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Lutosławski Quartet will perform at the National Forum of Music in Wrocław on 24 June 2021 at 7.00 p.m. We will hear works that have entered the canon of contemporary classical music, as well as premieres of two pieces by Polish artists.

The concert will premiere works by the Lutosławski Quartet musicians: String Quartet No. 5 by Marcin Markowicz, co-founder and second violinist of the ensemble, as well as On Difficulties in Building Pyramids – a script for string quartet by Marcin Młodawski, the quartet's cellist and concertmaster of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic.

The programme will also include compositions by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, which are among the most popular and most frequently performed works of the present day. His Summa from 1977, which will open the concert, was written for choir to the text of Credo, but later the composer developed different instrumental versions. The concert will end with another composition originally intended for choir and later arranged for other ensembles, Da pacem Domine from 2004. It was commissioned by Jordi Savall, who wanted to add splendour to a concert for peace in Barcelona by performing this beautiful, meditative work. We will also listen to Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 3 ‘Mishima’ written in 1985.

Media partner: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

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

The inauguration of the project "Impresjowizacja", supervised by Polish composer Aleksandra Chmielewska, will take place on 23 June 2021 on the Julian Cochran Foundation's Instagram account. The institution, which has been popularizing classical music since 2016, has prepared an innovative challenge for its followers – the first Polish interactive piece written specifically for Instagram!

Aleksandra Chmielewska is a young composer, improviser, author of youth literature, president of the Youth Circle of the Polish Composers' Union, member of the ZAiKS Authors' Association and the CIAM International Council of Artists executive committee. In her music, she focuses on developing emotional relationship with the listener.

For three days (23-25 June), the followers of the Julian Cochran Foundation's Instagram will have the opportunity to listen to Aleksandra's improvised composition in 3 parts which will be uploaded to IG TV. Then, each follower will be able to share 15 second fragments of the work in the configuration of their choice (#123 #132 #213 #321 #231 #312) on their Insta Story. Each of the participants of this innovative action will be a co-creator of a new interactive piece.

What will the 45 second composition for Instagram sound like? Will a popular form of contemporary music seduce the users of this famous social networking site? We will find out on Friday.

The project partner is Hałas Studio.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

https://www.instagram.com/juliancochranfoundation/ 

The most important Polish music awards for last year's phonographic achievements – "Fryderyki" – will come to Szczecin. This summer, West Pomerania will host stars of the Polish music scene. The Classical Music Gala will be held on 25 June 2021 at the Castle Opera in Szczecin. Popular music and jazz artists will be awarded on 5 August.

The list of this year's nominees includes, among others, singers Aleksandra Kurzak, Agata Zubel and Agnieszka Rehlis, violinist Jakub Jakowicz in a duet with pianist Bartosz Bednarczyk, the "Camerata Silesia" Katowice City Singers' Ensemble, the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, and the Polish "Sinfonia Iuventus" Orchestra.

This year, the Council of the Phonographic Academy (Classical Music Section) will award the "Golden Fryderyk" awards to two outstanding figures of Polish musical culture: Jadwiga Rappé – a singer and teacher, whose career includes thousands of recitals, symphonic concerts and opera performances in the most famous halls of the world, and Jan Łukaszewski – a conductor, general and artistic director of the Polish Chamber Choir "Schola Cantorum Gedanensis".

The presentation of the statuettes in the historic walls of the Pomeranian Dukes' Castle in Szczecin will be accompanied by concerts performed by outstanding Polish artists, including flautist Ania Karpowicz, winner of this year's Polityka's Passport, promoter of Mieczysław Weinberg's music. The Silesian Quartet, nominated for Fryderyk 2021 in the category "Album of the year – chamber music", will honour the memory of Krzysztof Penderecki. The pianist Piotr Sałajczyk will perform Karol Szymanowski's mazurkas from Op. 50.

The full list of nominees is available at: http://fryderyki.pl/fryderyk-2021/ 

The ninth edition of the "Rise of Eastern Culture. European Stadium of Culture" festival will be held on 25-27 June 2021 in Rzeszów. For the first time in its history, the festival will present classical and contemporary music, focusing, among others, on honoring the recently deceased composer Krzysztof Penderecki and on the abstract association of contemporary music with the works of Stanisław Lem, whose 100th birthday is celebrated this year.

The "Art Celebration: Classic Edition" concert will take place at the Institute of Music at the University of Rzeszów on 27 June. It will feature the composer and arranger Anna Maria Huszcza, the violinist and composer Dawid Lubowicz (Atom String Quartet) and the visual artist Jakub Hader, who are associated with Rzeszów. The "Art Celebration" concert will be held in a hybrid formula – with the audience and in the form of live streaming.

For the first time in Rzeszów, the Atom String Quartet will perform a repertoire of original arrangements of works by Polish composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki and Zbigniew Seifert. The second part of the concert will feature the outstanding Polish classical saxophonist Paweł Gusnar and his saxophone orchestra – the Warsaw Saxophone Orchestra – as well as the Nemesis Quartet. They will perform a special programme composed of works by Anna Maria Huszcza for saxophone and electronics. The music will be accompanied by dedicated visuals and graphics by Jakub Hader.

More information: http://stadionkultury.pl/ 

The Good Music Foundation invites you to the 6th International Christian Schlag Organ Festival, which will take place in Świdnica in Lower Silesia on 25 June – 16 July 2021 under the slogan "On Schlag's trail – let's outplay the organ!".

All lovers of organ music will once again have the opportunity to hear the more than 110-year-old symphonic pipe organ by Schlag & Söhne. One of the largest organ festivals in the region will feature five concerts, presenting the possibilities of the instrument from the Church of Peace in Świdnica. The programme will include Polish and foreign music with an emphasis on the works of Władysław Żeleński and Camille Saint-Saëns as this year marks the hundredth anniversary of their deaths. We will also hear pieces by Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Jacek Rabiński, Krzysztof Olczak and Stanisław Moryto.

The concerts will be performed not only by renowned organists, but also by great accordionists Maciej Zimka and Wiesław Ochwat, violinist Maksymilian Grzesiak and Maciej Afanasjew, who will play the electric violin.

The 6th Schlag Festival will be held both live at the Church of Peace in Świdnica and online on the Foundation's Facebook page in the form of a live broadcast. Free tickets are available to download from the Foundation's website.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund and by the Świdnica City Commune.

Full programme: https://fundacjadobrejmuzyki.pl/