History&Patron
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First official symphonic concert took place on 2nd March 1945 in The Częstochowa City Theatre. Soon the orchestra became independent and got its own seat placed Dąbrowski Street for twenty years. Since 1954 started attempts to build a brand-new concert hall (30% of money derived from people of Częstochowa). In 1965 the orchestra moved in its new venue – on Konkielów Street (today: Wilson Street) named The House of Culture “Philharmonic Hall”.
The Philharmonic was built on the site of the New Synagogue, which was destroyed during World War II. The new modernist project (arch. Tadeusz Gawłowski) assumed the use of the preserved parts of the foundations and facade of the synagogue. The acoustics of the concert halls, considered one of the best in Poland, was designed by Witold Straszewicz. The impressive building and the sound qualities made eminent conductors, soloists and foreign ensembles more and more willing to come to Częstochowa.
Besides symphonic concerts, chamber music concerts, education ones, the orchestra was a host and an organizer of music festivals: Jeunesses Musicales and Grażyna Bacewicz Polish Violin Festival. In 1976 when The Voivodeship of Częstochowa started existing and the orchestra got name The Philharmonic then there was more number and forms of concerts. Almost every kind of music was played (symphonic, popular, chamber music, recitals). Musicians of the orchestra played also in small esembles. Very important question for The Częstochowa Philharmonic - now and before - is education by music and concerts for children and young people in concert halls and beyond the Philharmonic in schools. The Orchestra has toured to European countries. In 1984 started a new festival “Ars Chori” and a few years later another one - International Festival of Sacred Music “Gaude Mater” (1991). From the second edition the Festival has been organized by the Centre of Culture Promotion "Gaude Mater" in cooperation with the Czestochowa Philharmonic. In 1997 took place the first edition of the Bronislaw Huberman Violinistic Festival which has become a continuation of the two prestigious festivals in Czestochowa: Violin Festival of Grazyna Bacewicz and Jeunesses Musicales.
To give more attractions from 1998 to 2002 existed “Opera and Operetta Stage” where took place following spectacles: “Don Pasquale” by Donizetti, St. Moniuszko’s “Halka” and “The Haunted Manor” and “Le nozze di Figaro” by Mozart. In 2001 The Philharmonic did first performance in “Stage Experiment” project where the theatre and music were connected – “Miss Julie” by A. Strindberg. The Częstochowa Philharmonic was also coorganizer of The International Song’s Festival “May Note”. And since 2002 organized Hot Jazz Spring Częstochowa – festival of traditional jazz.
In 2008 Częstochowa Philharmonic actively joined in the restoration of the memory of the world-famous singer siblings, who tied their fate with our region, organizing Jan, Edward, Józefina Reszke Vocal Competition.
Besides activity in our concert halls the orchestra is also invited to many festivals and concert tours in Poland and abroad to: Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea and Portugal. The Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra played during the great celebrations such as: The Congress of Mariology, The World Day of Youth with John Paul II and Congress of Częstochowa Jews and their Descendants. The orchestra of The Częstochowa Philharmonic has recorded several CDs and take a part in TV and radio recordings.
Since March 2010, Czestochowa Philharmonic was renovated and expanded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Programme Infrastructure and Environment. October 3, 2012 was inaugurated the activities in the building at Wilson’s Street, 16, after modernization. That day Czestochowa Philharmonic officially received the name of Bronislaw Huberman, a virtuoso of Jewish origin born in Częstochowa, violinist, teacher, writer, social and political activist, extraordinary individuality, erudite and humanist, and a promoter of the idea of a united Europe. A master whose memory the Philharmonic upholds by organizing the Violin Festival in his name. During the 12th edition of the Festival, we hosted the most outstanding musical personalities of our time, such as: Joshua Bell, Vadim Repin, Evelyn Glennie, Midori, Mischa Maisky, Roby Lakatos and Shlomo Mintz. In 2012 began operating Philharmonic Choir "Collegium Cantorum".
A new form of action to uphold the memory of Bronisław Huberman is the Foundation established in 2017 by Zygmunt Rolat, Patron of Culture, Friend of the Częstochowa Philharmonic, and Honorary Citizen of Częstochowa since 2012. The Foundation supports the activities of the Częstochowa Philharmonic, mainly in the field of organizing the Violin Festival.
