# Mateusz Molęda

Mateusz Krzysztof Maksymilian Molęda (born December 4, 1986) is a German-Polish conductor.

## Life

Molęda was born in Dresden, Germany, into a family of musicians. His parents, Alicja Borkowska-Molęda (born January 27, 1952) and Krzysztof Molęda (born April 6, 1953), are both opera singers and have sung title and leading roles at European opera houses for more than two decades, including the Semper Opera House, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Leipzig Opera, the Royal Danish Theatre and the Prague State Opera. Molęda holds both German and Polish citizenships.

## Education

Molęda began playing the piano at the age of six and studied at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media in the class of Arie Vardi, considered one of the world's most distinguished music pedagogues. He continued his studies also in the area of Early music and Historically informed performance practice with Zvi Meniker, one of the last pupils of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Malcolm Bilson.
In 2021, Molęda obtained his PhD at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków with a thesis on polyphonic compositional techniques in Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2.
Molęda has received important musical impulses from his mentor Marek Janowski, for whom he also worked on personal request as an assistant with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and the Dresden Philharmonic. By sharing his varied experiences, Janowski has profoundly influenced Molęda's artistic development in the spirit of the traditional German conducting school. Further musical inspiration came from his work with and as a cover conductor for Teodor Currentzis and the SWR Symphonieorchester, which he accompanied on several European tours.
Molęda has been a recipient of scholarships from the German Music Council, the German Society for the Exploitation of Ancillary Copyrights, the Theodor Rogler Foundation, the Anna Ruths Foundation, the Robert Richard Jaudes Foundation and the International Forum for Culture and Economy Dresden.

## Competitions

In October 2023, Molęda won the 1st Prize and the Special Prize of the Orchestra by secret and from the jury's verdict independent vote of the orchestra musicians at the 3rd International Sergei Kussewitzky Conducting Competition.

## Collaboration with orchestras

Molęda conducted an orchestra for the first time at the age of nineteen. He has guest conducted renowned orchestras in more than ten countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Albania, South Korea, Peru, South Africa and Canada. He has worked among others with the London Mozart Players, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Nuremberg Symphony, the Jena Philharmonic, the Heidelberg Philharmonic, the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Carl Nielsen Academy Orchestra, the Aalborg Symfoniorkester, the Aarhus Symfoniorkester, the Odense Symfoniorkester, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

## Notable concerts

Molęda attracted attention throughout Germany with his performance of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy at the German government's celebration of the German Unity Day on October 3, 2007. The concert was broadcast live by ZDF and was seen by more than eight million viewers.
On June 10, 2016, Molęda conducted a German-Polish friendship concert on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the city of Koszalin, during which orchestra musicians of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and the Koszalin Philharmonic Orchestra shared the stage. The Symphonic Pictures Op. 19 by Karl Adolf Lorenz were premiered during this concert. A TV documentary about this event, "Die doppelte Heimat", was made for Bavarian television.
On November 8, 2018, Molęda conducted the world premiere of Danish composer Anders Koppel's Concerto for Hammond Organ, the first ever composition of this genre.

## Teaching activities

Molęda holds since 2022 a teaching position at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts.

## Activity as lecturer

In addition to his work as a conductor, Molęda gives lectures throughout Germany on the topic of "United in Diversity - How Music Strengthens the Bonds Between Europeans," including at the Forum Heiligenberg of the Schloss Heiligenberg Seeheim-Jugenheim Foundation and the Hessian State Center for Political Education in Wiesbaden.

## TV and radio recordings

Numerous radio and television recordings are available, including for BR Klassik, MDR Kultur, DR 2, KBS, BR Fernsehen, MDR Fernsehen, MBC and the streaming platform Vialma.

## CD releases (selection)

* 2010: Flügelschwingen (piano works by Scarlatti, Mozart, Schumann and Chopin)

## Personal life

Molęda lives in Felm, in the north of Germany. He speaks fluent German, Polish, English, French, and Russian. He is an avid golfer and has been actively involved in team sports and as a board member of the Dresden Elbflorenz Golf Club and the Burgwedel Golf Club.