Founded in 2006 by Andrzej Kosendiak, it is an ensemble within the Witold Lutoslawski National Forum for Music, one of the few cultural institutions in Poland that can boast a baroque orchestra playing historical instruments. During each of its artistic seasons at the NFM, the orchestra presents its own concert series, which is always warmly received by the audience. Its repertoire ranges from early Baroque to Romanticism, from chamber compositions to great oratorio works. Since the beginning, the orchestra's artistic director has been the excellent cellist - Jaroslaw Thiel.
Today the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra is counted among the most important Polish ensembles playing historical instruments. Its achievements and high artistic level result in cooperation with the greatest celebrities of the international early music scene. The ensemble has performed under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe, Giovanni Antonini, Andrew Parrott, Masaaki Suzuki, Ivor Bolton, Martin Haselböck, Paul McCreesh, Laurence Cummings, Howard Arman, Andreas Spering, Hans-Christoph Rademann and Christian Curnyn. It also hosts outstanding ensembles, including Orchester Wiener Akademie, Bach Collegium Japan, Collegium Vocale Gent, Cantus Cölln, RIAS Kammerchor, Gli Angeli Genève, and outstanding soloists such as Vivica Genaux, Andreas Scholl, Ian Bostridge, Julia Lezhneva, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Giuliano Carmignola, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Regula Mühlemann, Renata Pokupić, Tim Mead and Aleksandra Kurzak.
The orchestra is invited to prestigious festivals and participates in television broadcasts (including Mezzo TV), radio broadcasts and recording sessions.
The first album by the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra won the Fryderyk statuette in the "Phonographic Debut of the Year" category, and its subsequent recordings were honored with a number of nominations for this award. 2017 saw the release of an album featuring Haydn's Seasons, a collaboration between the orchestra and Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort & Players (nominated for a Gramophone magazine award in the "Best Choral Recording 2017" category, BBC Music Magazine's album of the month in June 2017). 2018 saw the release of a premiere recording of the original version of Moniuszko's Spectres with orchestra (CD Accord), as well as
album 17th-century Sacred Music in Wrocław (Music in the 17th-century churches of Wrocław), recorded with Gli Angeli Genève and Concerto Palatino under the direction of Stephan MacLeod (Claves). The first album won the 2019 Fryderyk Award in the "Album of the Year - Choral, Oratorio and Opera Music" category, and the second won the 2019 International Classical Music Award in the "Baroque Vocal" category.
The next WOB album, this time recorded under the baton of Andrzej Kosendiak, was released in 2019. - It contained works by Marcin Józef Żebrowski (CD Accord) and was nominated for a 2020 Fryderyk Award in the "Album of the Year - oratorio and opera music" category. In 2020, an album was published that included the following recorded under the direction of Jaroslaw Thiel:Elegy in C minor by Karol Kurpinski (premiere recording), II Symphony in C minor "Characteristic" by Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski (first recording on historical instruments) and the overture The Fairy Tale by Stanisław Moniuszko (CD Accord). The album was nominated for the 2022 International Classical Music Award and the 2022 Fryderyk Award in the "Album of the Year - Symphonic Music" category. The latest albums by the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra were released in 2022: Johann David Heinichen - Dresden Vespers (world phonographic premiere; Accent Publishing), recorded with Ensemble Polyharmonique, and Kings in the North recorded with baritone Tomáš Král (nominated in several categories for the Opus Klassik award) - both under the baton of Jaroslaw Thiel.
.
