Polish conductor Grzegorz Nowak is PPO's new music director
MANILA, Philippines — The search is over for the new music director and principal conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), which is the country’s leading orchestra. Polish conductor Maestro Grzegorz Nowak has been named to the post.
Nowak will take over from the erstwhile PPO conductor, Maestro Yoshikazu Fukumura, who concluded his tenure in 2021. After the Japanese conductor left, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) began the search for a new conductor for the PPO by forming a search committee to screen candidates for the position.
CCP and PPO were looking for a music director who exemplified solid musicianship, a strong sense of leadership, artistic discipline and respect for peers, extensive program repertoire, and orchestral rapport.
The search committee shortlisted five candidates, all of whom had the potential to lead the premiere orchestra company and bring it to greater heights, as well as provide an uplifting classical music experience to Filipino audiences.
The PPO’s 38th concert season served as the battleground for the five shortlisted conductors to show off their fullest potential as PPO conductor.
Maestro Nowak took the baton for the second concert of the series, which took place at the CCP Main Theater on October 7, 2022. The Maestro conducted the PPO as they performed masterpieces by National Artist Lucio San Pedro, Peter Illich Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinsky, featuring young violinist Vincent Owen Romanban as a soloist on Felix Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto, Op. 64, E minor.”
As the new music director, Maestro Nowak will be responsible for the preparation and implementation of the PPO’s thrusts, programs, concert season, training of musicians and other related activities. He is expected to conduct at least 10 to 12 performances per year, including the regular PPO season, outreach tours, the Young People’s Concert Series and other special events of the CCP. He will also be in charge of a development program for PPO members and ensure that the level of musicianship and artistic quality meet the highest standard.
A much-sought-after conductor with a long career in opera and concerts, Maestro Nowak was the principal associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He was the music director of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, Poland, from 2017 to 2020, as well as other orchestras in Poland, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. For years, he was able to record orchestral music in over 80 CDs that have received awards and 5-star ratings.
In his early days, he studied conducting, composition and violin at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland, before receiving his doctorate degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He obtained a Serge Koussevitsky Fellowship at Tanglewood, where he later became Kurt Masur’s assistant. He was able to conduct various prestigious orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Maestro Nowak’s career was propelled to the international scene after he won the prestigious Ernest Ansermet Conducting Competition in Geneva, Switzerland. He bagged all the special awards, including the Grand Prix Patek Philippe, the Rolex Prize, the Swiss Prize and the American Patronage Prize. Since then, he has conducted the world's finest orchestras and served as music director for Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, SWR Radio Orchestra in Germany, Sinfonia Helvetica in Switzerland and the Musique et Amitié Festival.
Maestro Nowak has worked and performed with many of today's most renowned soloists, including Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Nigel Kennedy, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gil Shaham, and Krystian Zimerman, as well as singers Janet Baker, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Gwyneth Jones, Sherrill Milnes and Anja Silja.
At his concerts, he was hailed as an outstanding and brilliant conductor who always left the audience in awe every time he conducted. Los Angeles Times celebrated the brilliance and depth that the conducto elicited from the orchestra. He is known for conducting “a brilliant and very musical performance full of color, sensibility and high precision.”
Catch Maestro Nowak in his first concert with the PPO as its new music director and principal conductor. Kicking off the PPO’s 39th concert season, it is slated at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit, Makati, on September 15, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
The Philippines’ leading orchestra will be performing French composer Hector Berlioz’s “Roman Carnival,” Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s “Piano Concerto” with guest performer pianist Mark Beddington and Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s “Pini di Roma.”
Tickets will be available at CCP Blackbox Theater Box Office and at TicketWorld. Visit the CCP website (www.culturalcenter.gov.ph) for more information.
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