Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra

Founded in Warsaw in 1935 by Grzegorz Fitelberg, the orchestra lost everything to the war and was re-established in Katowice in March 1945 by Witold Rowicki, with Fitelberg returning as artistic director two years later. Jan Krenz, Antoni Wit and Gabriel Chmura are among those who have led it since; Marin Alsop has been artistic director and chief conductor since 2023. More than two hundred albums carry its name — for EMI, Decca and Naxos, with a Gramophone Record of the Year in 1985 for Szymanowski's Stabat Mater. In 2014 it moved into a hall built for it on the site of a former coal mine: eighteen hundred seats, designed by Tomasz Konior with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota. It has belonged to the European Concert Hall Organisation since 2019.