An eminent Polish conductor as well as violinist and chamber musician; founder and artistic director of AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy; director of the AUKSO Summer Philharmonic and AUKSODRONE festivals. He was the founder and longtime first violinist of the Silesian Quartet. The artist has a special preference for crossover projects, which has led to collaborations with leading Polish electro-acoustic and foreign electronic music artists, as well as concerts with a galaxy of Polish jazz stars. Moś is also a highly regarded interpreter of contemporary Polish music. He has conducted the world premieres of compositions by Aleksander Nowak, Aleksander Lasoń, Zygmunt Krauze, Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Cezary Duchnowski, and Agata Zubel. His recordings have been released under such labels as Nonesuch, EMI Classics, Anaklasis, DUX, BeArTon, and CD Accord. His numerous accolades include the award of the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, Coryphaeus of Polish Music, the Silver Medal for Merit to Polish Culture – Gloria Artis, and several Fryderyk Awards; he has been granted with honorary citizenship of the City of Tychy. Apart from his intense concert and recording schedule, Moś is a lecturer at Katowice’s Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music.

One of Europe’s best chamber orchestras, for the last quarter century – Poland’s flagship ensemble. Its repertoire ranges from classical masterpieces to contemporary music. The orchestra has gained recognition with its interpretations of music by Polish composers. Such masters as Wojciech Kilar, Zbigniew Bujarski, Aleksander Lasoń, Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Piotr Moss, Cezary Duchnowski, Aleksander Nowak have entrusted AUKSO with the task of premiering their works. The ensemble has also scored successes with its recordings of film music by world-famous composers such as Elliot Goldenthal, as well as soundtracks for computer games. Crossover projects combining classical music with jazz, rock or alternative trends have become a trademark of the ensemble, which collaborates in these fields with such artists as Leszek Możdżer, Tomasz Stańko, as well as Aphex Twin and Jonny Greenwood. With the latter two musicians, they recorded an album for the American record company Nonesuch. AUKSO has also won the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Society for their Chopin CD recorded with Janusz Olejniczak and for ahat-ilī – Sister of Godsand Syrena. Melodrama aeterna by Aleksander Nowak.

A multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, synthesiser virtuoso and excellent improviser, Skrzek is a musician with wide interests and horizons, who has featured prominently for many decades as one of the most distinctive personalities in Polish music. He was the founder and leader of the legendary SBB band, played with Breakout and Czesław Niemen in the 1970s. Over the many decades, he has collaborated with countless artists representing a great diversity of genres, to mention only Tomasz Stańko, Thijs van Leer, and KAT band. He has given hundreds of concerts and recorded several dozen albums, earning the reputation of one of the most active musicians. He has also composed sacred, theatre and film music. His accolades include, among others, a Golden Fryderyk for his overall artistic contributions and impact, the ZAIKS Society of Authors’ Centennial Award, and the Polish Public Media Award ‘for outstanding achievements in the most ambitious areas of popular music, and a skilful fusion of the sacred with the profane’.

One of those bands that made the greatest contributions to Poland’s popular music, SBB was founded in 1971 by multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Józef Skrzek, originally as Silesian Blues Band trio including guitarist Apostolis Anthimos and drummer Jerzy Piotrowski. In the early 1970s, the band played with Czesław Niemen, Tomasz Stańko, Tomasz Szukalski, Andrzej Przybielski, and Halina Frąckowiak, among others. Open to new types of musical sound and forms, they explored various rock styles over the years, including progressive, blues-rock, and jazz-rock. Their daring compositions (which gained complexity over time), Skrzek’s distinctive voice, electric guitar solos and the sound of synthesisers (Hammond organ and MiniMoog in particular) earned them many fans and critical acclaim. They made several dozen studio albums and concert tours, sharing the stage with, among others, Bob Marley, Elton John, Soft Machine, Marillion, Deep Purple, and Colosseum II.

Jazz violinist and composer. Already in his teens, he attracted attention with the extraordinary potential of his musical talent. Having graduated with an honours degree from Henryk Gembalski’s class at the Katowice Academy of Music, he obtained a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music. Bałdych has given performances in Poland and around the world, including at prestigious festivals as Montreux Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Jazz Jamboree, Jazz on the Odra, Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, and Jazz Baltica. He is internationally critically acclaimed for the freshness of approach and virtuosic technique tinged with emotional intensity. He appears on nearly twenty albums. The latest of them are Passacaglia (2024, recorded in a duet with Leszek Możdżer) and Portraits (2025, recorded with the Adam Bałdych Quintet). In 2023 he launched his own record label, Imaginary Music. Adam Bałdych has also written classical compositions commissioned by the Baltic Neopolis Orchestra, Ensemble OMN, AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Kammerorchester, and PWM Edition. His accolades include: the Grand Prix of Jazz on the Odra festival, BWM Welt Jazz Award, as well as Polish state decorations: the Gold Cross of Merit, the Decoration of Honour ‘Meritorious for Polish Culture’, and the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

