news

Theatres, philharmonics and cinemas may reopen from 6 June

Minister of Culture Prof. Piotr Gliński during a press conference with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski announced that on 6 June 2020 cinemas, theatres, concert halls, culture centres and circuses may start operating again.

This is not an obligation, but an opportunity for the owners of these institutions to make individual decisions whether they want to reopen or stay closed for a longer period. There are two basic requirements for reopening of these institutions: reduce in capacity to 50 percent in order to maintain sanitary requirements and obligation to wear masks. The Minister of Culture also pointed out that outdoor concerts may be organised from 30 May as the gatherings up to 150 people will be legal from this date.

More information at: https://www.gov.pl/web/kultura/od-6-czerwca-mozliwosc-odmrozenia-min-kin-teatrow-i-filharmonii

Second Edition of the Polish Virtual Brass Band

The PWM Edition and Polish Brass Band Association invite you to co-create the Polish Virtual Brass Band and perform together with musicians from around the country Łukasz Cieloszyk's Rockflame arranged by Dariusz Krajewski. Applications for the second edition of the project should be sent by 31 May 2020.

To participate in the project, make audio-video recording of your performance and upload the file to Dropbox. All recordings will be mixed to create the Polish Virtual Brass Band for the second time. The material will be premiered on the International Orchestra Day, which will take place on the second Saturday in June. Both musicians and entire brass bands can send their recordings. Rockflame's instrumental parts can be downloaded from the PWM online store.

The project initiator and conductor of the virtual orchestra is Dariusz Krajewski, President of Polish Brass Band Association. In the first edition of the Polish Virtual Brass Band, 254 musicians from Poland, Thailand, Great Britain, Ireland and Hong Kong performed Elena's Dance by Michał Lorenc arranged for brass band.

More information: Polish Virtual Brass Band Facebook Page.

Aleksander Dębicz – Cinematic piano

On 31 May 2020 at 7:00 p.m. the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin invites you to the online premiere of the concert "Aleksander Dębicz – Cinematic piano" on YouTube and Facebook.

Aleksander Dębicz – one of the most talented Polish pianists of the young generation –performs both classical and jazz repertoire. He is also a composer, author of music for radio plays and theater performances. Film music and improvisation occupy an important place in his work, as evidenced by, among others, the first prize in the Transatlantyk Instant Composition Contest (2013). In 2015, Aleksander Dębicz's cycle of 12 compositions inspired by films was released by Warner Classics on his debut album Cinematic Piano. Each work has a different mood, referring to different film genres and combiining elements of classical music, light music and jazz.

The concert took place at the Szczecin Philharmonic as part of the "Film-Harmony" series presenting film music or music inspired by films.

JOIN: Facebook Event

Online Concerts of the Elbląg Chamber Orchestra

Several dozen square meters, the necessary distance between music stands and string instruments in hand – that's enough for the Elbląg Chamber Orchestra (EOK) to "infect" the audience with music. Beginning on 31 May 2020 at 6:00 p.m., the ensemble starts a series of online concerts on the EOK Facebook page.

Online broadcasts of the concerts held in the concert hall of the Old Town Hall in Elbląg will be held every two weeks on Sunday afternoons on EOK Facebook page. The "Elbląg Chamber Orchestra infects with music online" series will feature early, classical and contemporary music from Poland and other countries. During the upcoming concert, the orchestra will perform works by, among others, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Romuald Twardowski.

All you need to listen to musical masterpieces interpreted by outstanding Polish artists is a smartphone, tablet or computer!

Online Concert of Marcin Koziak, Aleksandra Kuls-Koziak and Magdalena Bojanowicz

The Association of Polish Chamber Musicians with the Kraków Philharmonic, Pro Musica Bona Foundation and Władysław Żeleński Secondary Music School in Kraków invite you to an online concert of the series "Faces of pianism". On 30 May 2020 we will listen to works performed by Marcin Koziak (piano), Aleksandra Kuls-Koziak (violin) and Magdalena Bojanowicz (cello).

The two-year concert series will present various faces of pianism – from solo to chamber music for different sets of instruments performed by eleven students of Professor Stefan Wojtas and invited guests. The project is implemented as part of the "Ars Quaerendi" Lesser Poland Voivodeship Award for outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of culture granted to Prof. Stefan Wojtas and Grzegorz Mani. The series has already presented recitals by Szymon Nehring, Piotr Machnik, and chamber concerts of Piotr Lato (clarinet) and Ireneusz Boczek (piano), Katarzyna Budnik (viola) and Grzegorz Mani (piano), Monika Gardoń-Preinl (piano), Karol Gajda (trombone) and Jakub Urbańczyk (tube).

During the upcoming concert, the musicians will perform works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Krzysztof Penderecki.

JOIN: Facebook Event

Pomeranian Music Society's "Composer on the web" series

The Pomeranian Music Society invites you to a series of online meetings and music premieres "Kompozytor w sieci" ["Composer on the Web"] dedicated to Toruń composers, which will be held every Friday at 6.00 p.m.

Each episode will be devoted to one composer who will talk about his or her work, inspirations and extra-musical interests. We will learn what the composer's everyday life looks like under normal conditions and during the pandemic, what circumstances induce creativity, and whether a great work can be created during a lockdown. Each meeting will be accompanied by music. We will listen to works already performed at concerts as well as written especially for the series.

