Krych, Lilianna International Festival of Contemporary Music Warsaw Autumn

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born in 1986 in Warsaw, conductor mainly working in the fields of the opera, contemporary and early music. Fascinated with the interpenetration of many artistic disciplines—opera, theatre, the visual arts, work with voice, body, and movement—she uses music and the theatre to analyse and comment on reality. She graduated in orchestra and opera conducting from Marek Pijarowski’s class at Warsaw’s Chopin University of Music (2011). She has developed her conducting skills at masterclasses with Colin Metters, Jonathan Brett, Jerzy Salwarowski, and Carlo Montanaro. 

In 2013–18 she was an assistant conductor to, among others, Gabriel Chmura, Stefan Soltesz, Judith Yan, Carlo Montanaro, Łukasz Borowicz, Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, and Andriy Yurkevich at the Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera. She has also appeared as guest conductor at philharmonics in Szczecin, Jelenia Góra, Kielce, and Zielona Góra. She has led the Cappella Regia Polona and Polish Royal Opera’s Sinfonietta. She has recorded the music featured at the Polish Pavilion at the World Expo in Dubai (2021–22). 

Her broad understanding of the operatic genre is reflected in the productions she conducts, which include classical works (Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Bastien und Bastienne) as well as 20th-century classics (Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and The Turn of the Screw) and compositions that rede ne the concept of the opera nowadays (such as Wojciech Błażejczyk’s Fake Opera). She has prepared independent, non-institutional productions of stage and cross-genre works as well as leading opera choirs and vocal ensembles at Warsaw Chamber Opera and the Polish Royal Opera. 

Her contemporary music debut was the first Polish stage performance of Salvatore Sciarrino’s opera Luci mie traditrici at 2016 Warsaw Autumn. The show was presented again during the 2018 New Opera Days in Ostrava. Since that time, Krych has regularly conducted at contemporary music festivals in Poland and abroad. She has worked with such new music groups as Ostravská Banda, Ensemble Via Nova, Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, and Hashtag Ensemble. She has been a permanent member of the latter collective since 2017. 

Krych contributes to theatrical productions in which music plays a major role, collaborating with Wrocław’s Song of the Goat Theatre, Poznań’s Polski Theatre (The Trojan Women, 2016), and Julianna Bloodgood’s international group (Little under. Santa Catherina from Siena, 2021–22). 

She is also involved in music education on different levels, from leading a mixed orchestra at the Oskar Kolberg State Music School in Warsaw to teaching workshops at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute (NIFC) and at music festivals.