The first period music ensemble in Poland was founded by Stefan Sutkowski in 1957. From the beginning, its members set themselves the goal of popularising the newly discovered valuable records of Polish music. In 1961, these musicians became the founding members of the Warsaw Chamber Opera. The ensemble’s musicians have studied and perfected their skills under the guidance of best experts on playing historical instruments in Europe. Furthermore, they also participated in numerous international concert and recording projects, which gave them the opportunity to stay in touch with newest trends in this field.

The current artistic level of the orchestra has also been influenced by working with such artists as: Benjamin Bayl, Paul Esswood, José Maria Florêncio, Friedrich Haider, Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch, Władysław Kłosiewicz, Wieland Kuijken, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Zbigniew Pilch, Hubert Rutkowski, Jana Semerádová, Marcin Sompoliński, Lilianna Stawarz, Marco Vitale, Marek Toporowski, Paul McCreesh, Michał Maciaszczyk, Dirk Vermeulen.

The ensemble’s stage repertoire includes, among others, Jacopo Peri’s first-ever opera Euridice, all preserved operas by Claudio Monteverdi, English operas by John Blow and Henry Purcell; French operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau as well as late Baroque operas by Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Adolf Hasse and Georg Friedrich Händel. The operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are a special repertoire item for the MACV orchestra, and it is certainly one of the few period instrument ensembles in the world with all of the composer’s stage works in its current repertoire. MACV also performs music of the early Romantic period with a special focus on such composers as Stanisław Moniuszko and Gioacchino Rossini.

As of 2019, the orchestra has begun working with exceptional jazz music personalities: Krzysztof Herdzin, Andrzej Jagodziński, Marcin Masecki, Leszek Możdżer – resulting in the Jazz with MACV series with concerts and recordings of unprecedented interpretive value.

Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense has been on a number of foreign tours and participated in prestigious international festivals, always meeting with the warm reception of critics and music lovers. In the autumn of 2019, a tour of Japan (including Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Olympus Hall Hachioji, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Maebashi Culture Hall) with operas by W.A. Mozart were extremely well received by the audience and reviewers. The performances of the Warsaw Chamber Opera in Vienna also proved to be a success: three times in the famous concert hall of the Vienna Music Society Wiener Musikverein (in 2022, 2023 and 2024) as well as in Mozarthaus and Hofburgkapelle in 2024. WCO presented to the Viennese audience, among others, The last three symphonies of W.A. Mozart, St. John Passion by J.S. Bach, Symphony No. 88 in G major by Joseph Haydn and Symphony No. 7 in A major by Ludwig van Beethoven. The performances of WCO in Vienna in 2024 were part of the 33rd Mozart Festival. Noteworthy, in the ensemble’s discography are: 6 opera titles, a dozen albums with works by Polish Baroque composers.

In the past year, MACV has made a series of recordings, the most notable of which are: La Luce in cooperation with world-renowned artist Simone Kermes, Jazz with MACV – Krzysztof Herdzin and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Ouvertures conducted by concertmaster Radosław Kamieniarz. The latest phonographic release is the album Composites written by Leszek Możdżer for the Warsaw Chamber Opera, which became the Empik Top 2023 Bestseller in the Jazz category, Concert of the Year 2023 – the autumn concert tour JAZZ TOP 2023 in the readers’ poll of Jazz Forum magazine.

Orchestra

Inspector

Marcin Stefaniuk

MACV’s music director

Adam Banaszak