemble has been connected with a well-known European Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival. It has also co-operated for a long time with Festival de La Chaise Dieu. The Philharmonics added splendour to international events: Unification of Germany in 1995 and celebration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1995. The choir of the Cracow Philharmonic, specializing in performing monumental oratorios (it performed all works within this genre), has also got in its repertoire: operas from Mozart "Don Giovanni" to avant-garde K. Penderecki's "Black Mask", from Lohengrin by R. Wagner (directed by Luca Ronconi - Florence 1999), and works of popular character: Ramirez "Missa Criolla", McCartney "MLiverpool Oratorio", or Andrew L. Webber "Requiem". To the Choir's great discographic achievements belong recordings of W. Kilar's music, including film music: "Dracula" by F.Coppola and "A King for Burning" by Thomas Toelle. A recording with compositions by W. Kilar - "Krzesany", Angelus, Victoria - was nominated to a prestigious "Fryderyk" award in 1997. The Cracow Choir is famous for its long artistic collaboration with K. Penderecki who, paying them a tribute, dedicated a fragment of "Passion" to the ensemble - a sequence of "Stabat Mater". For many years the Choir has received expressions of approval from audience, reviewers and conductors collaborating with it, and foreign tours a won it an opinion of the "ambassador of Polish culture".

Choir Master Jacek Mentel - born in 1962 in Zabrze after graduating from music schools of first and second degree in Gliwice in the piano class; in 1983 - 88 he studied conducting at the Cracow Academy of Music in class of professor Jerzy Katlewicz (diploma with honours). Still while at the Academy, he started co-collaboration with the Cracow Philharmonic where, since 1987, he was assistant choir master and since 1989 he has been a conductor and manager of the Mixed Choir. Together with the choir, he participated in many Polish and foreign festivals e.g. Wratislavia Cantans, Music Festival in Łańcut, Gaude Mater in Częstochowa, Warsaw Autumn, Music in Old Cracow, Festival de Musique de La Chaise - Dieu, Berliner Festwoche, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Festival Europaeischer Musik Berlin, or Festival de Berlioz, collaborating with many eminent conductors from Poland and abroad. Simultaneously, he is a teacher; a reader at the Faculty of Composition, Conducting and Theory of Music at the Cracow Academy of Music. He has improved his conductor's skills at numerous courses and seminars e.g. under the chairmanship of professor Helmuth Rilling (Bachakademie Stuttgart, Internationalen Dirigentenseminar Leipzig) and as a fellow in Eugen, USA at Oregon Bach Festival. In 1989, he received a scholarship of the city of Cracow for Your Art Creators. As a conductor of symphonic concerts, oratorios and choir music, he appears on Polish and foreign concert platforms (France, Germany, Norway, USA).