Prof. Jerzy Knetig / Poland

Prof. Jerzy Knetig had studied engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic where he graduated in 1973. Then he went on studying solo singing under Eugenia Szaniawska at the Secondary Music School in Warsaw where he graduated with honours in 1977. That same year he began to take private singing lessons from Mieczyslaw Salecki and then Stanislawa Zawadzka. He finished the Academy of Music in Cracow with honours where he studied under Professor Helena Lazarska. In 1983/84 obtained a grant of one year from the Austrian government and went to the College of Music in Vienna to improve his skills under Kurt Egniluz. Jerzy Knetig has worked with the National Philharmonic in Warsaw since 1981 and the Cracow Opera since 1982. He joined the Warsaw Chamber Opera as a soloist in 1986 and he has travelled all over Europe with it. He has sung at many festivals, e.g., Wratislavia Cantans, Warsaw Autumn, Berliner Festwochen, Caryntiche Sommer, Salzburger Festspiele, The European Music Festival in Berlin and Tokyo, and the Monreale Oratory Music Festival in Palermo. He has been invited to sing in operas and oratory concerts in many countries in Europe, Japan (where he did an opera tour singing Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" in November and December 1999) and Israel. He has sung at the La Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper and the Theater an der Wien. Jerzy Knetig has recently taken part in the official inauguration concert of the "Krzysztof Penderecki year" at the Cracow Philharmonic, conducted by Jan Krentz (Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Jerzy Knetig's repertory includes several dozen of operas (mostly Mozart), about 110 oratory parts (including both of Bach's Passions) and over 300 songs. He has also made numerous radio and disc recordings( including the archival recording of all the songs of Ignacy Jan Paderewski). In 1991 Jerzy Knetig began to teach at the Warsaw University of Music where he has his own solo singing class. He has been a professor since 1999. His students have won many awards at Polish national vocal competitions. In 1996 Jerzy Knetig has also begun to teach singing at the Secondary Music School in Warsaw. He and his pupils produced Paisiello's full-scale opera Il due Contesse in April 1999. He was a head of the Chair of Vocal Studies at the FCAM in 2005-2008. In 2008 he was elected a dean of the Department of Vocal Studies.