Biography
Born on March 24, 1976, in Głubczyce, Poland, Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny ranks among the nation’s foremost choral conductors and currently serves as artistic director of the Polish National Youth Choir. For many years she also led the NFM Choir in Wrocław and has earned recognition as a dedicated educator.
She received her initial training at the State Primary Music School in Głubczyce, where piano and flute formed her principal studies, then continued flute at the State Secondary Music School in Wrocław. While singing in a choir at the secondary school, she experienced a decisive shift toward conducting during her membership in In terra pax, a choral academy uniting singers from Poland, Germany, and France, between 1993 and 1999. She began there as a chorister, advanced to section coach, and thereby observed leading international conductors at close range. Between 1996 and 2000 she also belonged to the Academic Choir of the Wrocław University of Technology, performing as soloist, serving as voice tutor and assistant conductor, and ultimately assuming the role of conductor.
Although she completed a biology degree at the University of Wrocław in 2000, her commitment to music remained undiminished. That same year she began teaching biology at School Complex No. 1 in Wrocław and founded the Con Amore Youth Choir. In addition, she established the Kameralny Chór Akademii Medycznej, known in English as the Chamber Choir of the Medical University of Wrocław, and directed it until 2015. Eager to deepen her conducting skills, she took part in master classes during the early 2000s, several held at the Academy of Music in Wrocław with Halina Bobrowicz and Ewa Czermak, and completed Postgraduate Choirmaster Studies in Bydgoszcz in 2006.
In 2006 she became director of the Philharmonic Choir of Wrocław, an ensemble later renamed the Choir of the National Forum of Music, or NFM Choir, a post she held until 2021. Under her leadership the choir earned international awards and issued several recordings, among them Words Painted with Sounds in 2012. She has appeared as guest conductor with the Silesian Philharmonic Choir, the Gabrieli Consort, and the Bamberger Symphoniker Choir, performing in such halls as the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms, and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Franków-Żelazny founded the Polish National Youth Choir in 2012 and continues to serve as its artistic director. She has remained active with the NFM Choir as well, conducting its 2023 recording of Bob Chilcott’s Canticles of Light for the Signum Classics label.
She received her initial training at the State Primary Music School in Głubczyce, where piano and flute formed her principal studies, then continued flute at the State Secondary Music School in Wrocław. While singing in a choir at the secondary school, she experienced a decisive shift toward conducting during her membership in In terra pax, a choral academy uniting singers from Poland, Germany, and France, between 1993 and 1999. She began there as a chorister, advanced to section coach, and thereby observed leading international conductors at close range. Between 1996 and 2000 she also belonged to the Academic Choir of the Wrocław University of Technology, performing as soloist, serving as voice tutor and assistant conductor, and ultimately assuming the role of conductor.
Although she completed a biology degree at the University of Wrocław in 2000, her commitment to music remained undiminished. That same year she began teaching biology at School Complex No. 1 in Wrocław and founded the Con Amore Youth Choir. In addition, she established the Kameralny Chór Akademii Medycznej, known in English as the Chamber Choir of the Medical University of Wrocław, and directed it until 2015. Eager to deepen her conducting skills, she took part in master classes during the early 2000s, several held at the Academy of Music in Wrocław with Halina Bobrowicz and Ewa Czermak, and completed Postgraduate Choirmaster Studies in Bydgoszcz in 2006.
In 2006 she became director of the Philharmonic Choir of Wrocław, an ensemble later renamed the Choir of the National Forum of Music, or NFM Choir, a post she held until 2021. Under her leadership the choir earned international awards and issued several recordings, among them Words Painted with Sounds in 2012. She has appeared as guest conductor with the Silesian Philharmonic Choir, the Gabrieli Consort, and the Bamberger Symphoniker Choir, performing in such halls as the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms, and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Franków-Żelazny founded the Polish National Youth Choir in 2012 and continues to serve as its artistic director. She has remained active with the NFM Choir as well, conducting its 2023 recording of Bob Chilcott’s Canticles of Light for the Signum Classics label.
Albums
