Antoni Wit is one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, a champion of Polish music and General and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic.

A top prize winner at the Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition in 1971 and an assistant to Herbert von Karajan at the Easter Festival in Salzburg he subsequently worked with all of the leading orchestras in Poland before taking up the position of General and Artistic Director at the Warsaw Philharmonic in 2001, a post he will relinquish at the end of this season.

Antoni Wit has enjoyed an international career with major orchestras throughout Europe, America and the Far East. Past highlights have comprised, Dresden Staatskapelle, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia as well as Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, China Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia and the BBC Symphony orchestras.

Recent and future orchestral engagements include Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and Berliner Philharmoniker, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Prague Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de Belgique.

Six times Grammy Award nominated, Antoni Wit has made over one hundred and fifty recordings for EMI, Sony and Naxos. He has sold close to 5 million records on Naxos including an acclaimed release of Prokofiev’s piano concertos with Kun Woo Paik, awarded the Diapason d'Or and Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque. He was bestowed the award of EMI “Record of the Year” in 1985 for his recording of Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and in January 2002 he was awarded the Cannes Classical Award for his recording of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. More recently, the first two records from his series of complete works by Szymanowski were picked as the Gramophone “Editor's Choice” and subsequent two records were awarded the BBC Music Magazine’s “Editor's Choice”. His first DVD release on the ICA Classics label was awarded the ‘Editor’s Choice/DVD of the Month’ by Gramophone magazine. The DVD features Szymanowski’s Third and Fourth Symphonies conducted by Antoni Wit with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2012 Antoni Wit’s world premiere recording of Gorecki’s Concerto-Cantata with Warsaw Philharmonic and Naxos received a Choc Award. His recording of Penderecki’s Fonogrammi, Horn Concerto, Partita, The Awakening of Jacob and Anaklasis on Naxos received a Grammy Award this year.

May 2013