Artists
MATCH MATCH ENSEMBLE
In 2022, on the initiative of Lilianna Krych, a new vocal ensemble was founded under the patronage of the Warsaw Theatre Society. The immediate trigger was a proposal by curator Michał Mendyk to stage the first Polish performance of The Little Match Girl Passion (2007), the Pulitzer Prize-winning work by David Lang. Lilianna Krych brought together young, professional singers from Warsaw to perform this technically and expressively demanding work. The name of the ensemble – Match Match Ensemble – alludes both to the first piece they created and to the English word “match,” which here stands for the perfect fusion of voices and the creative superimposition of ideas, essential to chamber and ensemble music. The debut concert – or rather two evenings as part of the 65th International Festival of Contemporary Music “Warsaw Autumn” – was a great success. Michał Tomczak and Urszula Świątek described it in the music magazine Glissando: "The concert at Komuna Warszawska, featuring music by Cornelius Cardew and David Lang, was one of my favorite events of the festival. It featured the Match Match Ensemble, the Radical Polish Arkestra, and the Theater of the Homeless." In 2023, the ensemble performed at the opening of Poland's first stage for new music—the Hashtag Lab, a contemporary music space—and participated in the Great Absence project at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. There, Agnieszka Stulgańska's work Lechem-we-Afar, which brings to life the history of the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie Street, was premiered. The concert program also included compositions from the Gershon Efros collection, previously unknown in Poland—forgotten Jewish music from the early 20th century.
LILIANNA KRYCH
She works primarily in the fields of opera, contemporary, and early music. She is particularly fascinated by the interpenetration of various artistic disciplines—opera, theater, music, and visual arts—as well as by working with voice, body, and movement. She sees music and theater as tools for analyzing and commenting on social reality. She was nominated for the Polityka Passport in 2022. She is a participant in the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme in the 2023/2024 season. Since 2023, she has also been co-director of the Hashtag Lab—a space for contemporary music.
In 2011, she completed her studies in symphony and opera conducting under Professor Marek Pijarowski at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She further honed her conducting skills in master classes with renowned conductors such as Collin Metters, Kanako Abe, Jonathan Brett, Jerzy Salwarowski, and Carlo Montanaro. From 2013 to 2018, she served as assistant conductor at the Teatr Wielki – the National Opera in Warsaw – where she worked with Gabriel Chmura, Stefan Soltesz, Judith Yan, Carlo Montanaro, Łukasz Borowicz, Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, and Andriy Yurkevych, among others.
As a conductor, she has worked with the Szczecin Philharmonic, the Lower Silesian Philharmonic, the Świętokrzyska Philharmonic, the Zielona Góra Philharmonic, the Cappella Regia Polona, and the Sinfonietta of the Polish Royal Opera. She understands opera as a broad genre, conducting both classical works such as Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and "Bastien und Bastienne," as well as significant 20th-century compositions such as Benjamin Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia" and "The Turn of the Screw," as well as Salvatore Sciarrino's "Superflumina," "Aspern," and "Luci mie traditrici." She also devotes herself to contemporary works that redefine the understanding of opera – such as “Fake Opera” by Wojtek Błażejczyk and “Solaris” and “Birdy” by Krzysztof Nepelski.
She also has experience in the independent realization of scenic and cross-genre works outside of institutional structures, as well as in the direction of opera choirs and vocal ensembles – she was the director of these ensembles at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and the Polish Royal Opera.
In the field of contemporary music, she made her debut at the 2016 Warsaw Autumn Festival, conducting the first staged performance of Salvatore Sciarrino's opera "Luci mie traditrici" in Poland. The production was also presented at the New Opera Days Ostrava in 2018. Since then, she has been a regular participant at this and other contemporary music festivals in Poland and abroad. She collaborates with ensembles specializing in the performance of contemporary music, including Ostravská Banda, Ensemble Via Nova, Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble, and Hashtag Ensemble, of which she has been a permanent member since 2017.
She participates in theater productions in which music plays a central role – including with the Teatr Pieśń Kozła (Wrocław, China, Romania), the Teatr Polski in Poznań ("Trojanki" 2016), and the international group led by Julianna Bloodgood (Little Thunder. Santa Caterina of Siena 2021–2022). She is also involved in music education at various levels: she conducts the mixed orchestra at the Oskar Kolberg State Music School in Warsaw, gives workshops for the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, and participates in various music festivals.
