Tadeusz Strugała

Tadeusz Strugała - One of the renown Polish conductors, he is celebrating 50 years of his artistic career. From1969 to 1980 he headed the Wroclaw Philharmonic,as well as the National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (1975-1976) and the Symphony Orchestra in Ankara (1976-1978). In 1979-1990 he was a deputy artistic director and permanent conductor at the Warsaw Philharmonic (1979-1990),and at the same time Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Cracow Philharmonic (1981-1986). Next he was appointed the Director and Principal Conductor of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw (1990-1993),and in 1995 he started his cooperation with the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK as its Permanent Guest conductor, until 2002.
Tadeusz Strugala's international carrer began in the 60s' and since then he has performed in concert halls throughout Europe,Japan,Australia,USA and Asia with foreign and leading Polish orchestras. Over 120 orchestras with whom the Artist has worked include the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Staatskapelle Berlin,RIAS Berlin,the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Brucknerorchester, Czech Philharmonic, the St.Petersburg Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic,and Radio Orchestras,the Radio Orchestra of Stockholm,the Radio and Philharmonic Orchestras of Budapeszt,Bukarest and Sofia,the New World Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon,the Osaka Philharmonic,the Yamagata BC and the Seoul Philharmonic, the Israel Sinfonietta,the NTO the City of London Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.

All of Poland's best musicians have appeared under his baton while foreign artists include Martha Argerich,Victoria de Los Angeles,Maurice Andre,Paul Badura Skoda,Stanislav Bunin, Yuri Bashmet, Rudolf Buchbinder, Robert Cohen, Pierre Fournier, Natalia Gutman, Ida Haendel, Steven Isserlis, Oleg Kagan, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Krystian Zimerman. Other prestigious awards include Grand Prix du Disque F.Liszt for the premiere recording of F.Liszt ORATORIO for St.STANISLAW, nomination for the Record of the Year of the GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE for the premiere recording of Roman Maciejewski REQUIEM-MISSA PRO DEFUNCTIS (Polskie Nagrania),the STERN DES MONATS given by the FONO FORUM for Xavier Scharvenka recordings (Collins Classics). Recent events of the artistic calendar include series of concerts in Australia, Japan, Spain and Korea, permanent engagements with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in Prague as well as in Germany and Poland, guest conducting with Radiophilharmonie des NDR in Hannover and Wroclaw,and with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Dresden, Halle, Ljubljana, and with Staatskapelle Weimar, Bilkent Symphony Ankara, Florida International Symphony, Kammerphilharmonie des MDR Leipzig and N.Tonkunstler Orchester in Austria.

His recent debut with the operas,the production of C.M.Weber "Der Freischuetz" to commemorate 160 anniversary of Breslau Opera, brought him excellent Polish and international critics and invitations from opera houses, i.e. production of L.van Beethoven's FIDELIO for the opening of Polish/German Opera Festival in Posen (2002), and a ballet production of Boris Ejfman TCHAIKOWSKY at the National Opera in Warsaw, (June 2003), and Austrian premiere in 2004. The Artist is also frequently asked to participate at variousmaster classes and competitions-recently he was chairman of the Conductors Competition of G.Fitelberg (Katowice 2004) and worked for the Van Cliburn Piano Competition as a jury member (2005).
Besides his intensive concert schedule,Strugala was over 28 years in charge of the International Music Festival "Wratislavia Cantans" as well as F.Chopin International Festival in Duszniki Zdroj (1976-1985).Under his artistic and organizational guidance both became recognized as major European music events. In recognition of his achievements and promotion of Polish music abroad,Tadeusz Strugala has received awards and medals from the Minister of Culture,Minister of Foreign Affairs,and "Polonia Restituta Commandor Cross with Star" from the State President.. He was also presented with a prestigious Kulturpreis Schlesien des Landes Niedersachsen, and a Doctor honoris causa of the Wroclaw Music Academy.

In private, Tadeusz Strugala is a lover of beautiful art- objects, and he is known as a collector of the historic batons-amongst which he proudly owns the one with Arturo Toscanini's signature. To mark his 70th birthday,the Warsaw History Museum arranged a 1st world public exhibition of this rare collection of over 60 batons (March/May 2005),which was recommended by the International Herald Tribune (30 March). Using one of his old sticks, the Artist took part at episode of "The Pianist", Oscar winning movie by Roman Polanski. He also recorded the movie 's soundtrack, for SONY label, which was no 2 bestselling record in US in 2003.