During the past five decades, Wit served for 11 years as music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra, after previously holding the same post with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, southern Poland, for 17 years.
Wit studied conducting and composition at the State Higher School of Music in his native southern city of Kraków. He studied conducting with Henryk Czyż and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki. He continued his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
He also graduated from the law department of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
Wit’s international career took off after he won second prize at the Herbert von Karajan International Competition in Berlin in 1971.
Over the years, he has performed in the most important music centres in Europe as well as the Americas and the Middle and Far East.
He has conducted famous orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, and the NHK Tokyo.
His discography includes more than 200 CDs on labels such as EMI, CBS, Decca, Polskie Nagrania, DUX, CD Accord and Naxos. They have sold almost 5 million copies.
Wit’s honours include a Grammy Award for the recording of a selection of works by Krzysztof Penderecki with the Warsaw Philharmonic, as well as six Grammy nominations for his recordings of Polish 20th-century music.
He also received the prestigious Cannes Classical Award for the Naxos recording of Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie and the Diamond Baton Polish Radio Award for outstanding artistic achievements and the promotion of Polish music at home and abroad.
In the coming weeks, Wit is scheduled to conduct special jubilee concerts in the Polish cities of Poznań, Łódź and Warsaw.
(mk/gs)