Participants Universitas Cantat 2024
University of Warsaw Choir, POLAND
Cconductor: dr Irina Bogdanovich
University of Warsaw Choir
https://www.facebook.com/ChorUW/
Having been founded in 1921, The University of Warsaw Choir has been performing for more than 100 years. The Choir performs a cappella music of various eras, from the Renaissance to contemporary pieces, including classics, folk and pop, but also large-scale vocal and instrumental forms. The Choir gives concerts at home and abroad and also collaborates with professional musicians and soloists.
The high artistic standard presented by the Choir is confirmed by numerous awards from choir competitions; recently, the ensemble has won five Grand Prix awards (including two at competitions abroad). The choir is the winner of the most prestigious Polish music award, the Fryderyk award (in the 2006 edition), for its performance of M. Borkowski's Dies Irae, the Baird, Łukaszewski, Błażewicz, Borkowski CD, published by Musica Sacra); it was also nominated for this award in 2019 for the recording of Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil. In 2023, the ensemble was awarded the medal for Outstanding Services to the University of Warsaw and the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.
Irina Bogdanovich – conductor and artistic director of the University of Warsaw Choir. She comes from Russia where she graduated with honours from Choral Conductor Department at the Pedagogical and Music University and also with honours from Piano Department at the M. Mussorgsky State Conservatoire in Yekaterinburg. During her artistic activity she was awarded with best conductor awards at International Festival of Orthodox Church Music in Hajnówka in 2005, the H.M. Górecki International Choral Music Festival in Rybnik in 2006 and Legnica Cantat Choir Tournament in 2011 as well as Polish Phonographic Academy Award Fryderyk in the Best Polish Music Recording category for the album Baird, Łukaszewski, Błażewicz, Borkowski (2006).
She successfully works with orchestras and conducted such ensembles as Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish Radio Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Chopin Academia Orchestra, Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Academia Orchestra, Polish Royal Symphonic Orchestra, Warsaw's New Chamber Orchestra, Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra and Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus. She is involved in various artistic activities and deals with children’s musical education by being a host of Children's Musical Gardens Festival in Warsaw. She composes music for movies, e.g. Świteź directed by K. Polak. The movie gathered over 20 awards at international festivals and the award
for the best music in London. Irina Bogdanovich is also the author of the poem Łąka to the words by Polish poet B. Leśmian. She performed the great movie and music show Aleksander Newski with music of S. Prokofiev, using partiture she herself reconstructed from Prokofiev’s cantata. Irina Bogdanovich conducted vocal and instrumental music masterpieces, e.g. the Mass in B Minor by J.S. Bach, Great Mass in C Minor by W. A. Mozart and Requiem by G. Verdi.
She is a Polish Phonographic Academy’s member since 2008 and was awarded the badge of 'Merit for Polish Culture'.
University of Warsaw, POLAND
