Tadeusz Strugała San Francesco Chiesa, Locarno 1980 One of the best known names amongst the Polish conductors Tadeusz Strugała studied at the Wroclaw Music Academy as well as in Weimar and Venice. He was the General & Artistic Director of the Wrocław Philharmonic from 1969 to 1980. Also in those years he headed the National Radio Symphony Orchestra (WOSPR) in Katowice (1975-1976) and Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra in Ankara (1976-1978). Later he became the 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. In September 2008 Tadeusz Strugala returns to the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir as General and Artistic Director. Tadeusz Strugała's international carrer began in the sixties' and since then he has performed in concert halls throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, USA and Asia with foreign and leading Polish orchestras. The 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 and Philharmonic Orchestras of Budapeszt, the Radio Orchestra of Stockholm, 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. With the latter Strugała has closely cooperated for over two seasons, appearing in British major concert venues such as the Royal Festival, Queen Elisabeth, Fairfield and David's Halls. All of Poland's best musicians have appeared under his baton while foreign artists include Martha Argerich, Victoria de Los Angeles, Maurice André, Paul Badura Skoda, Yuri Bashmet, Rudolf Buchbinder, Robert Cohen, Pierre Fournier, Natalia Gutman, Ida Haendel, Steven Isserlis, Oleg Kagan, Elisabeth Leonskaja and Krystian Zimerman (...) Tadeusz Strugała's repertoire ranges from the classical, romantic and contemporary music, including Polish composers such as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar, Witold Lutosławski, Roman Palester, Andrzej Panufnik, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Aleksander Tansman. Strugała has conducted numerous first-performances of Polish contemporary music both at home and abroad as well as on radio and records. In 1986 the artists was given the ORPHEUS AWARD for the best performance of a Polish piece at the International Warsaw Autumn Festival (Liturgia sacra by Zygmunt Mycielski). Strugała also won the Polish Composers Society Prize in 1991 for his achievements in performing Polish contemporary music. Other prestigious prizes held by the Artists include Grand Prix du Disque F.Liszt (1987), a nomination for the record of the year given by the GRAMOPHONE for the premiere recording of Roman Maciejewski Requiem - Missa pro defunctis, 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 Wrocław 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. Future engagements include the concerts in Germany, Israel, Great Britain, USA, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia (St.Petersburg Philharmonic) and Far East, and also radio recordings of works by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Wojciech Kilar, Andrzej Panufnik and Witold Lutosławski for Polish and foreign radios. His recent debut with the operas, the production of Carl Maria 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 Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio for the opening of Polish/German Opera Festival in Posen (2002), and a ballet production of Boris Ejfman Tchaikovsky at the National Opera in Warsaw (June 2003). Besides his intensive concert schedule, Strugała was over 28 years in charge of the International Music Festival "Wratislavia Cantans" as well as Frederic Chopin International Festival in Duszniki Zdrój (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 Strugała 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 Wrocław Music Academy. * In his private life Tadeusz Strugała is a lover of beautiful art objects, and known as a collector of the old conducting sticks - amongst which he is proud to posses the baton Arturo Toscanini, with Maestro's signature. * Using one of his old sticks, the Artist took recently part in the final episode of the newest film by Roman Polański, The Pianist, awarded with numerous nominations, prizes and awards. He also recorded music of Frederic Chopin and Wojciech Kilar for the movie, released as soundtrack by SONY label. 2002 Apart from regular concerts, the Artist is working at present on preparing: 8th Symphony by Krzysztof Penderecki for its Czech premiere at the International “Prague Spring” Festival (May 2007), then he will work on DER FREISCHUETZ by C.M.Weber to be presented at the Warsaw Chamber Opera (Autumn 2007), and later the coming season he is going to do the PARADISE LOST in the Low Silesian Opera, in May 2007 he will take part in the Jury of the Conducting Competition in Prague, and in November he will chair the Jury of the International Conducting Competition of G.Fitelberg in Katowice, Poland. Starting in October 2007,Tadeusz Strugala will become the Visiting Professor at the conducting department of Cracow Music Academy Minister of Culture Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski decorates Tadeusz Strugała with gold medail Gloria Artis, 2006 r.