The programme includes In the Shade of an Unshed Tear by contemporary Polish composer Agata Zubel, Symphony No. 7 by Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with Belarusian cellist Ivan Karizna as the soloist.
Akiki told public broadcaster Polish Radio that he chose Dvořák’s concerto for his first concert with the Polish Radio Orchestra because he wanted to return to the beginning of his musical career.
"I heard the Dvořák Cello Concerto at a young age in Lebanon and it was then that it dawned on me that I would love to become a conductor," he said. "Now, in Warsaw, at the helm of one of Poland’s leading orchestras, I wanted to go back to my roots, as it were, and present to the audience a piece that was a part of my musical path."
Born in 1983, Akiki studied music at the National Conservatory in Beirut and philosophy at Lebanese University before graduating in orchestral and opera conducting from music academies in the Polish cities of Kraków and Wrocław.
Since making his conducting debut with Verdi’s La Traviata at the Wrocław Opera in 2007, he has built a career in Poland and abroad, working with a number of leading orchestras.
The Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw has a history dating back to 1934.
(mk/gs)