Biography

ANTONI WIT studied conducting with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of Music in Krakow and continued his education under Nadia Boulanger’s guidance in Paris. He has also graduated from Law Faculty at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow.

During the period 1966 - 1970 ANTONI WIT was assistant conductor at the National Philharmonic of Poland in Warsaw. In 1970 he was appointed conductor to the State Philharmonic of Poznan and simultaneously entered a collaboration with the Wielki (Grand) Theater in Warsaw (today, the National Opera). During 1974 - 1977 ANTONI WIT was the Artistic Director of the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz and then he became the Director of the Polish Radio & TV Choir & Orchestra. Since 1983 until 2001 he was the Principal Conductor of the Polish Radio National Orchestra in Katowice and since 2001 ANTONI WIT has been appointed as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

ANTONI WIT was also the Artistic Director and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria in Las Palmas, during the period 1987 to 1994.

As a guest conductor he has appeared with all the major orchestras in Europe, as well as in the Americas and in the Middle and Far East.

As a recording artist, ANTONI WIT has made more than eighty compact disc recordings for labels such as EMI-HMV, CBS, Camerata Tokyo, NVC Arts, Pony Canyon, Naxos (complete Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Lutoslawski symphonies, among others), Polskie Nagrania and others.

His EMI recording of the Stabat Mater by Szymanowski has won acclaim from British critics as one of the best records of the year 1985. The recordings of the Prokofiev’s piano concerti (Kun Woo Paik, soloist) was awarded with a Diapason d’Or in 1993, as well as with the Grand Prix du Disque de la Nouvelle Academie du Disque.

ANTONI WIT was the first conductor to perform in Poland, among other works, the Te Deum and The Polish Requiem by Penderecki and the Symphony Nº 4 by Lutoslawski.

He was honored with second prize in the Herbert von Karajan Competition in West Berlin, 1971, as well as with a series of Polish honors and awards. In 1984 and 1996 he was granted the Orpheus award –a prize given by critics to the best performances of Polish music at the ‘Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary Music’.

ANTONI WIT has recently appeared as a conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestra della Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Orquesta Nacional de España, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Dresdner Philharmoniker and the Radio Orchestras of Köln, Berlin, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Milan, Rome and Turin, among others.

ANTONI WIT is a Professor at the Frédéric Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.