Sinfonia Varsovia

The beginnings of Sinfonia Varsovia can be traced to the activity of the Polish Chamber Orchestra. In April 1984, it invited Sir Yehudi Menuhin to appear in Poland both as soloist and conductor. To accommodate the planned repertoire the orchestra was expanded to forty musicians by inviting outstanding young talent from all over Poland. The concerts were such an overwhelming popular and critical success that the spontaneous idea of a permanent ensemble of 24 strings and a double wind section became a reality. So great was Sir Yehudi's interest in the new ensemble that he immediately signed a contract as the principal guest conductor of what was to become Sinfonia Varsovia. Soon afterwards the orchestra was invited for a concert tour in the United States and Canada. Sinfonia Varsovia has performed in such prestigious venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, London’s Barbican Centre, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and at festivals in Gstaad (Yehudi Menuhin Festival), Montreux, Schleswig-Holstein, Würzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, San Juan (Pablo Casals Festival), Frankfurt-am-Main (Alte Oper) and the Music on the Sea Festival.
Sinfonia Varsovia has performed with many fine conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Gerd Albrecht, Charles Dutoit, Justus Frantz, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Hans Graf, Leopold Hager, Jacek Kaspszyk, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Emmanuel Krivine, Witold Lutosławski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Wojciech Michniewski, Grzegorz Nowak, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michel Plasson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach, Jerzy Semkow, Jerzy Swoboda, Muhai Tang and Bruno Weil.
The long list of the world's most renowned soloists who have performed with Sinfonia Varsovia includes Salvatore Accardo, Maurice André, Martha Argerich, Teresa Berganza, Kyung-Wha Chung, Augustin Dumay, Justus Frantz, James Galway, Fou Ts’ong, Krzysztof Jabłoński, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Kiri Te Kanawa, Nigel Kennedy, Gidon Kremer, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Alicia de Larrocha, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Christa Ludwig, Radu Lupu, Mischa Maisky, Shlomo Mintz, Oli Mustonen, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Janusz Olejniczak, Ewa Osińska, Piotr Paleczny, Michala Petri, Murray Perahia, Maria Joao-Pires, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Samuel Ramey, Katia Ricciarelli, Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinrich Schiff, Henryk Szeryng, Maria Tipo, Alexis Weissenberg, Christian Zacharias, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Tabea Zimmermann and Grigori Zhislin.
The orchestra has made numerous recordings for Pathé-Marconi, EMI, Virgin Classics, Decca, Denon Nippon Columbia, Aperto, Polskie Nagrania, IMG Records/Carlton Classics and CD Accord and has received prestigious awards for these albums such as the Grand Prix du Disque, the Diapason d ’Or and the Fryderyk awards of the Polish recording industry.
In 1997 Krzysztof Penderecki, who had been associated with the orchestra for many years, became its Musical Director, and from July 2003 its Artistic Director.
Janusz Marynowski has been director of the Synfonia Varsovia since 2004. Currently the ensemble operates as a self-governing cultural institution of the City of Warszawa.