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Ostróda | 2nd Arena Fesitval Film & Music

The 2nd "Arena Film & Music" will take place on June 29 – July 1, 2018 in Ostróda.

"Arena Festival Film & Music" was initiated in 2017 in response to the huge audience interest in film music. It is the youngest Polish festival of film music, which at the same time perfectly fit the demand for this genre of music and the character of the show. The Strategic Partner of the Festival is the the Expo Mazury Exhibition and Conference Centre, where concerts and some accompanying events will take place. The organizers of the Festival are two cultural institutions of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship: The Feliks Nowowiejski Warmian-Mazurian Philharmonic and the Center for Education and Cultural Initiatives in Olsztyn. The artistic director of the festival and its originator is Piotr Sułkowski – conductor, general and artistic director of the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic.

The special guests of the festival are: Agnieszka Holland – director and screenwriter, Michał Lorenc – composer, Jerzy Satanowski – composer, arranger, director of musical performances, Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz – composer, film music producer. During this year's Festival there will be three concerts: "Film songs", "Family Movies Hits" and "World Film Music". The Symphony Orchestra of the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic conducted by Piotr Sułkowski will present music by Krzesimir Dębski (With Fire and Sword), Michał Lorenc (Bandyta), Henryk Kuźniak (Vabank) and Wojciech Kilar (Leper, The Shadow Line, The Promised Land, The Ninth Gate and Pan Tadeusz).

Detailed programme available at: http://www.arenafestival.pl

Wrocław | 22nd Chamber Music Festival "Arsenal Nights"

Wratislavia Chamber Orchestra and its artistic director Jan Stanienda invite you to the Chamber Music Festival „Arsenal Nights”. This year the audience will be invited to open air concerts in the courtyard of the antique Arsenal in Wrocław from 29 June to 8 July 2018.

This will be a year of many highlights, both in terms of repertoire, and the performers. On the festival’s inauguration, the acknowledged German pianist Hinrich Alpers will present the very interesting although rarely played chamber version of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos (Concertos in G Major and E-flat Major). The finale of the Arsenal Nights on July 8th will be spiced with a number of Antonio Vivaldi’s concertos for various sets of instruments. On July 4th, a set of six remarkable sonatas by Gioacchino Rossini, which he wrote when he was still a child, long before he became the master of Italian opera and produced such masterpieces as The Barber of Seville.

The singers Paulina Horajska and Gabriela Gołaszewska accompanied by the pianist Krzysztof Trzaskowski will appear with songs and arias of Mozart, Rossini, Puccini, Chopin, Moniuszko, and others. The violinist Roksana Kwaśnikowska together with the pianist Joanna Kacperek will play a fine selection of chamber compositions, including the Kreutzer Sonata by Beethoven, and the piece Dryads and Pan of the chamber series Mythes by Karol Szymanowski.

It has become the tradition of the Arsenal Nights to have also special concerts dedicated to lighter repertoire stepping out of the circle of chamber music. These events are hosted by outstanding pop singers, actors, and popular music bands. On 6 July we will welcome Grzegorz Turnau and Dorota Miśkiewicz with a group of musicians in the artistic programme called The Tender Rule. This popular and liked singer and equally famed lady vocalist have started their musical partnership over ten years ago. We will listen to several of their joint songs, and this concert will be certainly one of the greatest attractions of this year’s Festival.

All performances start at 8 p.m.

Detailed programme at: http://www.wieczorywarsenale.pl/

Warsaw | Lutosławski, unism, minimalism

Witold Lutosławski Society invites you on June 28, 2018 at 7.00 pm for the next concert within the project "New Music Stage – a series of concerts at Nowy Teatr".

During the June concert, Chain Ensemble will perform works by Witold Lutosławski – Sacher Variation, Bukoliki, Zygmunt Krauze – Piano Quintet, Elżbieta Sikora – String Sextet, and John Adams – Shaker Loops.

More information at: http://www.nowyteatr.org/pl

Warsaw | Concert of Laureates of the 12th Competition of 20th and 21st Century Music for Young Performers

Polish Radio Programme 2 and Polish Society for Contemporary Music invite you on June 27, 2018 at 7.30 pm to the Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of Polish Radio for the concert of laureats of the 12th Competition of 20th and 21st Century Music for Young Performers.

The competition has been organized since 1992 by the Polish Society for Contemporary Music. Its subject is the performace of music written after 1920. The competition presents a wide range of styles of music of the twentieth and twenty-first century: from neoclassical music, through dodecaphony, punctualism, minimalism, to musical theater. The competition is open to students of 2nd degree music schools and music academies. This year's jury was composed of: Agata Kielar-Dlugosz, Dariusz Przybylski and Maciej Żółtowski.

