Maestro Tadeusz Strugała was feted by the Kraków Philharmonic on October 4 with a gala concert celebrating his 60 year-long career in music. He received the Polonia Minor Award from the Marshall of the Małopolska Region Seymik and the Honoris Gratia Medal from the Deputy Mayor of Kraków. After the ceremony, Maestro Strugała stepped up to the podium to lead the orchestra in performance of Brahms Symphonies No. 1 and No. 3. A week later, Tadeusz Strugała returned to lead the Kraków Philharmonic in the other two Brahms Symphonies, No. 2 and No. 4.
Tadeusz Strugała
An outstanding Polish conductor, Tadeusz Strugała has performed in Europe, Australia, the USA and Asia, both with leading Polish orchestras and also with over 120 foreign orchestras, including the Bamberger Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Berlin, RIAS Berlin, Radio-Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra (Manchester), philharmonic and radio orchestras in Prague, Helsinki, Stockholm, Budapest, Bucharest, Leipzig, St. Petersburg, Sophia and Seoul, the Israel Sinfonietta, Norfolk Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon, City of London Sinfonia and London Mozart Players. He has conducted many premieres of Polish works, and also recordings for radio and disc.
He has led the Wrocław Philharmonic and the NOSPR (National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra) in Katowice. He has served as deputy artistic director and permanent conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic, whilst at the same time leading the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. He was a long-serving principal guest conductor of the FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic.
For many years, he was director of the Chopin Festival in Duszniki (1975–1985) and the Wratislavia Cantans festival in Wrocław (1969–1997), which flourished in artistic and organisational terms under his direction, gaining international renown. At the Wrocław Opera, and then at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, he has prepared the premieres of productions of Weber’s Der Freischütz, and he opened the Hoffman Festival with Beethoven’s Fidelio. At the Polish National Opera, he has prepared premiere performances of Boris Eifman’s ballet Tchaikovsky, subsequently serving as musical director for guest performances of that ballet given by Eifman’s Dance Theatre in Austria.
In recent years, he has also returned to teaching work, and he is regularly invited to sit on the jury of international conducting and piano competitions. He performed as the conductor in the closing scene of Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist, and conducted the soundtrack recording for Sony.
Tadeusz Strugała has been awarded an Orfeusz statue and a prize of the Polish Composers’ Union for outstanding achievements in the performance of contemporary Polish music. Among his other prestigious distinctions are the Grand Prix du Disque Ferenc Liszt, a nomination for Gramophone’s Record of the Year for his premiere recording of Roman Maciejewski’s Requiem, and the title ‘Stern des Monats’ awarded by the German phonographic magazine Fono Forum for recordings of works by Scharwenka. For his outstanding achievements in conducting and the promotion of Polish music abroad, he has received awards from the Ministry of Culture and Arts, including a gold Gloria Artis, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and also numerous prizes. He is also a prizewinner of the Kulturpreis Schlesien des Landes Niedersachsen and the first doctor honoris
causa of Wrocław Music Academy, his Alma Mater.
He is a professor on the Department of Conducting and Composition of Krakow Music Academy, and a Ministry of Culture appointee to the Board of the NOSPR.
[Source: filharmonia.krakow.pl]