conductor and composer, b. 4th April 1947 in Łódź. He studied conducting with Stanisław Wisłocki (an honours degree), music theory (an honours degree) and composition with Andrzej Dobrowolski at the State Higher School of Music in Warsaw. Together with Krzysztof Knittel and Elżbieta Sikora he formed the KEW composer group. His piece Whisperetto for 2 sopranos, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 2 altos and a body-builder (1973) won the Premio RAI award of the Italian Radio and Television in 1975.
From 1973 to 1978, Wojciech Michniewski worked for Warsaw Philharmonic, first as assistant conductor, and from 1976 – as a conductor. In 1974, he received an honorable mention in the National Competition for Conductors in Katowice; in 1977 – 1st prize in the International Guido Cantelli Competition for Conductors in the Milanese Teatro alla Scalla; in 1978 – the bronze medal in the International Ernest Ansermet Competition for Conductors in Geneva. From 1979 to 1981, he was artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Łódź, and simultaneously (till 1983) – music director of the contemporary music stage in Warsaw Chamber Opera. In 1984-87, he was permanent guest conductor for Polish Chamber Orchestra, and played an important role in the transformation of this ensemble into the now famous Sinfonia Varsovia. From 1987 to 1991 he was managing and artistic director of Poznań Philharmonic. After 1991, despite numerous offers of permanent contracts with various orchestras, he has performed exclusively as a guest conductor.
Wojciech Michniewski is a highly versatile conductor, leading both symphonic concerts and operatic spectacles. Apart from performing the classical repertoire, he has won widespread acclaim for his interpretations of contemporary music. In 1975 he received the “Orpheus” critics’ award for the best performance of a Polish work at the “Warsaw Autumn” (Tadeusz Baird’s

Psychodrama), and in 1987 – critics’ award at the Musikbiennale Berlin. He still willingly performs with the leading Polish orchestras – The National Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Theatre in Warsaw, where he directed nusically the first performances of operas by Elżbieta Sikora (L'Arrache-coeur, 1995), Roxanny Panufnik (The Music Programme, 2000) and Paweł Mykietyn (The Ignoramus and the Madman, 2001).
He has made many recordings for record companies, the radio and television. In 1996, he was granted the “Fryderyk” Award of the Polish music record industry for his record with Witold Lutosławski’s music, recorded with Krzysztof Jakowicz and Sinfonia Varsovia. In 1999, he won another “Fryderyk” Award for a record with the gala concert of Rossini’s music, featuring Ewa Podleś, and in 2004 his record with works by Mieczysław Karłowicz and Wojciech Kilar was nominated for the “Fryderyk” Award. Michniewski has given concerts in numerous countries in Europe, Asia and both Americas, as well as performing during major international festivals.
In 2005, he received the Award of the Polish Composers’ Union for many years of creative support and presentation of Polish contemporary music.

Wojciech Michniewski studied music theory, conducting and composition. Though he never completed his composition studies, he was composing music in earnest. In 1973-76 he worked with the composers Krzysztof Knittel and Elżbieta Sikora in the “KEW” group. It was in that period that he wrote his most famous piece, Whisperetto, awarded the Premio RAI award of the Italian Radio and Television in 1975. Soon, however, he gave up composition. Why? The composer-conductor answered this question as follows:
“First of all, it was the lack of time, but also a result of my lifestyle. Some composers do not need special concentration to write their works. They can sit by the table for two hours a day, and dedicate the rest of the day to all sorts of different occupations, leading an intensive artistic, political or social life. I cannot live in such a way. Whenever I composed music, I had to distance myself from everything, isolate myself from the world in order to get reconciled to myself, to create the inner silence in which I could hear what I wished to say. The duties that I had to accept when my conducting career began to develop did not leave room for such moments. In my life there is constant turmoil and no such silence.” He had to make a choice: “Every choice is sad, none is perfect. I really love what I do and I enjoy it thoroughly, but I also have moment when I yearn to compose something. At the moment such a wish isquite unrealistic. Perhaps later? I think I will compose again one day.”
Contemporary music takes pride of place in Wojciech Michniewski’s conducting life: “I do not avoid that music; quite the cpposite – I eagerly take it up. It intrigues me as an artist, because it calls for intensive and complex work to be properly interpreted. Usually there are no models to fall back on; we perform it for the first time in history, and therefore a proper insight into its musical, stylistic and intellectual content requires, I believe, more imagination than a reference to an already existing style of interpretation of, for example, Beethoven’s works. These are two very different adventures. I can understand well enough those conductors and musicians who do not like and do not want to deal with contemporary music. It really calls for a special attitude. Still I think that handling contemporary music is, in a sense, more creative. It isharder to penetrate to its core and understand the composer’s intention. One can easily be misled by a false aesthetic clue. Besides,contemporary music is harder for performers – both the conductor and the instrumentalist – from the purely technical point of view. It demands a perfect mastery of all the technical means of classical music, enriched by other means to performance. The instrumentalist who wishes to play contemporay music well must make a similar progress to the one that Grotowski once demanded from his actors – master to perfection every technique available, but then reject and forget it and gain absolute freedom in their control of the performing apparatus. The fact that I was a composer makes contact with contemporary music easier to me. I also think that a conductor who never put his own notes on paper is at a disadvantage. In my time, every student of conducting had to compose a little; even if it was only orchestration, they had to write a number of notes – very enlightening.”
Wojciech Michniewski does not limit himself to contemporary music, though. “No, definitely not. I have almost all sorts of music in my repertoire, except for the early Baroque – Monteverdi or Bach; I also sometimes have some doubts about playing the early Classical works. This music ought to be interpreted in agreement with the style of performance proper to the period, which must be preceded by specialised studies. Today, it is music for specialised ensembles which have permanent conductors, and playing this music the way we did it years ago has become obnoxious. That is why I only rarely decide to play any Baroque music.” (quoted after “Studio” magazine, 1997 no. 9)