Mariusz Kwiecien

Prague Symphony Orchestra
Mariusz Kwiecien – baryton
Lukasz Borowicz – conductor

Program

• G. Rossini: Barbiere di Siviglia (Overture)
• G. Rossini: Barbiere di Siviglia (Aria – Figaro)
• G. Rossini: Barbiere di Siviglia (Temporale from the 2nd Act)
• W. A. Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Aria – Conte)
• V. Bellini: Norma (Overture)
• G. Donizetti: Favorita (Aria Vien Leonora + cabaletta)
• G. Rossini: Signor Bruschino (Overture)
• V. Bellini: I Puritani (Aria Ah, per sempre)
• break
• M. Mussorgsky: Khovanschina (The dawn on the Moscow river)
• P. Tschaikovsky: Onegin (Aria Vy mne pisali)
• A. Borodin: In the steppes of Central Asia
• S. Rachmaninow: Aleko or A. Borodin (Prince Igor)
• P. Tschaikovsky: Onegin (Polonaise)
• G. Verdi: Don Carlo (Death of Posa)

Mariusz Kwiecien

Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien is recognized worldwide as one of the leading baritones before the public today. Known for his handsome voice, incisive musicianship and captivating stage presence, he performs with the foremost opera companies and symphony orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia.

Mr. Kwiecien appears frequently at the Metropolitan Opera, where in recent seasons he has sung Marcello in La bohème, Silvio in I pagliacci, and Malatesta in a new production of Don Pasquale.

Under the baton of James Levine, he has sung Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He has also worked with Maestro Levine both at the Tanglewood Festival, singing the title role in Don Giovanni with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a performance of Bach’s Cantata No. 82, Ravel’s Don Quichotte songs, and Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzer. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program.

Mariusz Kwiecien has distinguished himself as Don Giovanni, a role he has sung at the Vienna State Opera, Bilbao Opera House, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, in a new production at Warsaw Opera, and for the Veroza Japan Company under Seiji Ozawa. He sang Marcello in La bohème for his debut with San Francisco Opera, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at San Diego Opera, and Silvio in Los Angeles Opera’s production of I pagliacci, a role he also sang in a new production at Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the summer of 2007 he sang his first performances of Escamillo in Carmen with the Veroza Company and Seiji Ozawa.

Mariusz Kwiecien’s European career has included Belcore in L’elisir d’amore for his debuts at the Paris Opera and The Netherlands Opera, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Grand Theatre de Genève, and his debut at La Scala as Ottokar in Der Freischuetz. He made his debuts at the Bolshoi Opera and Graz Opera singing the title role in a new production of Eugene Onegin, a role he has also sung at the Warsaw Opera. He has also sung Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo and many others

Mr. Kwiecien has won prestigious awards in several international vocal competitions, including First Prize in the 1994 Duszniki-Zdroj International Competition (Poland), the Vienna State Opera and Hamburg State Opera prizes in the 1996 Hans Gabor/Belvedere Competition in Austria, and the Mozart Interpretation Prize and Audience Choice Award at the 1998 Francisco Vinas Competition in Barcelona. He was selected to represent his native Poland in the 1999 Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff, Wales.

Mariusz Kwiecien opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2007 – 2008 season with performances of Enrico in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor. In the same year, he did many concert all over the United States. He sang Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Atlanta Symphony conducted by Robert Spano, which will be recorded for Telarc. He also sang Brahms’ Requiem with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev in Maestro Gergiev’s final performances with the orchestra as music director. Mr. Kwiecien returned to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for his first performances of Germont in La traviata. He also returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing the title role in Eugene Onegin and to Seattle Opera for his first performances of Riccardo in I puritani. He ended that season at The Santa Fe Opera in the role of Count Almaviva in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro

Łukasz Borowicz

Łukasz Borowicz was born in 1977 in Warsaw where he studied with Antoni Wit, Ivan Fischer and Kazimierz Kord.

Łukasz Borowicz has conducted such outstanding orchestras as the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Belarusian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Ukrainian National Philharmonic Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali, State Symphony Orchestra Istanbul and most of the Polish symphony orchestras including the Warszaw Philharmonic.

With the Beethoven Academy Orchestra (Krakow) he was invited to the Young-Euro-Classics in the Konzerthaus Berlin.

In the field of the opera, Łukasz Borowicz has appeared with the Polish National Opera (Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Superstition or Krakovians and Highlanders by Karol Kurpinski), the Polish Baltic Opera in Gdansk (Tosca, I due Foscari), the Beethoven Academy Orchestra (concert performance of Candide), and Polish opera stars: Piotr Beczala, Mariusz Kwiecien and Ewa Podles. He guest-conducts regularly at the Polish National Opera and at other opera theatres of his homeland.

Since 2007 Borowicz is the chief conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra Warsaw (PRSO) with which he had given a guest performance at the Festival Roma nel Cuore in Rome before. In the near future he will perform with his orchestra more frequently in Germany, amongst others at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.

In September 2008 Lukasz Borowicz was invited to the Rudolfinum in Prague within the scope of the commemoration week for the 40th Anniversary of the Prague Spring. In 2009, he has been invited to the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, by the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, to the Festival Musiques Interdites in Marseille as well as by Marianske Lazne Philharmonic Orchestra.

Further future projects include the recording of all Symphonies by Andrzej Panufnik with Konzerthausorchester Berlin, concerts with Chopin Festival Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and with opera stars like Samuel Ramey. In November 2009, Lukasz Borowicz will give three concerts with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Cologne and Gütersloh.