Directors 1945 – 2012
1944 - 1945, 1948 Edward Mąkosza
1945 - 1945 Jerzy Sillich
1945 - 1948 Stanisław Jarzębski
1949 - 1951 Wacław Geiger
1951 - 1952 Jerzy Fotygo
1952 - 1953 Antoni Popiałkiewicz
1952 - 1986 Dionizy Krzepczak
1953 - 1958 Felicjan Lasota
1953 - 1958 Krzysztof Missona
1954 - 1971 Leon Jelonek
1959 - 1965 Czesław Orsztynowicz
1967 - 1972 Zygmunt Szczepański
1972 - 1990 Zygmunt Hassa
1984 - 1990 Piotr Warzecha
1986 - 1992 Ireneusz Kozera
1990 - 1999 Jerzy Kosek
1993 - 1996 Wanda Malko
1996 - 2005 Leszek Hadrian
1998 - 2005 Jerzy Swoboda
2006 - 2011 Beata Młynarczyk
2005 - 2011 Jerzy Salwarowski
2011 - 2021 Ireneusz Kozera
2012 - Adam Klocek
Violinist, born 19 December 1882 in Częstochowa, died 16 June 1947, Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
Huberman took his first violin lessons with Mieczysław Michałowicz, Maurycy Rosen and Izydor Lotto. He first appeared in public at the age of seven, playing Pierre Rode's Violin concerto no. 7 with the orchestra of The Warsaw Institute of Music. In 1892 Huberman and his parents left for Berlin and he was introduced to Jozsef Joachim. Joachim audited him and accepted him to his class. Having worked on his playing technique under Joachim's assistant, Carl Markees, Huberman gave it up and left Berlin. In 1893 he played for the audiences of other German towns as well as taking additional lessons with Hugo Heermann in Frankfurt on the Mein. He also played concerts in Vienna, Amsterdam, Brusells and Paris, and took lessons with Martin Marsick. In May 1894 he went to London where his most notable performance was a concert played with Natalia Janotha, Józef Śliwiński and Józef Hofman. Meanwhile he received a gift of a 1773 Stradivarius from Count Jan Zamoyski, who supported him for a certain period of time, organizing concerts in Marienbad and Lvov.
At the end of 1894 he played for Berlin audiences, and in January 1895 took part in Adelina Patti's farewell concert in Vienna. The following year, also in Vienna, Huberman, who had not turned fourteen at the time, played Johannes Brahms' Concerto in D major in the presence of the composer. Brahms was delighted with his performance.
After a series of concerts in Austria, Germany, France and Romania, Huberman went on his first United States tour in 1897, and in December of that year set out on an artistic journey to Russia. In 1902 he gave a series of concerts in Munich, playing eighteen violin concertos in eight nights, and in 1903 he played in Genoa on a violin that once belonged to Niccolo Paganini. In December, on Huberman's twenty-first birthday, the Grand Duke of Weimar and Eisenach decorated him with the Medal of Arts and Science. In the following years he concertised in all European music centres to invariably enthusiastic audiences. He appeared a number of times in Poland, too. For a while he also devoted himself to theoretical work, which resulted in a collection of papers published in Vienna in 1912 as "Aus der Werkstatt des Virtuosen" (Polish edition "Z warsztatu wirtuoza" / "In the Workshop of the Virtuoso", Katowice 1964).
He spent World War I in Berlin, coming a couple of times with concerts to Warsaw and Łódź, notably in the spring of 1918 to perform with Eugene d'Alberto. The next surge of his artistic journeys came in the 1920s and included such countries as France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, Holland, Czech, Scandinavia, Poland and South America (Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay). At that time his interest in chamber music intensified and the trio he set up with Ignacy Friedman and Pablo Casals proved the highlight of the 1927 season, performing, among other works, all Beethoven trios as part of the celebrations of the composer's death centenary. In 1929 Huberman first visited Palestine. The 1920s were also a period of his concentrated pedagogical activities, one of his students, albeit for a short period, being Irena Dubiska.
In addition to concerts, Huberman took to politics, his particular interest being the idea of Pan-Europe. He shared his political thinking in a book "Vaterland Europa", published in Berlin in 1932. The anti-semitic Nazi policy made him leave Berlin and settle in Vienna in late 1932. In 1933 he took part in the celebrations marking Johannes Brahms' birth centenary; he performed his piano trios and quartets with Arthur Schnabel, Pablo Casals and Paul Hindemith. In July of that year he declined Wilhelm Furtwängler's invitation to play concerts with Berliner Philharmoniker. From 1934 to 1936 he ran a violin master class at the Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, in the meantime playing concerts in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, England, Switzerland, Holland, Italy and the United States.
In March 1936 the "Manchester Guardian" published Huberman's "Open Letter to German intellectuals". At that time he visited Tel-Aviv a number of times for the purpose of organizing an orchestra. His efforts proved successful, and on 26th December 1936 Arturo Toscanini first conducted The Palestine Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble made up of musicians of Jewish descent who had to leave Germany because of persecutions by the Nazi regime.
In 1937 Huberman embarked upon an artistic journey to the United States, Australia and West Indies. Coming back, in October 1937, his plane crashed in Sumatra, and both of his hands were injured. In 1938 he settled in Corsier-sur-Vevey and, owing to intensive physiotherapy, was able to resume his concerts in December of the same year. After World War II broke out, he got involved in the support of Polish refugees wandering around Europe. In 1940 he went to give concerts in Johannesburg. The war activities made his return to Switzerland impossible, and so he went to the United States instead where, in New York in May 1944, he took part in a concert of Polish music, performing Karol Szymanowski's Violin concerto no. 1 under Grzegorz Fitelberg. Having returned to Switzerland in 1945, the following year he went on a tour of Europe, Egypt and Palestine. In May of that year he broke his leg. The bone would not heal and had to be realigned twice; this seriously undermined Huberman's overall health. He spent the last period of his life in his villa in Corsier-sur-Vevey.
Huberman's artistic accomplishments, behaviour and social activity were recognized a number of times: he was named the Honorary Member of the Friends of Music of the City of Vienna and was awarded the Orders of King Leopold, Legion of Honour and Polonia Restituta. The Jewish Institute of Religion in New York conferred an honorary doctorate upon him.
Since 1997 The Częstochowa Philharmonic has been host to the biennial Bronisław Huberman Violin Festival.