Szymon Bywalec

Szymon Bywalec – is a principal conductor and artistic director of the Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej (New Music Orchestra), specialising in contemporary music and 20th-century classics. Together with this ensemble, he has performed at many festivals of contemporary music, among others, at the "Warsaw Autumn" (including the performance of Répons Boulez), the International Festival of Contemporary Music "Melos – Ethos" in Bratislava, "Velvet Curtain" in Lviv, Beijing Modern in Beijing, Bridges in Vienna and Hindsgavl Festival and Klang – Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival in Denmark.

Szymon Bywalec has also performed many world premieres together with renowned Polish orchestras. Currently, he is the director of the Academic Symphony Orchestra in Katowice; he also runs the Karol Szymanowski Youth Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

He is the first prize winner of the 2nd National Review of Young Conductors in Białystok (1998), as well as two extra-statutory prizes (Zofia and Antoni Witów and the Mayor of Katowice) at the 6th International Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition for Conductors in Katowice (1999). In addition, he was twice a scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and Art. He was awarded several times by the President of the City of Katowice for outstanding artistic achievements. In 2014, he received the Honorary Award of the Polish Composers' Union for his merits in promoting Polish contemporary music.

He is a professor at the Academy of Music in Katowice, where he works as an assistant to professor Jan Wincenty Hawel.