Ewa Strusińska

INTRODUCTION

Ewa Strusińska is a Polish-British conductor, regarded as one of the most intriguing artistic personalities of her generation. A finalist and laureate of the prestigious 2nd Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg, she was General Music Director (GMD) of the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater Görlitz-Zittau and Principal Conductor of the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie (2018 – 2024). In the course of her six years’ tenure, her concert programs brought new standards and fresh ideas to this part of Germany. She attracted considerable attention outside the region with broadcasts and portraits in radio, TV and the press.

RECENT AND FUTURE ENGAGEMENTS

In the 2023/2024 season, Ewa Strusińska conducted a New Year’s concert at the Royal Swedish Opera. She led the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra in the ‘Löf plays Haydn’ concert with the program also featuring works by Bacewicz, Górecki, and Mozart. In February 2024 she conducted Jönköping Sinfonietta in the concert ‘Symphonic Shakespeare w. Johan Dalene’ – the program featured contemporary works by Tebogo Monnakgotla and Jonas Valfridsson, as well as classics by Tchaikovsky (Hamlet) and Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet). Her premieres in Görlitz included Bernstein’s Peter Pan in January 2024 and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in March 2024. Ewa Strusińska also conducted a National Day Concert with the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2024.

Her most recent and future engagements include a re-invite to conduct Prokofiev’s Cenerentola with the Royal Swedish Ballet, a re-invitation to the Polish National Opera to conduct Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor, as well as re-invitations to lead the Arctic Philharmonic, Jönköping Sinfonietta, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga and the Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestra. Ewa Strusińska makes her debut with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie – Koblenz, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Landestheater Coburg.

BIOGRAPHY

After having conducted new productions of Meyerbeer‘s Dinorah, Puccini’s Tosca, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Rossini’s Barber of Sevilla and Mozart’s Don Giovanni during the last seasons in Görlitz, in 2022/2023 Ewa Strusińska conducted a new production of Mozart’s Zauberflöte and Friedrich von Flotow’s Rübezahl as well as the revival of the children’s opera Schneewittchen by Marius Felix Lange. Her concert repertoire in recent seasons extends from Beethoven, and Schumann to Schönberg, Brett Dean, and Tan Dun with Wagner, Mahler, and Richard Strauss in between. The 2022/2023 season also saw several debuts: she made her debut with the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm in December (Prokofiev’s ballet Cinderella) and with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in February 2023, at the Theater Chemnitz in January 2023. She made a debut at the Konzerthaus Dortmund in April and in Spain with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga in June 2023. She conducted an outdoor gala concert with the Arctic Philharmonic as well.

As a guest conductor, Ewa Strusińska gave her debut at the Danish Royal Opera in Copenhagen in August 2021. In Poland, she has worked during the last years with orchestras like the National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio Katowice, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and orchestras in Opole, Łódź, Olsztyn, Rzeszów, Gdansk, and Bydgoszcz.

Prior to this, Maestra Strusińska held the position of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra (2013 – 2016), and has been internationally acclaimed as one of the principal architects of the transformation of the orchestra, leading its players to scale new artistic heights amid the sensational acoustics of the multi-award-winning Szczecin Philharmonic Hall.

Ewa Strusińska is the first woman to serve as Assistant Conductor for a British orchestra and the first Polish female conductor to take on such a role abroad. She held this position with the renowned The Hallé – the United Kingdom’s oldest professional orchestra – from 2008 to 2010, working under the direction of Sir Mark Elder, CH, CBE. Her success was widely noted by both Polish and English media, including The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, BBC Music Magazine, and Gramophone.

Internationally, Ewa Strusińska has worked with a range of orchestras across the globe, including BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The Hallé, Bamberger Symphoniker, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Jenaer Philharmonie, Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Gävle Symfoniorkester, Norrlands Opera Symphony Orchestra, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Staatskapelle Halle, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, Orquesta Filharmónica de Gran Canaria, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Sinfonietta, Jönköpings Sinfonietta, Arktisk Filharmoni, Polish National Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Polish National Opera, National Polish Radio Orchestra and Sinfonia Varsovia. She has also collaborated with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.

Maestra Ewa Strusińska advocates for music education among young people and the development of future musicians. After winning the competition for the position of Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in 2006, she began her academic collaboration with this renowned British institution. She regularly works with the Landesjugendorchester Berlin and the South African National Youth Orchestra. She also initiated the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra (ILYO) in Szczecin and has led numerous cross-border youth projects in the tri-border area of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, including the Lausitzer Orchesterakademie “Young Philharmonic.” Increasingly, she is invited to work with international competitions – in 2019, she conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales during the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and chaired the jury of the Aeolus Wind Instrument Competition in Düsseldorf. In 2023, she was a jury member at the Ferenc Fricsay International Conducting Competition.

Ewa Strusińska has built up an extensive operatic and ballet repertoire while working on performances at the Royal Swedish Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, Theater Chemnitz, Theater Magdeburg, Gerhart Hauptmann Theater Görlitz-Zittau, or Polish National Opera in Warsaw.

Her discography includes works by Moniuszko, Chopin, and Lutosławski with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra and pianist Martin Labazevitch, as well as Grażyna Bacewicz’s Symphony No. 4, recorded with Sinfonia Varsovia.

Maestra Ewa Strusińska has been given the title ‘Ambassador of Stalowa Wola’ by her hometown. The accolade recognizes an individual’s achievements in Poland and abroad.