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Nearly one hundred outstanding artists will perform during the 12th Jerzy Waldorff Summer Festival, which will take place in Radziejowice near Warsaw between 27 June and 4 July 2021.

Among the performers will be Roby Lakatos (violin), Jenö Lisztes (cymbals), Paolo Pandolfo (viola da gamba), Paweł Kowalski (piano), Jarosław Żołnierczyk (violin) and Ewa Leszczyńska (singing, piano), Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Subcarpathian Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Harmony, Piotr Baron Quintet and Jagodziński Trio.

The eight days long festival will be filled with extremely diverse music. The programme will include works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Henryk Wieniawski, Stanisław Moniuszko, Emil Młynarski, Vincenzo Bellini, Szymon Laks and Mikołaj Górecki as well as well-known pieces in completely new arrangements, e.g. Zbigniew Wodecki's songs in a jazz version. We will also hear talented artists of the young generation, who have performed at the concerts organised in cooperation with the National Institute of Music and Dance and the Opera Academy of the Grand Theater – National Opera. This year's edition of the Festival will be accompanied by the exhibition The Life of One Musician – Stanisław Wisłocki on the occasion of the artist's centenary.

Full programme: https://www.palacradziejowice.pl/ 

The fourth edition of the Sacred Music Competition "Nadzieja w chórze" ["Hope in the Choir"] will be held on 8 May 2021 in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Tykocin, popularly known as "the pearl in the Crown of Podlasie".

The competition will be divided into 7 categories, including male, female, mixed and parish choirs. The jury composed of experienced choirmasters will evaluate the quality of sound, interpretation, selection of the repertoire, agogic, diction and general artistic expression. A number of prizes have been prepared for the best performers. It is enough to mention that the winner will receive the Grand Prix and a cash prize of 5,000 PLN. There is also a special award of the Mayor of the City of Tykocin for the best performance of a work by Polish composer. The director of Radio Nadzieja will also give an honourable mention to the best conductor.

The 4th National Competition of Sacred Music is a great offer not only for lovers of sacred music. The event will be a great opportunity to visit Tykocin with friends and family, listening to the world's finest choral compositions. Free admission!

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Rules and regulations are available at: http://konkurschoralny.radionadzieja.pl/ 

Polish Composers' Union invites you to the final concert of the 62nd Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers, which will take place on 18 June 2021 at 8.00 p.m. at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers (formerly known as the Youth Competition of the Polish Composers' Union) has been organized annually since 1958. Its aim is to help young Polish composers launch their careers and to encourage their independent activity. Until 2008, the main prize – the Tadeusz Baird Award of USD 2500 for further composition studies – had been funded by Alina Sawicka-Baird, the Composer's wife. Currently, the main prize is sponsored by the PZU Foundation. Honourable mentions are financed by the Polish Composers' Union Management Board. Since 2003, the Competition has been divided into two stages. The pieces qualified by the jury for the 2nd stage are performed during a public concert, after which the final verdict is announced.

On 18 June, such concert will be held for the eighteenth time. We will hear 6 pieces: Isomorphic Reflection for 4 clarinets (Coal2 emblem), ...Breathe for 4 violins (D.502 emblem), Grand Père for 4 trumpets (Lavage de cerveaux emblem), Kanchendzong for 4 trumpets (Perseus emblem), Secco for 4 clarinets (emblem TotoXro), Co w lesie piszczy for 4 clarinets (emblem XXX12321). The final results of the Competition will be announced on 19 June in the evening.

The concert is organized as part of the "Music" programme carried out by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

The qualifying rounds for the long-awaited 18th International Chopin Piano Competition will start soon. Therefore, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra invites you to "Saturday with Chopin"! A concert of four outstanding Polish pianists, who will compete for participation in the great competition in just a few weeks, will be held on 12 June 2021 between 3.30 and 9.30 p.m. The programme will also include interactive events for the whole family.

Who knows if this group of four promising pianists does not include the future laureate of the Competition? The chances are high as the artists, despite their young age, have already won numerous competitions. Aleksandra Świgut received, among others, the second place award at the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments. Andrzej Wierciński missed only three tenths of a point during the previous edition of the Chopin Competition to reach the final. The youngest participants, Mateusz Tomica and Joanna Goranko, are both students of the Academy of Music in Katowice, which has educated many competition winners.

The pianists will perform during the two-part concert, which will last from 6.00 to 9.00 p.m. For those who want to watch only the second part of the concert marathon, tickets will be available during the break, scheduled for around 7.30 p.m. Before the concert, at 5.00 p.m., the journalist Andrzej Sułek will talk about the Competition in the PNRSO foyer. Before the evening series of recitals begins, at 3.30 p.m., families with children will be able to take part in an interactive concert performed by Michał Dziewior. After the concert, around 4:45-5:30 pm, children are invited to participate in the workshops “Painting with sound. Around Chopin”. From 5.45 to 7.30 p.m., a common room will be available for children whose parents are at the concert.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme is available at: www.nospr.org.pl 

On 12 June 2021 at 6.00 p.m., the Orchestra of the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic in Olsztyn under the direction of Piotr Sulkowski, accompanied by the Mixed Choir of the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Kraków, will perform Feliks Nowowiejski's oratorio The Return of the Prodigal Son.

Nowowiejski wrote his oratorio The Return of the Prodigal Son in 1901 during his stay in Berlin, where he studied with the outstanding composer and conductor Max Bruch. His influence as well as that of other late Romantics, especially Antonín Dvořák, are heard in this youthful oratorio based on a biblical story. The German librettist Theobald Rehbaum removed the figure of the righteous brother and added the figure of a mother who immediately forgives her lost son. However, the father's heart turns out to be much more hardened than in the parable described by Jesus. The addition of a female voice and a conflict – the wife must persuade her strict husband to forgive their son – gave the composer the opportunity to use a wider range of means of musical expression.

Nowowiejski enchants the listeners with rich, sensual instrumentation: the symphony orchestra has been extended with an enlarged percussion set, including, among others, lyra, a kind of bells, as well as celesta, harp and organ (beloved by the composer). Each of the three parts of the work, entitled Son, Mother and Father, is preceded by a short a cappella motet for four-voice choir. Three solo voices: mezzo-soprano (Mother), tenor (Son) and bass (Father) speak one by one, only to intertwine in the finale, in the trio of a reconciled family. The solo parts during the ucpoming concert will be performed by Agnieszka Rehlis (mezzo-soprano), Arnold Rutkowski (tenor) and Łukasz Konieczny (bass).

More information: https://filharmonia.olsztyn.pl/koncert/powrot-syna-marnotrawnego-f-nowowiejskiego-w-krakowie/