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A unique symphonic concert combining Spanish, Italian and Polish works will take place at the Henryk Wieniawski Lublin Philharmonic on 10 January 2020 at 7.00 p.m. The Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Tomasz Bugaj will perform along with exceptional violinists: Roman Lasocki and Marta Gębska.

The concert will begin with the legendary Bolero by Maurice Ravel – a one-movement orchestral piece based on the Spanish dance, originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian actress and dancer Ida Rubinstein. Capriccio Italien by Pyotr Tchaikovsky was inspired by the composer's trip to Italy. The work opens with a brief bugle call and is filled with references to the melodies heard by Tchaikovsky during the carnival in Florence.

The second part of the concert will present works by Polish composers. We will listen to Grażyna Bacewicz's last concert work – Violin Concerto No. 7 – which has widely and comprehensively exploited the technical and sounding possibilities of the violin. The evening will culminate with Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor. The work was dedicated to the King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

More information at: http://www.filharmonialubelska.pl/pl,0,s257,d709,koncert_symfoniczny_karnawal_w_rytmie_bolera.html 

As part of the jubilee series "Vivat Academia!" The Institution for the Promotion and Dissemination of Music "Silesia" invites you to an extraordinary meeting with Katarzyna Pleśniak, the chancellor of the oldest music university in Silesia since 2008. The concert will take place on 9 January 2020 at 6.00 p.m. in the Archdiocese Museum in Katowice (ul. Wita Stwosza 16) as part of the "Vivat Academia" anniversary cycle.

Katarzyna Pleśniak received, among others, the Distinguished Cultural Activist badge awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Golden Laurel of Skills and Competence, "Narcissus" – an award granted to women distinguished by their professional achievements and outstanding social activists and the Pearl of Gentle Women in the field of "Culture, art, passion". The meeting will be led by Violetta Rotter-Kozera and will be accompanied by music. Selected works will be performed by Ms. Chancellor herself, who is a graduate of the Katowice Academy of Music: in 1999 she graduated from the solo singing class of prof. Stanisława Marciniak-Gowarzewska.

The concert will also feature pianists working the Katowice Academy of Music: Paweł Tomaszewski, the dean of the Faculty of Jazz and Popular Music, and Grzegorz Biegas, professor at the Department of Chamber Music, whose main interests revolve around vocal literature.

Free entrance cards are available at the IPiUM Silesia office (2/20 Sejmu Śląskiego Square) or by phone (32) 219 33 44 ext. 21.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://www.silesia.art.pl/strona-glowna/koncerty/546_vivat-academia-koncert-inbspspotkanie-z-kanclerz-am-katarzyna-plesniak 

The 10th edition of th New Music Days will take place in Gdańsk on 4-12 January 2020. The programme of the festival proves that every music genre can go beyond beaten paths, inspire and surprise, with the key being experiment and risk.

The idea behind the anniversary edition is to combine electronics with multicultural inspirations, contemporary music and its diverse instruments with fiery avant-garde and minimalism. The festival will feature Kevin Richard Martin, Innercity Ensemble, Daniel Blumberg, Seymour Wright, and Joshua Sabin.

The premiere of a multimedia performance commissioned by the festival, Eye and Ear. Narcissus and Echo, will take place on 4 and 5 January and will be presented by pianist Małgorzata Walentynowicz, and visual artist working in the field of photography, new media, installations and performance, Dorota Walentynowicz. The Tri-City ensemble LowBow, composed of double bassist Maciej Sadowski and cellist Małgorzata Znarowska, will perform on 9 January, presenting works from the album murmurs, which stylistically refers to the folklore of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. The famous composer, arranger and performer Wim Mertens will set off on a tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his musical career. On 11 January, he will perform a special solo programme presenting his works from the years 1980–2020.

Kwartludium and Wim Mertens, participants of the first edition of the festival, will perform during the final concert, which will take place on 12 January. The programme will include works by Piotr Peszat, Ivo Nilsson, Krzysztof Wołek, Wojciech Blażejczyk and Lithuanian composer Giedrė Pauliukevičiūtė.

The organizer of the New Music Days festival is Club Żak, and the festival is subsidised by the City of Gdańsk.

Full programme available at: https://klubzak.com.pl/koncerty.html 

The New World, the main theme of the symphonic concert on 7 January 2020 at 7 p.m. in the National Forum of Music, can be understood in two ways. On the one hand, it means the works of European composers written in the United States, on the other – the pre-war debut of one of the most important artists of the last century, whose works opened previously non-existent worlds of sounds.

The Symphonic Variations, an early work by Witold Lutosławski, performed for the first time in 1938, is such a pioneering work. They were supposed to be the artist’s diploma, however, his composition teacher found them too radical, so Lutosławski presented another piece. The Variations officially debuted in the artistic circles of pre-war Poland. This short work already shows in the bud the most important elements of the composer's craft: on the one hand, shimmering colors, on the other – a construction planned down to the smallest detail.

Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 was created at the end of the composer's life, during his stay in the United States. The work was written as a birthday present for the composer’s wife pianist Ditta Pásztory-Bartók. It is light in the mood, sometimes even joyful, in the middle it also contains fragments referred to as “music of the night”, i.e. episodes inspired by sounds made by the composer's favorite insects. Piotr Anderszewski, one of the most respected interpreters of his work, will be the soloist in the Bartók piece.

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 “From the New World” by Antonín Dvořák was also written in the United States. At that time, the composer was the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, so he decided to draw inspiration from negro spirituals and native American music. However, he did not quote any original American melodies, and developed the whole intricately using European composing techniques. The premiere of this work full of heroic mood was one of the composer's greatest triumphs ever, and the symphony has enjoyed unflagging popularity ever since.

More information at: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/