The project will feature well-known graduates of the Karol Szymanowski Music School Complex in Toruń: Magdalena Cynk, Jędrzej Rochecki, Ewa Fabiańska-Jelińska, Mateusz Ryczek, Rafał Kłoczko, Maciej Jabłoński, Michał Ossowski, Prasqual, Dobromiła Jaskot, Zuzanna Koziej, Dariusz Kubicki and Adam Falenta.

Live broadcasts will be held on Fridays at 6.00 p.m. on the Pomeranian Music Society Facebook Page; the recordings will be later availbale on its Youtube channel.

Call for applications open for the "Blank pages – music and dance" research grant programme 2020/2021

The "Blank pages – music and dance" programme is addressed to Polish and foreign scholars who intend to carry out research related to neglected or little known areas of Polish music and dance. The research priorities of this edition of the programme concern composers Władysław Żeleński and Henryk Pachulski.

The research may span a broad chronological spectrum and a variety of genres, and may investigate composing, artistic activity, musicological activity, reception of music, as well as the history, theory and aesthetics of Polish dance, in particular performance dance. The expected outcomes – such as an academic paper, catalogue of an artist’s output, database, reconstruction of a piece, study of source materials – will be financed and published by IMiT.

The deadline for applications is 30 June 2020. Electronic applications should be sent to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ("Blank pages – music and dance" – application).

The evaluation committee will select the winning projects by 27 July 2020. The list of projects approved by the committee will be announced on the Institute's website. If the pool of funds allocated to the 2020/2021 edition of the programme is not exhausted, the Director of the Institute of Music and Dance may announce the second round of the call for applications.

The budget of the 2020/2021 programme edition is PLN 150,000.

The rules and regulations are available at: https://imit.org.pl/programy/departament-muzyki/4430

Daniel Cichy in the latest series of online talks of the PWM Edition

Can you talk about music in 444 ways? Is copyright for everyone? Can the premiere of the album be more exciting than the first performance? The director-editor-in-chief of the PWM Edition Daniel Cichy will give answers to these and other fascinating questions in a series of online conversations with leading figures of Polish culture. The series will be broadcast until 21 June 2020.

In the series of meetings entitled "Po cichu. O muzyce i literaturze" ["Quietly. About music and literature"] Daniel Cichy will talk with composers, authors and artists associated with the PWM Edition and Anaklasis Records. We will learn about their new compositions, artistic inspirations, the history behind their music and research work.

On 27 May Prof. Magdalena Dziadek, author of the book Podróż przez dźwięki [Travel through sounds], will share her latest discoveries about Stanisław Moniuszko. On Children's Day Katarzyna Huzar-Czub will talk about her musical stories for children about the most eminent Polish composers. On 21 June – World Music Day – Daniel Cichy will talk with Danuta Gwizdalanka about the essence of music and her latest publication Symfonia na 444 głosy [Symphony for 444 voices].

The meetings will be also devoted to cooperation of composers with performers and making of phonografic records. Daniel Cichy will visit well-known artists associated with the Anaklasis Records established by the PWM Edition: composers Maciej Zieliński and Zygmunt Krauze, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny and jazzman Kuba Stankiewicz.

New episodes will be available on the PWM YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Film Music Festival week filled with unforgettable emotions!

Full seven days packed with concerts, memories and premiered recitals. The turn of May and June will, as it should, belong to the Kraków Film Music Festival – this time in the Internet only. The 13th edition of the FMF will be held online from 26 May to 1 June 2020. Together, let’s #stayathome, watch the concerts on FMF Facebook and listen to them thanks to the RMF Classic radio.

13th FMF online programme is formed out of carefully selected concerts from the last five years of the festival, which we will watch for the first time in full on the Internet. On 26 May the organisers will take us on a virtual journey to the interior of the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria to listen to the Cinema Chorale concert recorded there a year ago with the Pro Musica Mundi choir. We will be introduced to the atmosphere of the weekend by a concert most beloved by the FMF audience – All Is Film Music: 10th FMF Anniversary Gala, featuring music by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek and Abel Korzeniowski. A day later we will watch the International Series Gala from 2015, which will be an introduction to what awaits us next year, namely, the second edition of the TV Series Gala. The screens of our laptops, tablets and smartphones will fill up with themes from such series as Wataha by Łukasz Targosz and Days of Honor by Bartosz Chajdecki. Sunday will overflow us with dear memories from 2016 and the concert Film Music Gala: Animations. As a dessert, a real treat for Children’s Day served by FMF – Disney in Concert: The Magic of Music.

In addition, the organisers will invite you daily to the premiered recitals as part of the LIVE from Studio cycle, where musicians from all around the world play straight from their homes and recording studios. FMF Young Talent Award and Polish Soundtrack of the Year 2019 will be awarded. The festival will also feature numerous interviews and interesting facts on both RMF Classic radio and Facebook profiles of FMF and RMF Classic. Every day at 9 p.m., there will be a radio retransmission of the concerts waiting for the RMF Classic devoted listeners.

Full programme available at: http://fmf.fm/