PARTICIPANTS UNIVERSITAS CANTAT 2019

Chamber Orchestra of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Conductor: dr Aleksander Gref

Chamber Orchestra of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

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Chamber Orchestra of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań was established in 2004 on the initiative of its current conductor, Aleksander Gref. For over a decade of its activity the orchestra has represented AMU by participating in various cultural and social projects as well as performing at academic ceremonies. The orchestra participates in annual concerts organized by the Rector of the AMU: The New Year's Concert and the May Concert, and supports independent musical projects by working with ensembles from Poland and abroad. In 2010, the orchestra took part in a video clip promoting the Foundation Dar Szpiku [The Gift of Bone Marrow], which helps people with blood cancer.

The diverse repertoire of the orchestra includes pieces from the canon of classical music, passionate Argentine tango, entertainment music evergreens and well-known film music themes. So far the ensemble has performed arrangements of compositions by Fryderyk Chopin, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Béla Bartók, Edward Grieg, Johann Brahms, Astor Piazzolla, John Williams, Jerry Bock and many other artists.

Aleksander Gref

The founder of Adam Mickiewicz University Chamber Orchestra, Aleksander Gref has been its conductor since 2004.

Between 2006 and 2009 he was the Music Director of the Grand Theater symphony orchestra in Poznań. He is the first guest conductor of the "Pro Arte” Symphony Orchestra and is the founder and Artistic Director of the Sollus Symphony Orchestra. He studied conducting with Professor Renard Czajkowski at the Academy of Music in Poznań, from which he graduated with honors.

In 1998 he became a laureate of the 2nd edition of Young Conductors Review in Białystok where he received two additional awards: for the competition`s most interesting personality and for the presentation of conducting mastery. In 2003 he got through to the semi-finals of 6th International Conductors` Competition in Sankt Petersburg. Aleksander Gref is an active conductor both at home and abroad (Germany, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, Spain, France). He has performed with the majority of Polish philharmonic orchestras (e.g the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Poznan Philharmonic, the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Krakow and the Baltic Philharmonic in Gdansk) as well as foreign ensembles: L`Ensamble orchestral de Paris, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Symphonic Orchestra Academic Capella of St. Petersburg, and Symphonic Orchestra of the Theater of Opera and Ballet St. Petersburg Conservatory. He has performed at a number of music festivals including the Vienna Music Festival in Jelenia Góra, Hoffmann Festival in Poznań, Poznań Music Spring, Animi Music Festival in Warsaw and Bydgoszcz Music Festival in Bydgoszcz.

Since 1999 he has worked as a conductor for the Grand Theater in Poznań where he has been involved in the preparations of over 30 operas ("Parsifal", "La Bohème", "Tosca", "Madama Butterfly", "Don Carlos", "Aida", Otello", "Werther", "The Magic Flute", "Don Pasquale" etc.). As the Music Director he supervised the preparation of the following performances: "Carmen", "Don Kichot", "Pan Twardowski", "Drzewiecki`s Ballet", "Ernani", "Fidelio", "Romeo and Juliet", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Peter and the Wolf" and "Brundibar", and since 2002 he has cooperated with the Music Theater in Poznań, where he was instrumental in the preparation of "The Merry Widow", "Zorba", "Das Land des Lächelns" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

In 2001 he conducted the inaugural performance of Bizet's "Carmen" in the newly opened "Kleist Forum" opera house in Frankfurt a. Oder, and in 2002 he received Artistic Award of the City of Poznań for his achievements in the field of opera and symphony. In 2008 he started to work as a pedagogue at the Academy of Music in Poznań. He is currently working on his PhD dissertation.

Aleksander Gref has conducted over 300 opera, operetta, and musical performance as well as over 100 symphonic and chamber concerts. During his artistic career he has had the opportunity to collaborate with such artists as: Małgorzata Walewska, Joanna Wos, Grazyna Brodzińska, Maryla Rodowicz, Natalia Kukulska, Ania Dabrowska, Hanna Banaszak, Katarzyna Skrzynecka, Antonello Palombi, Franco Bonisolli, Charles Aznavour, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Waldemar Malicki, Wojciech Drabowicz, Marek Torzewski, Jacek Wojcicki, Marcin Wyrostek, Groupa Mozarta, Kuba Badach, Piotr Cugowski etc. In 2012, invited by the "Stołeczna Estrada" he took part in the multimedia project "Water symphony." Within a year the spectacle in Warsaw was watched by about 700 000 viewers.

  Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland