“When I sing, I look for a true Baroque magic,” says the guest of the latest concert held as part of the ICE Classic cycle. Let him enchant you!
The voice of an angel, a fiendish technique and an irresistible charm: the artist captivates audiences the world over, from Los Angeles to Tokyo. He performs with leading ensembles specialising in early music: Ensemble Matheus, Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Le Concert d’Astrée, L’Arpeggiata, Europa Galante, I Barrochisti, Freiburger Barockorchester, Venice Baroque Orchestra… He has won numerous prizes such as the Victoires de la musique classique, MIDEM Classical Awards and Echo Klassik Awards. His repertoire includes around thirty opera roles and he has recorded close to forty CDs and DVDs. And more privately? He enjoys cooking and travelling, he claims to be lazy, and he relaxes before performances by ironing his shirts. His fame even reaches beyond our planet: he has had an asteroid named after him!
And so...? The star of the last concert held as part of this year’s ICE Classic cycle (3 July) is the French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky. The artist has visited Kraków several times, performing among the others at the Misteria Paschalia and Opera Rara festivals; this time he is joined by the Ensemble Artaserse of which he is a co-founder. The programme of the concert at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre consists of arias and sinfonias from operas by Francesco Cavalli – pupil and one of the most important successors of Monteverdi – from their latest album Ombra mai fu.
Unfortunately, we also have bad news: tickets sold out in the blink of an eye. This is testament to the popularity of Jaroussky and the ICE Classic cycle which brings some of the finest artists working today to Kraków. If you aren’t one of the lucky individuals who have managed to get their hands on a ticket, do not fear! The star-studded cycle returns to the Krzysztof Penderecki Hall next year with more acclaimed performers and more powerful emotions. (Barbara Skowrońska)

ICE Classic is a unique series of classical music concerts, which induced Krakow to the group of important music stages in Europe. Thanks to the concert space offered by the ICE Kraków Congress Centre, the capital of the Małopolska region has at its disposal a concert venue accommodating nearly 2,000 people, with excellent technical facilities and high acoustic performance.
The ICE Classic brand is consistently built upon the performances of the greatest stars of classical music. Krakow has already hosted some of the most outstanding opera soloists of our times: Aleksandra Kurzak, Edita Gruberová, Diana Damrau and Elīna Garanča, exquisite instrumentalists: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Ivo Pogorelić and Piotr Anderszewski, the outstanding conductor Kent Nagano with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the extraordinary composer Max Richter.