During the Winners' Concert we will hear: Tamara Kurkiewicz (drums), Jakub Muras, Mateusz Warzecha, Karol Mastalerz (saxophone), Grzegorz Bafeltowski (cello), Monika Łopuszyńska (vocals), Dawid Glowacki (clarinet), Maria Sterczyńska, Aleksander Płaczek, Igor Torbicki ( piano). Musicians will perform, among others, Speedcore for multipercussion and electronics by Sławomir Wojciechowski, Sonata in one movement for cello and piano by Jerzy Bauer, Typologis du Regard for piano and tape by Pierre Jodłowski, and Scene 6 "Mirror" – version for soprano, piano and tape from the opera Anonymous Rafał Ryterski.

Tickets are available online at http://sklep.polskieradio.pl/ and at the cash desk before the concert.

Detailed programme is available on the website of PTMW.

Wrocław | "Let’s Play Music" – final concert of the Choral Academy

The final concert of the Choral Academy will take place on June 24, 2018 at 4 pm in the National Forum of Music in Wrocław. It will feature Jan Krutul's suite for children's choir "Let's Play Music".

The Choral Academy is a programme designed to develop children’s and young people’s choirs at all stages of education: from primary school to professional choral training. The aim of the project is to spread the idea of singing through founding new school choirs and training those that already exist. This is done through tuition, financing and elaborating the curriculum of choral education as well as through establishing professional networks for choirmasters. The programme is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Additional information at: http://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl

Szczecin | Bomsori Kim and Rafał Blechacz

On June 24, 2018 at 5.00 pm at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin, the stars of the biggest Polish music competitions – South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Rafał Blechacz – will perform Sonata, Op. 9 by Karol Szymanowski.

The concert will be a great meeting of two musical personalities: the winner of the second prize at the 15th International Violin Competition in Poznań (2016) and the triumphant of the 15th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. The programme will include works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy and Karol Szymanowski.

Information on tickets at: http://filharmonia.szczecin.pl

Katowice | „Silesia a cappella”

"Silesia a cappella" is a cycle of four choral music concerts organized by the Institution for the Promotion and Disseminatio of Music "Silesia". The concerts will take place between June 24 – August 26, 2018 in Katowice.

Among the performers we will find: Cracow Singers (June 24), Chamber Choir 441 Hz (June 30), Cantores Minores Wratislavienses (August 18), and Contento Core vocal group (August 26). In reference to the title of the project, concert programmes will be largely filled with choral works by outstanding Silesian composers such as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Józef Świder and Adrian Robak.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://www.silesia.art.pl/

Bydgoszcz | Yukio Yokoyama Piano Recital

A piano recital by Yukio Yokoyama on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the death of Ignacy Jan Paderewski will be held on June 23, 2018 at 6.00 pm at the I. J. Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz.

Yukio Yokoyama was born in Tokyo in 1971. At the age of 12, he started learning piano under Jun Date and composition under Masayuki Nagatomi. As a French government scholarship holder in 1987, he began to study at the Paris Conservatoire under the guidance of Jacques Rouvier, Vlad Perlmutter and others. In 1990 he graduated with honors, and in the same year he won the third prize (the first was not awarded) in the 12th Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. With this success, Yokoyama officially began concert activity around the world.

His Bydgoszcz Recital, organized in cooperation with the I. J. Paderewski Musical Society in Bydgoszcz, will be held as part of the "Independent" program under the patronage of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Governor Mikołaj Bogdanowicz. The pianist will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Fritz Kreisler, Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, as well as his own Hommage and Rachmaninov - Vocalise.

Information on tickets at: http://www.filharmonia.bydgoszcz.pl

Krakow | 4. Sinfonietta Festival "Do Not Move The Capital to Krakow"

The summer festival of the Sinfonietta Cracovia starting on June 21, 2018 will bring us four unique concerts in the historic interiors of the famous Sukiennice and the beautiful gardens of the National Museum in Krakow plus a spectacular musical battle finale held in the Krakow Philharmonic.

The special guest of this year's edition will be the outstanding, charismatic Polish conductor Jerzy Maksymiuk who will lead the Sinfonia Varsovia during the musical duel with Sinfonietta Cracovia performing under the baton of Jurek Dybał, its director and the mastermind behind the Festival’s unique programming. The tongue-in-cheek battle of the leading Polish orchestras will be judged by Filip Jaślar from the Grupa MocArta ‒ a musician-turned-comedian, beloved by the audience for his exceptional sense of humor (25 June).

We will also hear Tomasz Konieczny ‒ a world-famous Polish singer regularly performing on such iconic scenes as Vienna State Opera, La Scala or Metropolitan Opera ‒ who will be the star of the concert comemorating the late composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (22 June). Chamber music enthusiasts will be delighted by the virtuoso duel of the Sinfonia Varsovia Quintet with the Sinfonietta Cracovia’s Chamber Musicians’ Quintet, which will inaugurate the festival (21 June).

The programme will also include two (!) free concerts for all Cracovians and Sinfonietta’s guests: the next edition of the innovative, highly popular Clubbing with chamber music (23 June) and an open-air cross-over concert Lutosławski, from Warsaw (June 24) with Magda Navarrete.