Marek Janowski
Chef d’orchestre
Marek Janowski creates extraordinarily colourful and transparent sound images in his interpretations with razor-sharp precision. As a result, he is acclaimed worldwide for his performances of the German Romantic repertoire. He has also left his mark on European orchestral culture: time and again, Janowski devoted himself to building up less prominent orchestras, which he shaped into top international ensembles within a short period of time.
Marek Janowski was born in Warsaw in 1939, grew up in Wuppertal and, after studying violin and piano at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, trained as a conductor under Wolfgang Sawallisch. He began his career as a répétiteur and kapellmeister in Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg before becoming general music director of the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg im Breisgau and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker. He later led the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, and transformed the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France into France’s top orchestra before taking the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo to the top of the international orchestra scene. After three years with the Dresden Philharmonic, Janowski moved to the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, whose musical profile he shaped as chief conductor from 2002 to 2016 and with whom he presented, among other things, a highly acclaimed recording of Wagner’s [Ring des Nibelungen]. In the 2019/20 season, he returned to the Dresden Philharmonic as chief conductor and artistic director. Janowski, who made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1976, has conducted all the leading American orchestras, and has also been a regular guest at all the major opera houses since the late 1970s, also conducted Wagner’s [Ring] cycle at the Bayreuth Festival in 2016 and 2017. In addition to his Wagner activities, he is considered an outstanding interpreter of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Strauss and Schumann, as well as an expert in the French repertoire.
