CAPELLA CRACOVIENSIS – an ensemble and choir – is one of the most interesting phenomena on the classical music scene. Its repertoire ranges from Renaissance polyphony to Romantic operas and is performed on period instruments using historical performance techniques. Thanks to the consistent support of the City of Krakow Capella Cracoviensis may implement its artistic ideas in an uncompromising way and achieve the highest artistic level.

Capella Cracoviensis has been invited to prestigious festivals and concert halls, which include Bachfest Leipzig, Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele, Händel Festspiele Halle, Haydn Festspiele Brühl, Opéra Royal Versailles, Theater an der Wien, NOSPR Katowice and Szczecin Philharmonic as well as those based in Brussels, Ghent, Lviv, Riga, Tallin, Yerevan, Tbilisi and Kiev.

CC gives regular performances with guest conductors, concert masters and soloists, such as Evelino Pidó, Christophe Rousset, Alessandro Moccia, Giuliano Carmignola, Paul Goodwin, Andrew Parrott and Paul McCreesh.

Its most recent recordings include Adriano in Siria, an opera by Pergolesi, for Decca Classics (the soloists include Franco Fagioli / Conductor: J.T. Adamus), Charpentier and Lully’s Te Deum at the invitation of Le Poème Harmonique (Conductor: Vincent Dumestre) and Bach’s motets (Conductor: Fabio Bonizzoni) for the Alpha label.

CC has staged such operas as: Handel’s Amadigi, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and developed the following special stage projects: Monteverdi’s madrigals at the milk bar, Mendelssohn’s choral songs in the forest, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with the participation of children with visual dysfunctions as actors and Sacred Karaoke Mozart Requiem directed by Cezary Tomaszewski.

One of CC’s most outstanding achievements was the performance of the complete set of Beethoven’s symphonies on period instruments within a single day with live radio transmission, which occurred on 27 August 2016 in Krakow. It featured 90 instrumentalists, 44 singers, 5 conductors from 14 countries altogether and there were 2300 spectators in the audience.

 

CC was established in 1970 at the initiative of the then-director of Krakow’s Philharmonic, Jerzy Katlewicz, who requested Stanisław Gałoński to create an ensemble specialising in period performance of old music. Over the years, Capella Cracoviensis has become an independent organisation performing various repertoire ranging from medieval music to the world premieres of contemporary pieces. Jan Tomasz Adamus has been its General Manager and Artistic Director since November 2008.