Piotr Kusiewicz

Kusiewicz studied piano with Prof. Zbigniew Śliwiński and solo singing with Prof. Jerzy Szymański at the Gdańsk Academy of Music, graduating with an honours degree. He has performed, among others, at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, the Grand Theatre in Łódź, opera houses in Cracow, Wrocław, and Gdańsk (Baltic Opera) as well as all of Poland’s philharmonic halls. He has also been applauded abroad in, among others, Berlin, Frankfurt-am-Main (Alte Oper), Cologne, Leipzig (Gewandhaus), London (Royal Festival Hall), Munich, New York (Carnegie Hall), Paris (Théâtre des Champs Élysées), and Vienna (Musikverein).

His repertoire comprises more than 140 large-scale oratorio-type works and 20 operatic parts, as well as song cycles. He was the first Polish performer of Witold Lutosławski’s Paroles tissées, which he recorded with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) under Antoni Wit for the international NAXOS label (Gramophone monthly’s Best Buy). Likewise under Wit’s baton and for the same label, he recorded Krzysztof Penderecki Utrenja with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir (a 2010 Grammy nomination). The DUX release of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (winner of the Prix de l'Academie du Disque Lyrique) features Piotr Kusiewicz, Jadwiga Rappé, and the Great Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio under Michael Zilm.

Kusiewicz’s worldwide tour in 1996-2002, promoting a production of Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger under Charles Dutoit, with performances in the world’s most prestigious concert halls (including in Montreal, New York, Paris, and Tokyo), was one of the highlights of the Polish tenor’s career. His discography comprises forty CDs and four DVDs.

Piotr Kusiewicz is the head of the Chair of Vocalism at Gdańsk Academy of Music. He also teaches a singing class at the Academy of Art in Szczecin.

In March 2008 Pope Benedict XVI presented Kusiewicz with the ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice’, the highest decoration for distinguished service to the Catholic Church by lay people. In 2016, the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage awarded him the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

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