Nostalgia and magic of sound

As chief conductor and artistic director of the tradition-steeped Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrey Boreyko nevertheless stands for a modern orientation of the repertoire. In addition to the concerts in Warsaw, he toured Poland and the USA with the orchestra this season. There their paths crossed with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra in Florida, where Boreyko is also principal conductor, a position he will relinquish in 2022 after eight years. Among the significant projects he initiated in the USA was the juxtaposition of the ballet music of Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” and “The Firebird” with contemporary artworks by the Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave, who in turn was inspired by the Ballets Russes. Andrey Boreyko also commissioned a number of works (including to Giya Kancheli) and combined them with art by Picasso and Calder as part of an exhibition.

Andrey Boreyko has also conducted extensive tours of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala as well as concerts by the Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, Sinfonia Varsovia, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg. In recent years he has been invited as a guest conductor from Sydney to Toronto and in numerous US cities, as well as in Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Vienna, Stockholm, Bamberg, Munich, Florence, London, Paris, Zurich and Rotterdam. He has been a guest conductor with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) several times since 2000, most recently planned for 2020, which, however, could not take place due to corona.

Andrey Boreyko has repeatedly championed contemporary postmodern music, including a performance in Stockholm in 2017 for the Russian-Swedish composer Victoria Borisova-Ollas. Works by Arvo Pärt, Valentyn Sylvestrov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Witold Lutosławski and Mikolaj Górecki have appeared on CD under his direction, including the Symphony No. 4 by the latter, after Andrey Boreyko conducted the world premiere with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and then the American premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Earlier in Andrey Boreyko’s career, he held principal conducting positions with the Jena Philharmonic, the Hamburg Symphony, the Bern Symphony, the Düsseldorf Symphony, the Winnipeg Symphony and the Orchestre National de Belgique.

Iwona Sobotka achieved international acclaim as the Grand Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. Other awards include First Prize at the Warsaw Polish Art Song Competition and First Prize at the East & West Artists International Auditions in New York, that resulted in her debut concert in Carnegie Hall.

Recent and upcoming engagements include, among others, concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle in Beethoven’s “Christ on the Mount of Olives”, the London Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Festspiele Baden-Baden, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg under Marek Janowski in Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.

Iwona Sobotka made her operatic debut at the National Opera in Paris in 2004, where she performed the roles of the First Lady (“The Magic Flute”) and Ygraine (Dukas’ “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue”). She also appeared at the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival in the title role of Halka and Liù (Puccini’s “Turandot”) to great critical acclaim. Other roles have included Tatyana (Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”) and Donna An­na (Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”) under Teodor Currentzis for the Tchaikovsky Perm State Opera; and Violetta (Verdi’s “La traviata”), Pamina (“The Magic Flute”) and Mimi (Puccini’s “La bohème”) for Opera Podlaska. In 2017 she made her Komische Oper Berlin debut as Pamina, performing also with Komische Oper Berlin on tour to Australia, New Zealand, Macao and Taiwan. She made her Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden debut as Blumenmädchen in Wagner’s Parsifal with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle one year later.

Past performances on the concert stage include a concert tour in Asia with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; as well as appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Vienna Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. ­ With the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin she has appeared numerous times.

In 2010, Sobotka took part in a ‘Szymanowski Focus’ programme curated by distinguished Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski to promote the music of Karol Szymanowski in London at the Wigmore Hall and in New York at Carnegie Hall. Following her graduation from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Iwona continued her studies with the renowned artist and pedagogue Tom Krause at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid.