The Polish Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1972, originally as an orchestra for opera. Under the leadership of Jerzy Maksymiuk it underwent such rapid artistic development that soon it left the orchestra pit and was able to dedicate itself exclusively to the performance of concert music. The orchestra became independent. Years of work with talented young musicians, under a conductor who was just as young, and the orchestra’s manager Franciszek Wybraƒczyk, brought impressive results, and the orchestra quickly won renown as one of the most interesting chamber ensembles. The orchestra’s first appearance abroad in 1978 began a new period in its career and concert tours in Tokyo, New York, London and Rome, among others, have been impressively successful. Soloists with the orchestra have included James Galway, Henryk Szeryng, Kiri Te Kanawa, Gideon Kremer, Yehudi Menuhin, Martha Argerich, and among its conductors have been Jerzy Maksymiuk, Charles Dutoit, Yehudi Menuhin, Leopold Hager, Hans Graf, and Mstislav Rostropovich. The Polish Chamber Orchestra has made numerous recordings for record companies, radio and television. It has also recorded a videocassette of a concert dedicated to Pope John Paul II. The Polish Chamber Orchestra holds such awards as Warsaw Autumn’s Orpheus, and has also received prestigious prizes at the Poznaƒ Spring festival, as well as the Vienna Flötenuhr for its recordings of Mozart, and others. Without a permanent conductor, it invited the legendary violinist Nigel Kennedy to take over as Artistic Director in March 2002. Since 1982 the Polish Chamber Orchestra has been part of the Studio Art Centre in Warsaw.