Since winning 1st Prize at the 2003 Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition, conductor, composer, and violinist Tomasz Golka has appeared throughout North and South America and Europe to great critical acclaim.

He is currently in his 13th season as Music Director of Riverside Philharmonic, a virtuoso orchestra made up of the top studio musicians in Hollywood, and his second season as Artistic Director of Village Concerts.

Golka: the Conductor

Golka has served as Cover Conductor for Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra. He was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Solti International Conducting Competition and the 2005 Malko International Conducting competition, where he conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and the Danish Radio Symphony, respectively.

As a conducting fellow at the 2006 Tanglewood Music Festival, Golka conducted a historic performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale with legendary composers Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and John Harbison as narrators – a recording that is now available through the Boston Symphony. He has also recorded Ciranda das sete notas by Heitor Villa-Lobos for Melo Records. He was also a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in 2002 and has conducted in masterclasses for such esteemed conductors as David Zinman, Yuri Temirkanov, and Daniel Lewis.

As guest conductor, he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Seattle, Fort Worth, Buffalo, Spoleto Festival USA, Warsaw Philharmonic, Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, as well as numerous orchestras throughout Mexico, including those in Xalapa, Mérida, Queretaro, Guadalajara, Boca del Río, Guanajuato, Puebla, Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Juarez, Monterrey, Saltillo, and the OFUNAM in Mexico City, as well as Puerto Rico Symphony in San Juan and in Concepción (Chile), where he was Principal Guest Conductor. He has collaborated with some of the world’s top soloists, including Susan Graham, Alisa Weilerstein, Gary Hoffman, Inon Barnatan, Miriam Fried, Yuval Yaron, Joseph Swensen, and his pianist-brother Adam Golka. Past positions include Chief Conductor of Colombia National Symphony in Bogotá as well as Music Director of the Lubbock Symphony.

Golka: the composer

A composer of both film and concert works, he was named Composer-in-residence of the 2018 Boulder International Chamber Music Competition, which commissioned his piece “True Green.” He has been commissioned by the El Paso Symphony ("The Transit of Venus" for violin & orchestra) and the Judaic Sacred Music Foundation in Los Angeles ("Afikoman" for clarinet & piano). He composed scores for the films “Shaking Cup” (2019), “The Dare” (2018), and the web series “Pagan Holidays” (2019). His many concert works have been performed by the symphony orchestras of California, Williamsport, Boca del Río, and the Suffolk County Festival Orchestra. These include "Wilbur, the Waltzing Pig," "Celsius 233," "Ukrainian Christmas Overture," and many others. He also orchestrated Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor" and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," for which he composed an additional movement to comment on anti-semitism, and altered the final movement, "The Great Gate of Kiev," to reflect the bombing of the city of Kiev in 2022-23 by the Russian government.

Golka: the violinist

As violinist he has appeared as chamber musician and soloist throughout North America and Europe. Currently he is Artistic Director of Village Concerts, a chamber series in Riverside. As soloist he has appeared in the violin concertos of Sibelius, Wieniawski, and many others. His recent solo appearances include Lake Charles Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of St. Matthew's. Additionally, he served as Concertmaster of Spoleto Festival USA and the Owensboro Symphony.

Golka’s early life

Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1975, Golka’s family emigrated to Mexico in 1980 and to the United States in 1982. His conducting teachers were David Effron (Indiana University), Gustav Meier (Peabody Conservatory), and Bernard Haitink. He has a Certificate in Film Scoring from the prestigious UCLA Extension Film Scoring Program where he was the recipient of the coveted BMI/Jerry Goldsmith Film Scoring Scholarship. He also holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in violin performance from Rice University, where his teachers were Sergiu Luca and Kenneth Goldsmith. His other violin teachers included Tadeusz Wronski and Marina Yashvili. He is fluent in Polish, English, and Spanish.