A vocal ensemble, chamber choir and orchestra specialising in music from Renaissance polyphony to early Romantic opera, performed on period instruments and in accordance with historical performance practices. The ensemble is a regular guest at many of Europe’s leading festivals and concert halls, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bachfest Leipzig, SWR Festspiele Schwetzingen, Händel Festspiele Halle, Haydn Festspiele Brühl, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, Theater an der Wien, NOSPR Katowice and the Szczecin Philharmonic. Guest artists have included Evelino Pidó, Christophe Rousset, Alessandro Moccia, Giuliano Carmignola, Paul Goodwin, Andrew Parrott and Paul McCreesh.
Among CC’s notable achievements are the first performances in Poland of Wagner’s works on period instruments (with Waltraud Meier), as well as acclaimed recordings for major labels: Pergolesi’s and Porpora’s operas for Decca, Moniuszko’s Halka for Sony Classical, and Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater with Jakub Józef Orliński for Erato – the latter awarded the prestigious Opus Klassik prize.
In May 2018 the ensemble embarked on Haydn – The Complete Symphonies, an ambitious project to perform all of Haydn’s symphonies in concert. One of CC’s greatest triumphs came on 27 August 2016 in Kraków, when they gave a complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies in a single day on period instruments, broadcast live on radio. The performance brought together 90 instrumentalists, 44 singers and 5 conductors from 14 countries.
Since 2022, Capella Cracoviensis has been the main organiser of the Opera Rara Kraków Festival.
Founded in 1970 on the initiative of Jerzy Katlewicz, then director of the Kraków Philharmonic, who entrusted Stanisław Gałoński with the creation of an ensemble specialising in early music, CC has been directed since 2008 by Jan Tomasz Adamus as both General and Artistic Director.