Capella Cracoviensis

A word about this company

Semper in altum. Capella Cracoviensis has been guided by this motto for a few years now, which makes it the most dynamically developing Polish ensemble specializing in performing on period music. Owing to consistent support provided by the City of Cracow, Capella Cracoviensis may carry out uncompromising ambitious projects at the highest artistic level in collaboration with distinguished musicians of similar sensitivity and comparable courage. The list of regulars featuring in concerts with CC includes Vincent Dumestre (Le Poème Harmonique), Fabio Bonizzoni (La Risonanza), Alessandro Moccia (Orchestre des Champs-Élysées), Andrew Parrott, Paul Goodwin and Ensemble Oltremontano while Accademia Bizantina, Fretwork, Nachtmusique, Paul McCreesh, Giuliano Carmignola and Christophe Rousset (Les Talens Lyriques) come to Cracow to perform as guests. Along with concerts, CC explores the territories of baroque and classical opera successfully staging some of these works in Poland, such as Handel’s Amadigi, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Since 2017 Capella Cracoviensis produces a festival called Opera Rara, which takes place annually in January and February. Its main goal is to create and stage pieces that are rarely performed and to create the perfect atmosphere for artistic development. An instrumental ensemble, Capella Cracoviensis is a vocal group too, whose technical mastery as well as flexibility enables it to diversify its repertoire, which ranges from Gesualdo’s backbreaking mannerist madrigals to the avant-garde compositions of the 20th century. The choir of Capella Cracoviensis has accompanied such eminent guests of Misteria Paschalia and Opera Rara festivals as Fabio Biondi with his ensemble Europa Galante, Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, Le Poème Harmonique or ensemble La Venexiana under Claudo Cavina. CC is often present at European festivals, including Haydn Festspiele Brühl, Bachfest Leipzig, SWR Festspiele, and in 2014 the ensemble from Cracow performed at Händel Festspiele Halle. It gives regular concerts abroad: in Vienna’s Konzerthaus, in Versailles, Brussels, Ghent, Lviv and Kiev. Jan Tomasz Adamus, an renowned organist, harpsichordist, conductor and animator of musical life, became head and artistic director of Capella Cracoviensis in 2008. He has honed his skills as an artist collaborating with many outstanding singers while drawing on the achievements of Europe’s most important centres of art as the permanent counterpoint of all developments in music can be found in painting, sculpture, architecture and philosophy. Inviting him to assume this position at the request of the City of Cracow has been one of the most widely discussed transfers in the world of Polish culture of the recent years.