
Paweł Przytocki was born in Krosno, Poland. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków in 1985, where he studied conducting under Professor Jerzy Katlewicz. He went on to refine his skills at conducting courses led by Peter Eötvös and was a scholarship holder of the Bachakademie Stuttgart from 1986 to 1987, participating in the masterclasses of Professor Helmuth Rilling.
From 1988 to 1991, he served as conductor and Artistic Director of the Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk. In 1990, he made his debut with the Warsaw Philharmonic. Between 1995 and 1997, he held the position of Artistic Director of the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Łódź. From 2005 to 2009, he was conductor at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. During the 2005/2006 season, he prepared the premiere of Khachaturian’s
Spartacus, and conducted performances of Tchaikovsky’s
Eugene Onegin, Verdi’s
La Traviata, and Puccini’s
La Bohème. In the following season (2006/2007), he conducted the premiere of John Cranko’s ballet
Onegin.
From 2008 to 2012, he served as General and Artistic Director of the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Kraków.
He collaborates with most philharmonic orchestras in Poland, as well as with numerous international ensembles including the Budapest Concert Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Capella Istropolitana (Bratislava), Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Ankara), Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Slovak Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Kyiv), National Philharmonic Orchestra in Santiago, Zagreb Philharmonic, New Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie (Koblenz), and Jenaer Philharmonie.
He has performed with Polish orchestras in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Spain. Przytocki regularly appears at leading international music festivals, including: Athens Festival (1987), Musikfest Stuttgart (1988), Flanders Festival (1989), La Chaise-Dieu Festival (1996), Kissinger Sommer (1998), Bratislava Music Festival (1999), Augsburger Mozartsommer (2000), Prague Spring (2001), and Wratislavia Cantans (2005). He has also appeared at many of Europe’s most prestigious concert venues, such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Konzerthaus Berlin, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Musikhalle Hamburg, and Beethovenhalle Bonn.
He has recorded for Polish Radio and Television, as well as for the labels DUX, Aurophon, and Point Classics. His recording of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 was singled out by the American magazine
La Folia – alongside such legendary interpretations as Carlos Kleiber’s Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and Sviatoslav Richter’s 1960
Appassionata – as an example of rare emotional intensity and artistic commitment.
Since 2008, Paweł Przytocki has been affiliated with the Conducting Department of the Academy of Music in Kraków, where he leads his own conducting class.
In September 2017, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Łódź.
On the photo: Paweł Przytocki; author: Ireneusz Skąpski