Cracow Philharmonic

Kraków Philharmonic

The Kraków Philharmonic
Location	Kraków, Poland
Type	Concert hall
Genre(s)	Classical
Seating type	Reserved seating
Capacity	693 (main stage)
Opened	1931
Website
Kraków Philharmonic

The Kraków Philharmonic (Polish: Filharmonia Krakowska), is the primary concert hall in Kraków, Poland. It is one of the largest auditoriums in the city. It consists of the main hall for orchestral performances with 693 seats, and two smaller venues, the Golden Hall and the Blue Hall, for chamber music concerts.

The Kraków Philharmonic Concert Hall was designed by architect Józef Pokutynski, with neo-baroque elements inspired by the Brussels' Maison du Peuple. It was sponsored by Prince and Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, and completed 1931. In 1996, a new 50-pipe organ was installed in the hall, replacing an older one by Karl Schuke. It was designed and built by Klais Orgelbau of Bonn, a family-run company specializing in large-scale projects across the globe. The concert hall is home of the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the chamber Capella Cracoviensis.

The first serious attempts to create a resident symphony orchestra in the city go back to the 18th century. The professional team was assembled only in 1909 under the management of composer Feliks Nowowiejski (b. 1877). Since its creation under the foreign Partitions of Poland, and throughout the interwar period, the Kraków Philharmonic maintained also the Polish Professional Musicians Trade Union for performers who worked around the city, including in cafés and in the silent movie theatres. The Union's goal was to protect the welfare of its members as well as the artistic level of their performances. Its main contribution to the local music culture was the organising of symphony concerts. The Philharmonic orchestra performed regularly until the Invasion of Poland in September 1939.