Clarinetist, chamber musician, composer. He graduated in clarinet from Warsaw’s Chopin Academy of Music. In his activity he focuses on searching for and expanding new sound possibilities of the clarinet (at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music he presented his original performance techniques). The contrabass clarinet has been his specialty for several years. Górczyński has performed classical, ethnic, improvised, and contemporary music. He composes theatre and film music, as well as works inspired by various languages of the world. He co-founded Kwartludium ensemble. He has collaborated with such outstanding artists as Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Ken Vandermark, Butch Morris, Mark Sanders, Marcin Masecki, Joe McPhee, Lê Quan Ninh, bands such as Cukunft, Pink Freud, Profesjonalizm, Details in the Air, and many others. He is a permanent member of Ircha Pneumatic wind quartet and Bastarda (both focusing on early music re-interpretations), Polonka trio (which draws on the folk music of Africa, Europe, and the Americas) as well as William’s Things; he plays with Buba Badjie Kuyateh and ensemble Laar Farobiansah Gamelan. He is the author of robot-and-musician collaboration projects, including the Warsaw Robots – Duos, which presented the possibilities of machines performing in duos with musicians, and he recorded the album Robots Are Coming (with William’s Things).

The vocalist, harpist, musicologist, expert in historical performance practices. Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett graduated from the Faculty of Musicology (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan) and undertook vocal studies at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. She developed her skills with Emma Kirkby, Ansy Boothroyd, Barbara Thornton, Benjamin Bagby, and Stefan Haselhoff. The international Ensemble Peregrina, which she founded, specialises in early medieval polyphony. She also collaborates with other early music ensembles (Perlaro, Dragma, La Cetra), presenting the Medieval repertoire as well as the music of the 17th and 18th centuries and major festivals in Europe, Asia and the United States. She led two large recording projects: the 10CD series Mikołaj Gomółka: Melodie na psałterz polski. Opera Omnia (Polish Radio) and the complete works of Wacław of Szamotuły (Raumklang), as well as a long-term project reproducing the contents of the ‘Kras 52’ manuscript in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The artist’s accolades include two nominations for “Polityka” weekly’s passport award, nominations for the 2022 REMA (Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne) Ambassador of the Year and the 2021 Polish Public Media Award, Decoration of Honour ‘Meritorious for Polish Culture’, and the Małopolska Cross – Silver Decoration of Honour awarded by the Małopolska Province.

Ensemble Peregrina, founded by the Polish-Swiss singer and musicologist Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett in Basel in 1997, researches and performs sacred and secular music of the Middle Ages. The group has released thirteen internationally acclaimed recordings (including ECHO Klassik 2009 and International Classical Music Award 2019) and performed at numerous prestigious festivals in Europe and in the USA. Peregrina’s interpretation and style is informed by the original source materials and treatises, as well as the latest musicological and historical research. The ensemble strives to come as close to the performance practice transmitted in the sources as possible without having to renounce a well-balanced and beautiful vocal style. The name peregrina, ‘the wanderer’, alludes to the transmission of music and ideas throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, but also reflects the personal journeys of the singers themselves. The ensemble members (from Poland, Switzerland, Finland and the Great Britain) together achieve a dynamic balance through their differing origins, and they unite in the music they perform.

Born in 1979 in Gliwice, he studied composition at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and at the University of Louisville School of Music. Nowak’s compositions have been presented at many prestigious festivals (such as the Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum, Festival of Premieres ‘Polish Modern Music’ in Katowice, Festival of Polish Music in Kraków, and others), as well as during concerts in the United States and a number of European countries (including the 54th International Rostrum of Composers in Paris). They have been commissioned and performed by London Sinfonietta, the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, Alarm Will Sound, NOSPR – the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, Ensemble OMN, and the Silesian Quartet. The vocal-instrumental compositions occupy an important place in his output. He wrote to texts by such writers Georgi Gospodinov (Space Opera), Olga Tokarczuk (ahat-ilī – Sister of Gods – album won the Fryderyk Award of the Polish Phonographic Society), Radek Rak (Baśń o sercu. Favola in musica), Stanisław Lem (Lo firgai – The Mask), Szczepan Twardoch (Drach. Dramma per musica – awarded with the Coryphaeus of Polish Music and the O!Lśnienia prize, Syrena. Melodrama aeterna – won the Fryderyk Award, and Pokora. Dramma giocoso, which crowns the triptych), Marcin Wicha (Rzeczy. Vaudeville). His accolades include, the Guarantees of Culture award of TVP Kultura state television channel (2011), the Passport Award of the “Polityka” weekly (2018), the Coryphaeus of Polish Music award of the National Institute of Music and Dance for Personality of the Year (2021). Since 2020 he has held the post of Head of the Chair of Composition and Music Theory.

