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The 15th National Polish Carol and Pastorals Competition, organized by the Choir Collegium Cantorum Friends' Association in Chełmno, took place on 18 January 2020. The Jury decided to award the following awards:

The Grand Prix award went to the Di Nuovo Female Chamber Choir from Poznań conducted by Dorota Wojnowska.

The "Mixed Choirs" category: the Strong in Faith Choir a cappella from Olsztyn, the KOE Chamber Choir from Sokołów Podlaski, the University of Łódź Academic Choir (Golden Bands); and the Powidoki Chamber Choir from Piastów (Silver Band).

The "Homogeneous Choirs" category: the Di Nuovo Female Chamber Choir from Poznań, the Vocal Ensemble of the FCUM Department of Church Music in Warsaw, and the Polirytmia Women's Choir from Zielona Góra (Golden Bands)..

The "Vocal Ensembles" category: the Lumen Vocale Solo Ensemble from Poznań and the Cantavi ad Homini Vocal Ensemble from Śrem (Golden Bands); the Contrapunkt Vocal Ensemble from Grudziądz (Silver Band).

The "Senior Choirs" category: the Parati Semper Choir from Świecie (Golden Band), the Cantilen Chamber Male Choir from Wrocław (Silver Band) and the Choir of the Third Age University of Helena Kretz from Łódź (Brown Band).

The "Parish Choirs" category: Schola Padre Pio from Gdańsk and Cantate Collective of the parish of St. James the Apostole in Piotrków Trybunalski (Golden Band), Corda Cordi Choir from Śrem, Iunctus Choir from Oleśnica and Choir of the parish of Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians in Niemcz (Silver Band), Laudate Dominum Choir of the parish of St. Kazimierz in Łochów and the Choir of the parish of the Transfiguration in Morzewo (Brown Band).

The "Children's and Youth Choirs" category: Intention Children' Choir from Nakło nad Notecią, Inovroclaviensis Cantans Choir from Inowrocław (Golden Band); the Canzon Girls' Choir from Murowana Goślina (Silver Band).

A special award for the best conductor went to Aneta Mroczek – conductor of the KOE Chamber Choir from Sokołów Podlaski.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://e-chelmno.pl/pl/11_wiadomosci/58802_laureaci_xv_ogolnopolskiego_konkursu_koled_i_pastoralek_chelmno_2020.html 

Sinfonietta Cracovia will inaugurate the Beethoven Year on 23 January 2020 at 7.00 p.m. in the St. Katherine of Alexandria Church in Kraków. The orchesta will perform with the outstanding pianist Sergei Babayana, under the baton of Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare. The programme will include Ludwig van Beethoven's Great Fugue.

Sergei Babayan is an Armenian-American pianist, the winner of numerous international competitions who continues to appear as soloist with leading orchestras. He is famous for his extremely diverse repertoire, which he will be present to the Krakow audience during the concert as part of the extremely popular series "Stars with Sinfonietta".

The virtuoso will perform with the charismatic Rafael Payar – Honorary Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia. They will present two piano concertos: Concerto for piano and string orchestra by Alfred Schnittke and Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-major KV 271 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The evening will be inaugurated by another work by Alfred Schnittke Moz-Art à la Haydn – a good-natured Mozartian parody that ends with an evocation of Haydn's Farewell Symphony. The concert will end with Ludwig van Beethoven's Great Fugue (in arrangement for string orchestra), which is still considered to be controversial.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Information on tickets at: www.sinfonietta.pl 

The 12th edition of the Opera Rara Festival will run from 23 January and 14 February 2020 in Kraków. We will once again hear works from outside the repertoire, played very rarely. We have a number of very different performances ahead of us, including the Baroque Il ballo delle Ingrate by Claudio Monteverdi complemented by new compositions by Teoniki Rożynek, and Unknown, I Live With You, a joint work of playwright Krystian Lada and composer Katarzyna Głowicka.

These works come from different epochs and represent different styles, but are connected by a common thought. They make us wonder why we are so eager to build walls around us, what are the consequences of this, and what to do to build bridges instead of them. What does the opera have to do with it? It has always been able to react quickly and sharply – listen to social moods, comment on reality, insult kings, inspire revolts, lead to fury or tame dictators. There is no reason why it shouldn’t tell us about the world here and now. It can do this in two ways – by referring directly to current events or by reflecting them in the mirror of the past.

Unknown, I Live with You is a direct commentary on our present. The opera-installation was inspired by the poems of Afghan women poets – their personal statements, undistorted by their husbands, fathers, brothers and biased media. The authors took part in a project designed to encourage women to express themselves through words and tell their own stories. Most of them took part in the project in secret. There are other divisions that the Il ballo delle Ingrate (Ballet of the Ungrateful Women) tells us about. This perverse courtly morality play by Monteverdi considers the border between life and death, between people and gods, as well as between men and women. From today’s perspective, it makes us think about whether we, living in the modern times, are not disturbed by the visions of the gender relations presented in the work. The performance at the Opera Rara Festival will break another wall: the one that divides the worlds of contemporary and early music. The bridge between 17th-century Italy and Poland in the 21st century will be built by the composer of the young generation, Teoniki Rożynek.

Full programme of the Festival: http://operarara.pl/eng/

The artists and scientists interested in contemporary harpsichord music will take part in the 3rd seminar entitled "Harpsichord without borders", which will take place on 22 January 2020 at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź.

The seminar will start at 10.00 a.m. with the lectures deliverd by Krzysztof Urbaniak, Ewa Rzetecka-Niewiadomska, Magdalena Itman-Wasilewska and Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko. The presentation part will be followed by a concert at 4.00 p.m. in the ballroom of the Palace of the Academy of Music. The programma will include works by Olga Hans, Johan Huys, Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko, Marian Sawa, and Daniel Strządała performed by, among others, the laureates of the 1st Elżbieta Chojnacka Harpsichord Competition.

The event's partners are the Elżbieta Chojnacka Center for Contemporary Harpsichord Music and the Palace in Rybna. Admission is free!

Full programme available at: http://www.amuz.lodz.pl/pl/koncerty-i-wydarzenia-zapowiedzi/styczen-2020/154215-klawesyn-bez-granic 

On 22-24 January 2020, Warsaw's Nowy Teatr invites you to the Silence of the Mermaids – a unique concert-film-performance. The programme includes works by Kaija Saariaho, Tomasz Sikorski, Philip Glass and Jimi Hendrix.

The author of the script and program – Michał Pepol – describes the play as follows: "Singing is the essential strength of mermaids, and working under their spell is a perverse dream of many a musician. I would also like to have this power of a mermaid and always be able to seduce an audience. But this would require an unconditioned opening into the dark side of my subconscious. A meeting with a mermaid is a meeting with myself, one most sensitive and delicate, and at the same time a self-censored fraction of my hidden self. So let this be a concert-liberation from conventions, genres, habits and expectations. Let this be a concert-hybrid, just like a mermaid is. Let's look the mermaid in the eye and listen to her. While listening to her, let's listen to ourselves. Let's get seduced by the polyphony of the human voice, cellos, and the inhabitants of the ocean."

Cellist Michał Pepol will also take part in the concert as one of the performers together with Magdalena Cielecka. The project was inspired by the exhibition "The Beguiling Siren is Thy Crest" commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

Information on tickets at: https://nowyteatr.org/pl