Michał Klauza

Biography

Michał Klauza is Artistic Director of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2013-2015 he served as Music Director of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok, where, in addition to regular symphonic concerts he prepared several opera productions (Verdi’s La Traviata, Mozart’s Die Zauberfloete, Bizet’s Carmen). He also worked as Associate Conductor of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (2009-2015). In 2004-2008 he served as Associate Conductor of the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff, where he prepared and conducted Carmen, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Aida, Otello, and Falstaff (with Bryn Terfel in the title role), Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Puccini’s La Boheme, and Lehar’s The Merry Widow (recorded for the BBC).

In July 2015 he conducted a world premiere concert version of Zaid Jabri new opera City of Salt at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

In 2019 he prepared and conducted at Polish National Opera in Warsaw first ever polish production of Britten’s Billy Budd.

In December 2011, he conducted Szymanowski’s King Roger with the National Ukrainian Opera in Kiev as the closing event of the cultural programme of Poland’s presidency in the European Council.

He has worked as guest conductor with numerous orchestras in Poland and abroad, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, most of Polish symphony orchestras, the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Orchestre National Capitole de Toulouse. Foreign tours have also taken him to France, Germany, Switzerland (a gala concert in tribute to Mstislav Rostropovich, with Ivan Monighetti, Sol Gabetta and Misha Maisky), Great Britain, Armenia, Italy, South Korea and the Persian Gulf countries. He has worked closely with the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk (Strauss’s Salome and Mozart’s Die Zauberfloete, Shostakovich/Meyer The Gamblers, Fleichman’s Rotschild’s Violin) and the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz (Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust), Poznań Opera (Aida).

Earlier in his career, in 1998-2003, he worked at the National Opera in Warsaw. He has made numerous recordings for radio and television, including the first ever recording of Szymanowski’s operetta Lottery for a Husband (with the National Polish Radio SO) and live recording of King Roger (with Warsaw’s National Opera). His recording of Szymanowski’s opera Hagith with Polish Radio SO received prestigious polish music award “Fryderyk” for “The best opera recording in 2020”.

Michał Klauza is a graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw, where he studied conducting with Ryszard Dudek. He developed his skills as a postgraduate student of Ilya Musin at the Rimski-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and at international courses given by Kurt Redel (Rome, 1996) and Valery Gergiev (Rotterdam, 1997).

He pursues a teaching career as a member of conducting faculty at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw.

He made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre as music director in productions of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (stage director Timofey Kulyabin, 2016) and Weinberg’s The Idiot (stage director Evgeny Arye, 2017).