Professor Jerzy Knetig

Before he began to study music, Jerzy Knetig stud­ied engi­neer­ing at the War­saw Poly­tech­nic where he grad­u­ated in 1973. He then went on to study 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 Mieczysław Salecki and then Stanisława Zawadzka. He fin­ished the Acad­emy of Music in Cra­cow, where he stud­ied under Pro­fes­sor Helena Łazarska, with hon­ours. In 1983/84 obtained a year’s grant from the Aus­trian gov­ern­ment and went to the Col­lege of Music in Vienna to improve his skills fur­ther 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 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 and 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.

Recently Jerzy Knetig took 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 operas (mostly Mozart), about 110 ora­tory parts (includ­ing both of Bach’s Pas­sions) and over 300 songs. He has also made numer­ous radio and record record­ings includ­ing the archival record­ing of all of Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s songs. 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 also began 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 head of the Chair of Vocal Stud­ies at the FCAM in 2005–2008. In 2008 he was elected dean of the Depart­ment of Vocal Studies.