A singer and guitarist, songwriter, author of books and short stories, as well as composer, Sołtys is known for his work in Vavamuffin band, solo performances as Pablopavo and with Ludziki collective, as well as numerous collaborations with hip-hop, reggae, dub, jazz, and dancehall musicians. Awarded the ‘Polityka’weekly’s ‘Passport’ in the category of popular music for ‘songs combining street-band-type local character with worldly sound and poetic depth’, Sołtys imbues his lyrics with the bitter melancholy of dull everyday life. His texts are based on acute powers of observation and care for verbal quality. His short stories have been printed in the ‘Studium’, ‘Lampa’, and ‘Rita Baum’ literary magazines. His greatly critically acclaimed debut story collection Microtics, published by Wydawnictwo Czarne, won the 2018 Marek Nowakowski Literary Award and the Gdynia Literary Prize, as well as being nominated for the Nike Literary Award. Sołtys’s second book, Nonjoy (Wydawnictwo Czarne) was nominated for the Cyprian Kamil Norwid Award. The artist has also received a nomination for the Julian Tuwim Literary Award for lifetime achievement. His next book, August, came out in 2024 under the same publisher.

An eminent musicologist, music critic and journalist, academic teacher and music life organiser, Chłopecki was born in 1950 in Bydgoszcz and died in 2012 in Warsaw. He graduated from the Institute of Musicology at the University of Warsaw. For many years, he worked as broadcast author and commentator in the Classical Music Section of Polish Radio. He also taught 20th- and 21st-century music history, repertoire, and aesthetics at the Academy of Music in Katowice as well as Postgraduate Programme courses at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His reviews, essays, commentaries, and witty features were published in the daily ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ and the magazines ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’ and ‘Ruch Muzyczny’. Chłopecki was the programme director of Velvet Curtain festival (Kraków 2000, Lviv 2006) and the Festival of Paweł Szymański’s Music (Warsaw 2006). His numerous accolades included the Honorary Award of the Polish Composers’ Union, the ‘Gloria Artis’ Silver Medal for Merit to Culture, the Knight’s Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania, and the Decoration of Honour ‘Meritorious for Polish Culture’.

A sopran born in Warsaw; graduate of the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where she studied with Jadwiga Rappé. She has for many years given concerts with the best Polish chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. She specialises in the interpretation of contemporary music, including works by Crumb, Ligeti, Haubenstock-Ramati, Stravinsky, Mykietyn. She has premiered compositions by Pärt, Nikodijević, Caine, Knapik, Nowak. Apart from most recent music, she also successfully performs pieces from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic repertoires. She has sung as guest artist at opera houses in Poland, Ireland, Estonia, Spain, and Italy, as well as appearing at prestigious festivals (in Aix-en-Provence and Geneva’s Contrechamps), on foreign tours (such as the concert tour featuring Lutosławski’s song cycle Chantefleurs et chantefables), as well as on special occasions (among others, the recital Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris). She is the winner of major prizes and distinctions in vocal competitions both in Poland and abroad. In 2016, she was awarded Orphée d'Or (Académie du Disque Lyrique) for her debut album real life songs (2015); in 2017 she was presented with the Passport Award of the “Polityka” weekly. Many recordings with her participation are nominated and awarded with the Fryderyk Awards of the Polish Phonographic Society.

A tenor singer whose repertoire ranges from early to contemporary music; graduate of the Gdańsk Academy of Music and Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. Second-prize winner in the Hariclea Darclée International Voice Competition in Braila, Romania. In 2007–2009 he was a soloist in Wrocław Opera, where he sang in works by Johann Strauss, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, and Penderecki. He has also performed music by, among others, Szymanowski, Donizetti, Mussorgsky, Richard Strauss, Janáček, and Puccini in the Théâtre Montansier in Versailles, Latvijas Nacionālā opera un balets in Riga, the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv, and the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera in Warsaw. Kozłowski has interpreted early music repertoire with Capella Cracoviensis, Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, {oh!} Orkiestra, Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense, Il Giardino d’Amore, and Arte dei Suonatori. Kozłowski’s versatility and fine timbre are in similarly high demand in contemporary music. He has given world premiere performances of works by Oliver Schneller, Manfred Trojahn, and Bernd Redmann. He has appeared in Andrzej Kwieciński’s Canzon de’ baci, Paweł Mykietyn’s opera The Magic Mountain, and recently in Aleksander Nowak’s I, Şeküre and Things. Vaudeville.

HCH is the name of a radio duo formed by Jacek Hawryluk (musicologist and music journalist associated with Radiostacja, and for 30 years with Polish Radio; In the years 2007–2024 head of the music editorial office and vice-director of Polish Radio Channel Two, founder of “Płytomania”, “Płytowy Trybunał Dwójki” and “Samo H” radio programmes, and contributor to “Ruch Muzyczny” magazine) and Bartek Chaciński (music journalist and columnist, collaborating with Polish Radio since 2004, previously head of “Machina” magazine’s music section, now head of the culture department and deputy editor-in-chief of the “Polityka” weekly, author of Dictionaries of Most Recent Polish Language). These two have shared the air since 1995 (Scout Radio / Radiostacja) and joined forces in 2004, presenting for 13 years the programme cycle entitled “HCH” – first on Polish Radio Channel Four, then Channel Three. In 2024 they ended hosting programmes on PR 2 and returned to Channel Three. They also collaborated on Polish Television’s “WOK” (“All about Culture”). Since 2016 they have written original concert notes for AUKSO.