| Tomasz Biernacki |
| Conductor |
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| Born in 1974 in Krakow, Poland, at the age of
4 started learning to play the violin. In 1986 he entered the Secondary
School of Music in Krakow from which he graduated as a flautist with
the highest average of marks. He has passed exams for three different
divisions of Academy of Music in Krakow (flute, conducting and music
theory), and has chosen conducting. Being then only 19 he was one of
the youngest students ever to start conducting studies. In 2000 he has graduated from the Academy of Music in Krakow after completing his studies in orchestral conducting. During 6 years of studies he has participated in many conducting masterclasses and competitions including famous Internationale Bachakademie with Helmuth Rilling and Accademia Musicale Chigiana with Gianluigi Gelmetti and Carlo Maria Giulini. Shortly after graduation he has been offered the post of Musical Director and First Conductor at the Musical Theatre in Gliwice. Since then he has conducted there almost all famous operetta titles as well as many musicals and operas. Having conducted over 500 performances in 6 years gave him a great amount of experience in working with singers and orchestra. During this six seasons, the orchestra's quality as well as overall musical level of the theatre have much improved, which is often pointed out in critics. He is also one of the very few conductors, that conduct always from memory, which in operatic repertoire is even less popular than in symphonic. His skills were also well judged during opera conducting competitions. In 2004 he has won the Grand Prix at XIth International "Franco Capuana" Competition in Spoleto, Italy; a competition devoted to opera organized by the famous Teatro Lirico Sperimentale. Following year he has been a finalist of The Ist "Béla Bartók" Opera Conducting Competition in Cluj, Romania where the participants had to learn five full operas (including Puccini's "La Bohème" and Bartók's "The Bluebeard's Castle"). In 2006 he has won the IInd prize at the IInd International Opera Conductors Competition in Orvieto, Italy. After a year he has come back to Orvieto for the IIIrd International Opera Conductors Competition, which he has won this time receiving also Opera de Nice Special Prize. In summer 2005 he has been invited by Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto to lead an orchestra masterclass and to conduct concerts and a premiere of G.Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor". In May 2005 he was awarded a prestigious President's Prize. The most recent premiere was G.Bizet's "Carmen with singers like Małgorzata Walewska and Marcello Bedoni, a production that critics called to be one of the best and most important productions of this opera in Poland ever. In 2008 he was invited to join the Fellows of the 2008 Tanglewood Music Center, which is perhaps the most prestigious summer masterclass for young musicians in the world. He is the first polish conductor to be invited to Tanglewood in many years. 08/29/08 |