Biography
Lilianna Krych is a conductor specialising in opera and contemporary music. She is fascinated by the connections between music, theatre and the visual arts, and by the expressive possibilities of voice, body and movement. She treats music and theatre as tools for analysing and commenting on reality. She is interested both in interpreting the existing repertoire and in searching for new forms of music theatre, and readily commits to projects whose artistic concepts she co-creates from the very beginning.
Her repertoire gives a special place to the operas of Benjamin Britten (The Turn of the Screw, The Rape of Lucretia) and Salvatore Sciarrino (Luci mie traditrici, Superflumina, Aspern). She has also conducted premieres of contemporary stage works, including Tomasz Prasqual’s only Love can break your Heart, Karol Nepelski’s Solaris, Wojciech Błażejczyk’s Bunker. Fake Opera, D’ARC and Mahagonny. Afterparty by Kurt Weill and Katarzyna Głowicka. She works with opera and theatre directors, among them Krystian Lada (D’ARC and Mahagonny. Afterparty), as well as with Song of the Goat Theatre and Julianna Bloodgood’s international creative group. She has conducted Polish symphony orchestras and ensembles specialising in new music. From 2013 to 2018 she worked as an assistant conductor at Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera.
Since 2017 she has been a member of Hashtag Ensemble, working as a conductor and as part of its creative group. Since 2023 she has co-directed Hashtag Lab – Poland’s first permanent venue for contemporary music – co-creating its artistic programme and initiating new projects. In 2022 she founded Match Match Ensemble, a professional vocal ensemble devoted to contemporary music and to lesser-known historical repertoire, including the music of Reform synagogues. Work with vocal ensembles, music education and independent artistic initiatives remain an important part of her activity.
She graduated in symphonic and opera conducting (class of Prof. Marek Pijarowski) and in music theory from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and in Romance philology from the University of Warsaw. From 2023 to 2026 she studied at the Doctoral School of the Academy of Music in Łódź, researching the role of the conductor in contemporary opera.
Nominated for the Polityka Passport award in 2022; a Britten Pears Young Artist (2023/2024). With Hashtag Ensemble she has received the Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej award (2024), the ZAiKS award (2025) and the Polish Composers’ Union Award (2026). In 2026 she was awarded the honorary badge “Meritorious for Polish Culture”.
