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HISTORY The Grzegorz Fitelberg Competition for conductors is one of three most important international Polish performance competitions, next to the F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and the H. Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań. It is held in Katowice - the capital of the Upper Silesia, an industrial region of Poland. Grzegorz Fitelberg belonged to the most distinguished Polish conductors. The initiator and the first organizer of the International Competition for Conductors in Katowice was a distinguished Polish conductor, Karol Stryja (1915-1998) the last student of Grzegorz Fitelberg, the director of the National Silesian Philharmonic of many years' standing. Preceded by two national competition, the first Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors took place in 1979, on the hundredth birthday of its patron. Since then the Competition has been held every four years, in three or four stages. During the previous competitions, participants of the 1st stage had the Symphonic Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Katowice at their disposal. Starting from the 2nd stage, participants conducted the orchestra of the Silesian Philharmonic. Since 2003 participants have conducted only the Philharmonic orchestra. The repertoire (overtures, symphonies, symphonic poems, concertos) consists of the oeuvres of the Vienna classicism, romanticism and the 20th century music, including oeuvres by Polish composers. The selection of oeuvres from the repertoire determined in the regulations takes place by way of drawing 20 minutes prior to the performance. So far the money prizes presented to the winners were accompanied with medals. Starting from 2007 and the 8th competition, three batons shall be presented: a Golden Baton, a Silver Baton and a Bronze Baton. The winners of gold medals in previous competitions:
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