Biography
Kazimierz Kord
Polish Conductor, born 18 November 1930 in Podgórze.
In 1949, he completed the Secondary School of Music in Katowice in the class of piano. Between 1949-55, he studied piano with Vladimir Nilsen at the Conservatory in Leningrad, and from 1956 to 1960 - conducting with Artur Malawski and Witold Krzemieński in the State Higher School of Music in Cracow. Between 1960-62, he was choirmaster and conductor in the Warsaw Opera. In the years 1962-69, he was the chief conductor and artistic director of the Musical Theatre of the City of Krakow, where he had prepared approximately 30 premieres, including Charles Gounod's "Faust" directed by Kord himself and with the scenography by Józef Szajna.
The success of this spectacle opened him the doors to Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich (Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades", Béla Bartók's "Duke Bluebeard's Castle"), and next to the Metropolitan Opera in New York ("Queen of Spades", "Boris Godunov" Modest Mussorgsky's , Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" and "Macbeth", Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Così fan tutte"). From 1969 to 1973, he directed the Grand Polish Radio and Television Orchestra in Katowice. In the years from 1977 to 2001, he was the general and artistic director of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. With the National Philharmonic, he made a number of grand concert tours in European countries, the United States, Australia, China and Japan, and he also recorded for radio stations and record companies. At the same time, he was conductor of the Südwestfunk Orchestra in Baden-Baden (1980-86). He performed together with renown orchestras in Leningrad, Cleveland, Chicago (a debut in 1973), Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Tokyo, Toronto (in 1974 - European Tour with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra following Karel Ančerl's death), London, Prague, Munich, Stuttgart, Rome, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Athens. He had realised spectacles in opera theatres in New York, London (Covent Garden), Munich, Düsseldorf (Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", Igor Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress"), Amsterdam (Georg Friedrich Handel's "Orlando", Dmitri Shostakovich's "Katarina Izmailova" directed by Aleksander Bardini, Alband Berg's "Wozzeck"), Copenhagen (Royal Opera), San Francisco (Verdi's "Rigoletto", "Otello" and "Falstaff", Amilcare Ponchielli's "Boris Godunov", "Gioconda"). From 2005 to 2006, he was the music director of the Grand Theatre - National Opera in Warsaw. It is here that he conducted, among others, Giacomo Puccini's "La Boheme" directed by Mariusz Treliński, and Mozart's "Magic Flute" directed by Achim Freyer.
His recordings include: the works of Jean Sibelius and Tchaikovsky's "4th Symphony" with the New Philharmonia Orchestra (Decca), Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio", Verdi's "Requiem" (Polskie Nagrania). He also had many TV recordings - in Südwestfunk (including Joseph Haydn's masses, Mozart's "Requiem", Karol Szymanowski's and George Gershwin's works). He initiated the "Lutosławski Forum" - a cycle of concerts combined with the presentation of fine arts and a discussion forum.
Kazimierz Kord received many artistic awards, including the Critics' Award during the Music Biennale in Berlin (1971), the Golden Orpheus during the Warsaw Autumn Festival (1972), Conductor of the Year in Munich (1972). In 1976, he was awarded with a diploma in recognition of his merits in propagating Polish music abroad from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 1977 - the Minister of Culture and Art Prize of the First Degree, in 2001. He was also decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order, in 2005 - the Golden Medal Gloria Artis for "Merits to Culture" and the Diamond Baton - a distinction awarded by the Board of the Polish Radio.
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