Stefan Sutkowski, founder of Warsaw Chamber Opera, dies
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
23.04.2017 11:33
Stefan Sutkowski, one of the most prominent personalities on the Polish music scene of the past six decades, died in Warsaw, Saturday, at the age of 85.
Stefan Sutkowski. Photo: PAP/Andrzej Hrechorowicz
His career was inseparably linked with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, which he founded in 1961 and served as its artistic director until 2012.
It was thanks to his managerial skills and insight that in the early 1990s the Warsaw Chamber Opera launched the annual Mozart Festival, with a programme comprising the composer’s entire operatic output, a unique achievement on a global scale. The company also had a wide selection of Baroque as well as Polish operas in its repertoire.
Stefan Sutkowski graduated from the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw in 1955 with a degree in oboe performance.
Four years later he completed musicological studies at Warsaw University. He was a member of the Warsaw Philharmonic for two decades. In 1957, he founded the period instruments ensemble Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense, which became the core orchestra of the Warsaw Chamber Opera in the early stage of its activity.
Sutkowski held high Polish, Austrian and Italian state distinctions, the Gold ‘Gloria Artis’ Medal of Cultural Merit and an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, renamed as the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. (mk/rg)