National Philharmonic

The Warsaw National Philharmonic is Poland's leading classical concert hall and home of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. It opened in 1901 with a gala concert that featured Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The original neo-Renaissance hall on Plac Jablonowskich was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in 1939; the current austere socialist-modern building, designed by Eugeniusz Szparkowski and Henryk Bialobrzeski, opened on the same site in 1955. Since 1927 the Philharmonic has hosted the International Chopin Piano Competition every five years, an event that launched the careers of Krystian Zimerman, Cho Seong-Jin and others. The main hall seats around 1.080, the chamber hall about 400, and the location on ulica Jasna puts it within an easy walk of Marszalkowska and Rondo Dmowskiego.