WOJCIECH PARCHEM
He graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Music High School in Gdańsk in the piano class and subsequently studied singing at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk and at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. There he held scholarships from the German-Polish Academic Society in Kraków and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg. He also holds an MBA from the Poznań University of Economics in cooperation with Georgia State University in Atlanta, the Szkoła Główna Handlowa (SGH) in Warsaw, and the Institute of English at the University of Warsaw. He furthered his vocal training in numerous masterclasses, including those at the Bach Academy Stuttgart and the Dartington International Summer School. He is currently receiving vocal coaching from Deborah Polaski. In 1998 he won a prize at the 6th International Competition for Coloratura Singing “Sylvia Geszty” in Luxembourg.
In 1998, he began working with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, with which he maintained a close professional relationship for many years. He performed numerous tenor roles on this stage. He also participated in the Warsaw Chamber Opera's international tours to Spain, France, and Japan. He has performed on the stages of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Sophiensaele in Berlin, the Wrocław Opera, the Royal Polish Opera, and the Teatr Wielki – the National Opera and National Theatre in Warsaw.
Wojciech Parchem made his concert debut in his first year of vocal studies, singing the role of the Evangelist in Johann Balthasar Christian Freißlich's Passio Christi. Even during his studies, he attracted attention when he rehearsed the baritone role in Krzysztof Penderecki's St. Luke Passion in just two days – as a last-minute replacement for the legendary Andrzej Hiolski. With this effort, he saved the celebratory performance of the work, which marked the musical highlight of the 1000th anniversary of the city of Gdańsk.
Since then, the tenor has maintained an intensive concert schedule. He is particularly passionate about the music of contemporary composers and has participated in numerous premieres – including the operas Antygona by Zbigniew Rudziński, Madame la Pest by Gerhard Stäbler, and Immanuel Kant by Leszek Możdżer. He participates in innovative projects such as the International Stanisław Moniuszko Composition Competition for Micro-Operas – 12 Minutes for Moniuszko.
Wojciech Parchem has collaborated with numerous early music ensembles at home and abroad and has recorded for Polish Radio and various record labels. This collaboration has resulted in the release of several CD albums. His most recent recording, featuring him in the cantata "Lenora" by Anton Reicha, was released with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and received very positive reviews from international critics.
In addition to his artistic activities, Wojciech Parchem has also held senior management positions since 2006, including as Head of the Artistic Production Organization Department at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and as Representative of the Director for the Organization of National and International Events at the Teatr Wielki – the National Opera in Warsaw.
JAKUB STEFEK
Jakub Stefek holds a Doctor of Arts and a Doctor of Economics. He is an adjunct professor at the Chair of Music Theory and Didactics at the Szczecin Academy of Fine Arts, organist at the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue in Berlin, and a board member of the SPOT.ON ART Foundation. He completed his organ studies with distinction at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in 2015 in the class of Prof. Andrzej Chorosiński. As part of the Erasmus program, he also studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz with Prof. Gunther Rost. Since 2017, he has taught at the Szczecin Academy of Fine Arts, including organ, chamber music, liturgical accompaniment, the organization of artistic events, social communication, and music education. In 2021, he received his doctorate in musical arts from the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. One year later, in 2022, he received his doctorate in economics from the University of Economics in Katowice.
In 2018, Jakub Stefek participated in the first concert in the post-war history of Warsaw's synagogues, featuring organ works at the Nożyk Synagogue. In the same year, he initiated the annual "Days of Jewish Music in Szczecin" festival. Since 2020, he has worked continuously with the Jewish Community of Berlin and is the organist of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue—the only synagogue in Germany that continues to cultivate the musical traditions of 19th-century Reform Judaism. With his artistic program "Music of the New Synagogue," he has performed in over a dozen cities in Poland, Germany, and Israel. Thanks to Jakub Stefek's commitment, organ works by Jewish composers are being heard in Poland for the first time since the Second World War.
The topic of his dissertation was "The Work of Jewish Organ Music Composers in Central Europe in the Years 1810–1938." It is the first publication in Polish academic literature devoted to this topic. The work was awarded third prize at the 10th Majer Balaban Competition for the best dissertation on Judaism and Israel, organized by the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. It was also the first musicological work in the history of this competition to receive an award. In 2021, the University of Potsdam released his album "Arno Nadel – Schire Simroh," together with Cantor Isidoro Abramowicz and the choir of the Pestalozzistrasse Synagogue in Berlin. In 2023, the DUX label released the recording "Jakub Weiss – Psalms and Hymns," again featuring Isidoro Abramowicz, along with Barbara Halec and the Chamber Choir of the Szczecin Academy of Arts. Also in 2023, Requiem Records in Warsaw released his solo album “THE ECHO OF THE TEMPLE” with world premieres of works dedicated to him by Adam Porębski, Aleksandra Chmielewska, Anna Maria Huszcza, Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, Dariusz Przybylski and Ignacy Zalewski.