Roman Rewakowicz – conductor (Poland)

Roman Rewakowicz graduated from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, speciality — Music Theory, later – the Faculty of Conductorship, class of B. Madej. He also studied composing under M. Borkowski. For a long time he was connected with the choral art — Roman Rewakowicz was a conductor of the male choir “Zhuravli” with which he toured in the USA, Canada, Western Europe and Ukraine. He was fond of the early Christian music – Byzantine chants which were performed by his Chamber Choir “Irmos”.

Since 90s Rewakowicz has been a symphony conductor. He has performed with symphony and chamber orchestras in Poland (Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus), Ukraine (National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Ensemble of Soloists “Kyiv Camerata”), Byelorussia (Belarus State Orchestra) and Russia (Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Rostov on Don, Philharmonic in Jaroslav, Voronezh).

Roman Rewakowicz is also very interested in modern music. In 1995 in Lviv together with the composers of the Ukraine Composers’ Union he established the Contemporary Music Festival “Contrasts” where were held the first performances of works by I. Shcherbakov, Y. Lanyuk and E.Sielicki as well as the first performance in Ukraine of the works by W. Lutosławski, K. Penderecki, Z. Krauze, A. Nikodemowicz and A. Pärt. Roman often performed in the contemporary music festivals in Poland and abroad. In 2008 at the Kyiv festival “Musical Premieres of the Season” together with the National Ensemble of Soloists “Kyiv Camerata” he performed premieres of works by such young Ukrainian composers as Bohdana Frolyak, Bohdan Sehin, Mykhailo Shved and Oleksander Shymko which were commissioned by the Polish Institute in Kyiv . This project was repeated, but with the addition of new works by Svitlana Azarova, Maria Oliynyk, Lyubava Sidorenko and Zoltan Almashi, in a concert tour with Polish Orchestra Sinfonia Iuventus under Roman Rewakowicz in Poland and Ukraine in 2009. In the spring of 2010 Roman Rewakowicz, Ukrainian pianist Oleksadra Zaitseva, Polish pianist Jan Krzysztof Broja together with Symphony Orchestras of Ukraine had a number of concerts devoted to the Chopin’s music in Lviv, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Donetsk and Dnipropertrovsk, later in Belarus and Russia. In the autumn 2011, he was a conductor at the concerts of Karol Szymanowski music where performed the Belarusian State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the State choral chapel of G. Shyrma in Minsk, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the National Choir of Ukraine “Dumka” in Kyiv. In 2013 the conductor had a number of concerts with the orchestras of Ukraine and Russia devoted to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great Polish composer Witold Lutosławsky.

For many years Roman Rewakowicz as a conductor and organizer of various musical activities has promoted Ukrainian music in Poland and Polish in Ukraine. Four times he successfully organized the “Days of Ukrainian music in Warsaw” in the most prestigious concert halls in the capital of Poland. Due to him Ukrainian music was performed in various festivals in Poland and Polish music – in Ukraine. Roman Rewakowicz initiated the relations between Polish and Ukrainian musicians in the early 90s.

He is the founder and the chairman of the Pro Musica Viva Foundation which promotes and supports various musical events. Roman Rewakowicz is a member of the Lutosławsky Association and the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. In 2010 he received a scholarship from the Mayor of Warsaw.