The Choral Academy is a programme designed to develop children’s and young people’s choirs at all stages of education: from primary school to professional choral training. The aim of the project is to spread the idea of singing through founding new school choirs and training those that already exist. This is done through tuition, financing and elaborating the curriculum of choral education as well as through establishing professional networks for choirmasters. The programme is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Jan Krutul completed his education at Fryderyk Chopin University of Music under the direction of Violetta Bielecka, Paweł Łukaszewski and Tomasz Bugaja. He later took part in the Postgraduate Choirmasters' program at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. Krutul has received both the scholarship of the Mayor of Białystok and the Pro Polonia scholarship for achievements in the field of choral conducting and composition. He was also honoured with the title of Student Nobel in 2012 and 2014.
Mr Krutul previously collaborated with the National Forum of Music, in October of 2016, leading the 10th Anniversary concert of Singing Poland. He has also collaborated with the Podlasie Opera, Philharmonic Choir, and the Musica Sacra Warsaw-Prague Cathedral Choir. Since August 2016, he has been the conductor and manager of the Choir of the Center for Thought of John Paul II in Warsaw. In 2017, his ensemble received 1st Prize at the Music Everywhere Competition in Gdańsk. Jan Krutul is a member of the Phonographic Academy.
Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny graduated from the University of Wrocław in 2000 with a degree in biology. That year, she founded the Kameralny Chór Akademii Medycznej (Medici Cantantes Choir at the Medical University of Wrocław). In 2004, she received a diploma from the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, where she studied Music Education and was awarded a diploma in 2005 from the Vocal Department. During this time, she was honoured with the first prize in the National Contest for Choir Conductors. In 2006, she completed the Postgraduate Voice Production and Training Programme at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. Since June 2006, Franków-Żelazny has been the artistic director of the National Forum of Music Choir. In 2008, she was awarded a special prize for conductors from the 39th Legnica Cantat National Choir Contest. Franków-Żelazny became the head of Polish National Youth Choir, which she also founded, in 2013. She completed course work at the Academy of Culture Leaders at the Economic University of Kraków, in 2014 and was distinguished with the Gloria Artis Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture. The following January, she was named the programme director of the Choral Academy of the National Forum of Music. In 2016, Franków-Żelazny was a music curator for the year that Wrocław served as the European Capital of Culture. The album DE PROFUNDIS – Polish Psalms of the 20th and 21st Century with the NMF Choir under her direction was awarded the Fryderyk prize for the best choral, oratorio and orchestra music, 2017. She currently works as an Associate Professor at the Academy of Music in Wrocław.
Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator
