Dawid Runtz was appointed principal conductor of the Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw in 2017. He is a graduate of the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw’s Department of Symphony and Opera Conducting, where he studied under Maestro Antoni Wit, and while still a student he made his conducting debut with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Runtz also participated in the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna. He has been an assistant conductor to Maestro Jacek Kaspszyk with the Warsaw Philharmonic since 2017, and in 2018 he was invited to audition for the position of Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also conducted at the 22nd Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw.
Runtz won 3rd Prize and the Audience Prize at the 1st International Hong Kong Conducting Competition (2018), 2nd Prize at the 6th Witold Lutosławski Conducting Competition in Bialystok (2016), and 2nd Prize and the Special Prize at the 1st Adam Kopyciński National Competition for Students of Conducting in Wroclaw (2013). In 2014 he was invited to represent Poland at the 1st International Forum of Young Conductors in Zielona Gora.
In 2017 Runtz was one of four conductors invited to take part in a masterclass with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maestro Daniele Gatti. In 2018 he participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival, after which he toured with the Sinfonia Varsovia in Lithuania as part of the 100th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Poland, and in November of the same year he conducted the opening concert of the Krzysztof Penderecki Festival with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra on the occasion of the composer’s 85th birthday.
Runtz participated in PMF 2017 as a member of the Conducting Academy. At PMF 2020 he will conduct the PMF Orchestra on the festival’s Opening Concert.