persons' index (K)

conductor; b. 2nd April 1962 in Szczecin. He studied music theory and composition with Eugeniusz Głowski at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk (1983-85), then with Bogusław Madey and Henryk Czyż at the Conducting Department of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (1984-89). Participant of Kurt Sanderling’s conducting course in Weimar (1987). Finalist of the Young Conductors’ Auditions for the International Conducting Competition at Yale School of Music (1992). In the late 1980s and early 1990s he developed his abilities as a choral conductor with the Academic Choir of Szczecin University of Technology (dir. Jan Szyrocki). He also completed postgraduate studies of copyright, publishing and press law at the Faculty of Management and Social Communication at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (2004). In 2008 he obtained a habilitation degree in musical arts (specialisation: conducting) on the basis of a dissertation entitled The Conductor as a Performer of a Multi-Level Musical Work, presented at the Academy of Music in Warsaw.
His conducting career began in 1989 at Wrocław Opera. In 1990-93 he was the managing and artistic director of Toruń Chamber Orchestra. Simultaneously in 1991-92 he held the posts of second conductor at Szczecin Philharmonic and guest conductor at Omsk Philharmonic. In 1992-2004 and again in 2007-11 he was the managing and artistic director of the Opera and Operetta in Szczecin (since 2000 – as the Castle Opera), where he musically directed more than 70 opera and operetta productions, musicals and concert cycles. On his initiative the Castle Opera staged all of Stanisław Moniuszko’s operatic works during the "Vivat Moniuszko" Festival in 2004. In 2010 he stage-directed Vincenzo Bellini’s The Sleepwalker in the courtyard of the Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle in Szczecin. In 2013-14 he was the artistic director of the Grand Theatre in Łódź.
Warcisław Kunc organises numerous music events. He initiated the Summer Opera Seasons, held in the courtyard of the Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle in Szczecin since 1993, as well as the Great Tournament of Tenors. He organised the Opera Interpretation Master Classes conducted by Fiorenza Cosotto (2001, 2002) and Wojciech Maciejowski (2003, 2004). He has frequently led concerts at well-known music festivals in Poland and abroad, e.g. in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Russia, Spain and Switzerland. He has conducted performances featuring such eminent Polish and foreign soloists as Kaja Danczowska, Zdzisława Donat, Ewa Pobłocka, Krzysztof Jakowicz, Ryszard Karczykowski, Wiesław Ochman, Fiorenza Cosotto and José Carreras.
The artist has made numerous recordings of theatre and film music, conducting, among others, the Polish Radio Orchestra in Cracow and the Great Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television in Katowice. He also conducted the first complete recording of the Polish-language version of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow (1999). For BMG the Castle Opera orchestra under his baton recorded Credo – a CD of music by Henri Seroka, a Belgian composer of Polish origin. Kunc also recorded Seroka’a music for Jacek Bromski’s films In Heaven as It Is on Earth (1998), It's Me, the Thief (2000) and Career of Nikoś Dyzma (2002).
As an active promoter of the music of Stanisław Moniuszko, Kunz recorded his Paria and Flis (The Raftsman). These CDs (under the DUX label) won the Orphée d'Or awards of the Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris. The CD recording of Moniuszko’s Verbum Nobile was nominated for the Fryderyk 2013 award of the Polish Phonographic Academy and named as the Opera – Recording of the Year in the International Classical Music Awards.
Warcisław Kunc has also been continuously engaged in teaching activity. In 1993-99 and 2003-05 he was a lecturer in the Szczecin Branch of Poznań Academy of Music and in Bydgoszcz Academy of Music. In 2012 the Polish President Bronisław Komorowski granted him the title of Professor of Musical Art (specialisation: conducting). Currently he is a faculty member at the Academy of Music in Poznań, where he teaches conducting, stage conducting and score reading. Since 2012 Prof. Kunc has been Head of the Chair of Orchestral and Stage Conducting, and since 2013 – director of the Academic Orchestra.
Warcisław Kunc is also a well-known culture manager, member of the Association of Theatre Directors and co-author of educational programmes. In 2003-04 he organised and coordinated the community outreach programme Opera in Schools, implemented in 10 schools in West Pomerania. In 2008-11 he introduced two new educational programmes: The Little Child in the Opera and Operanek. His educational work also included the staging of children’s operas: Snow White and the Dwarves – dir. Krzysztof Kolberger, with sets by Ryszard Kaja, Why This Animal in the Opera by Jan Oleszkiewicz, In the Land of the Magic Flute by Ryszard Karczykowski, Dwarves, Dwarves by Tadeusz Kijonka and Katarzyna Gaertner, and Ann of Green Gables by Maciej Wojtyszko and Zbigniew Karnecki.
For his important contributions to culture, this well-known artist has received prestigious state awards and international distinctions, such as: the President of the City of Toruń Prize (1992), the Gold Cross of Merit (2001), the Medal of Merit to the City of Szczecin (2002), the Badge of Merit to Polish Culture (2002), the Ambassador of Szczecin (2004), Europaurkunde des Landes Brandenburg (2005), the Gold Badge of the Friends of Szczecin Society (2005), the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2008), Order of the Red Eagle – Den Verdienstorden des Landes Brandenburg (2011).
 

Artist’s official website: www.kunc.pl