Chair of Symphony and Opera Conducting

The Chair of Symphony and Opera Conducting is a unit being part of the Department of Symphony and Opera Conducting at the UMFC in Warsaw. Its members are outstanding Polish conductors whose artistic activity constantly brings international successes.

The Chair’s members are teachers preparing future conductors. The aim of the studies is the practical and theoretical preparation of students so as after graduation they have excellent set of skills allowing them to conduct symphonic, oratorio/cantata and operatic works to an extent matching top world standards. A condition determining the process of education is that candidates should have a certain group of features and predispositions, such as musicality, sensitivity, perfect hearing, sense of rhythm, inner auditory imagination, innate manual talents, temperament and charismatic personality. Conducting classes are taught by the following professors: Tomasz Bugaj, Monika Wolińska, and Jan Miłosz Zarzycki.

Teachers from the Chair give masterclasses and sit on the jury of competitions in Poland and abroad. The Chair collaborates with prestigious institutions, e.g., the National Philharmonic (concert of diploma candidates), Polish Radio Orchestra (concerts, orchestra training), and Grand Theatre – National Opera (practical training). It should be mentioned that the collaboration with the National Philharmonic has lasted more than ten years, and the best UMFC diploma candidates, thanks to conducting the Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic, have an opportunity to debut on Poland’s most important concert stage. The Chair also organises masterclasses, meetings with outstanding artists as well as academic and artistic sessions. One of these events – the cycle Outstanding Polish Conductors devoted to masters of the baton should be regarded as particularly significant for the process of creation of multigenerational bandmaster tradition.