The 30-years-old Polish Chamber Choir belongs to the elite, narrow group of fully professional chamber choirs in the world. It gives around 80-100 concerts a year, preparing over 50 different programmes.
The ensemble's primary aim is to work regularly on the instrumental, "orchestral" level, which, apart from many other abilities, demands complete mastery of the vocal apparatus, enabling the realization of all technical and artistic nuances of the compositions.
The scope of interest of this versatile ensemble, consisting of 24 professional musicians, covers mainly a cappella music, especially contemporary and Romantic. No wonder then that many world-famous composers dedicate their works to the ensemble. Since many years, the ensemble prepares one premiere every two or three weeks.
The choir's repertoire, apart from many premieres, includes, among other things, oratorio programmes and even operas, performed alongside prominent Polish orchestras. Among them are such accomplished ensembles as Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Sopot, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Academy of Ancient Music and many other European baroque and early music orchestras.
"We specialize in diversity!" In order to avoid falling victim to musical routine, Polish Chamber Choir eagerly participates in experiments of all sorts. Hence, the excursions into lighter music, jazz, chanson and Gregorian chant. The idea of a crossover is nothing new to them.
In 2001 the ensemble performed at the first ever live Internet concert. Polish Chamber Choir regularly cooperates with world-famous conductors since many years, among them Uwe Gronostay and Eric Ericson. Last year, the choir worked with Frieder Bernius and Stephen Layton. In 2008 the ensemble will once more give concerts with Stephen Layton and Eric Ericson.
Polish Chamber Choir is frequently invited to international music festivals, such as "Warsaw Autumn", "Wratislavia Cantans", Ruhr-Festival, "Rendez-vous musique nouvelle", as well to cities like Salzburg, Dresden, Berlin and Tokyo. Its concert tours cover most of Europe, as well as USA and Japan. During the World Symposium on Choral Music in Rotterdam the ensemble was placed in the role of the official choir of the symposium.
Apart from over 50 CDs, cassettes and videos (published by, among others, Acte Préalable, BeArTon, Carus, DUX, Naxos, Wergo and Musidisque) Polish Chamber Choir recorded tens of hours of music for the Polish Radio in Warsaw. Since 1999, the ensemble regularly receives nominations to phonographic awards (it was nominated this year for the album published in 2007). In 2004 it received two "Fryderyk" awards. The ensemble also makes recordings for the Polish Television (including a set of 68 offertorios by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) and abroad for the Dutch Radio, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk, Südwestrundfunk, Sender Freies Berlin, Westdeutscher Rundfunk and ZDF (second channel of the German public television).
Polish Chamber Choir was the strongest Polish accent at the EBU Christmas Concert which was broadcast live in Canada and many European countries. In August 2006, during the "Mozart Year", the ensemble, as the originator and main organizer, inaugurated the four-day International Mozart Festival "Mozartiana" which presented Amadeus's music in many styles. Every year, the festival attracts to the Oliwa Park, the Abbot's Palace and the Oliwa Cathedral an audience of around 10,000 people. Such an interest made "Mozartiana" one of the important August music events.
Last year, Polish Chamber Choir recorded in Poland and Germany several CDs which will be published in 2008. Among them are carols arranged by Maciej Małecki for choir and string orchestra (with Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Sopot directed by Jan Łukaszewski), a monographic album with works by Hans Schanderl, as well as choral music by the greatest Polish composers (among them Górecki, Penderecki, Kilar and Łukaszewski) for the "Musica Sacra" record label.
During its "Jubilee Year" in 2008, Polish Chamber Choir celebrates its 30th anniversary. The ensemble had the International Composers Competition "Musica Sacra" as its guest and performed, among others, the "St. John Passion" by J. S. Bach.Prepared on the basis of Polish version, November 2008.