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We invite you to a recital of the outstanding organist Andrzej Chorosiński, during which we will hear three masterpieces. Only one of them was originally conceived by the composer as an organ composition, the other two are arrangements of pieces for a cappella choir and piano.

The concert will begin with the monumental Fantasia and Fugue on the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam by Ferenc Liszt, written in 1850 in Weimar. In it, the composer relied on the chorale from the first act of the then popular opera The Prophet by Giacomo Meyerbeer, to whom he dedicated his work. Then we will listen to Agnus Dei by Krzysztof Penderecki, which he wrote at the news of the death of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, and later included it in the monumental Polish Requiem. The work was heard for the first time during the mourning ceremony of the cardinal on May 31, 1981 in the Cathedral Basilica of St John the Baptist in Warsaw. The composition begins slowly, in quiet dynamics, evoking a mood of prayerful concentration. The music gradually becomes more and more passionate and expressive, and after the poignant, marked in the score quasi in grido (almost like a scream) climax on the word peccata (sins), it is softened again and slowed down.

The last piece in the concert programme, the suite Pictures at an Exhibition, is one of the most famous works by Modest Mussorgsky. It was created as a tribute to the composer’s friend, painter Wiktor Hartmann. Mussorgsky’s suite was originally intended for piano, but quickly began to be arranged for other ensembles. The best known is undoubtedly the arrangement prepared for a great orchestra by Maurice Ravel. During this concert, the piece will be performed in a version prepared by the German composer Oskar Gottlieb Blarr and Andrzej Chorosiński.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/component/nfmcalendar/event/8331

Professor Halina Goldberg will deliver the first "Distinguished Lecture" in POLIN Museum’s 2021 series. On 23 May at 8.00 p.m. she will discuss the contribution of Polish Jews to the field of music.

Halina Goldberg is Professor of Music at the Jacobs School of Music and Affiliate Faculty at the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program and the Russian and East European Studies Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington. She also serves as the Project Director for the Digital Scholarly Commons dedicated to the study of Jewish Life in Pre-World War II Łódź. Halina’s work is interdisciplinary, drawing on cultural studies, music, politics, performance practice, and reception. She focuses on 19th- and 20th-century Poland and Eastern Europe, Chopin, and Jewish studies, and on the interconnection of Polish and Jewish cultures.

In the popular imagination, Jewish music-making in historically Polish lands is generally envisioned as separate from the music of the surrounding population, each group occupying a distinctly different soundscape. But historical records buried in Polish archives tell a different story going back hundreds of years. These sources repeatedly show that there were many opportunities for interaction between Jews and their neighbors despite legal restrictions and intense competition. This lecture explores the legacy of Polish Jews in music by focusing on the circumstances that allowed Jewish and Christian musicians to make music together to learn from each other and share repertories and musical languages. The lecture also highlights the role of Jewish musical patronage in these exchanges. The presentation will include excerpts from newly discovered music by Polish Jews.

Broadcast live in English on POLIN Museum YouTube channel.

On 21 May 2021, the Lublin Philharmonic invites music lovers to the XXIV Witold Lutosławski Forum. The inaugural concert – the first live concert after the break – will premiere Bogdan Dowlasz' Temporatorium and Eduardo Frigatti's In memoriam. The event is co-organized and co-financed as part of the "Conductor-in-residence" programme carried out by the Institute of Music and Dance.

This year's edition of the Forum will be preceded by a discussion panel, which will take place on 20 May at 4.00 p.m. at the Institute of Music of the Faculty of Arts at the Maria Skłodowska-Curie University. The panel will be attended by accordionist and composer Prof. Bogdan Dowlasz and composer and guitarist Dr. Eduardo Frigatti.

The first concert will be held on 21 May at 7.00 p.m. and will feature premiere works of both artists as well as Józef Kofler's cantata Love, Op. 14 for voice, clarinet, viola and cello. The Lublin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Jadwiga Czerwińska UMCS Academic Choir will perform with outstanding soloists under the baton of Zofia Bernatowicz. The prograamme has been rehearsed with her assistant, Igor Boyczuk, conductor-in-rresidence of the Lublin Philharmonic.

On 23 May at 11.00 a.m., there will be a chamber concert "Young performers of contemporary music" featuring students and teachers of Lublin music schools (Tadeusz Szeligowski Primary and Secondary Music School, Witold Lutosławski Primary and Secondary Music School and Karol Lipiński State Primary and Secondary Music School). Those who visit the institution that day will also have the opportunity to listen to the choirs of Lublin schools as part of the project "Choir Academy – Singing Poland" of the Lublin region under the direction of Małgorzata Nowak.

Information about tickets and full programme are available at: https://filharmonialubelska.pl/ 

For the sixth time Katowice Culture Nature, the flagship festival of classical music in Katowice, will bring together outstanding artists from all over the world in the NOSPR concert hall. The theme of this year's edition is "Longing and desire". The programme of six concerts, scheduled for 14-22 May 2021, travels through different shades of longing and various kinds of desires.

This year, instead of a traditional programme book, the organisers have prepared an audiobook with texts on the idea of ​​the festival and its repertoire. We will hear music that touches emotions that are very present in the pandemic times. The list of performers include, among others, Marin Alsop, Alexander Melnikov, Dorothea Röschmann, Sonya Yoncheva and Concerto Köln.

The festival will begin with a concert of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. The repertoire will include music inspired by the most archetypal images of love, including Love Songs of Hafiz for voice and orchestra, Op. 26 by Karol Szymanowski as interpreted by Ewa Tracz. The concert will be broadcast on medici.tv – the world's largest streaming platform dedicated to classical music. The coexistence of two orders – the divine order of harmony and the world of human feelings – is the narrative axis of the famous opera ahat-ilī. Sister of Gods by Aleksander Nowak to the libretto by Olga Tokarczuk, which will be presented in the stage version.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

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

W dniach 11-16 maja 2021 w Sanoku odbył się już II Międzynarodowy Festiwal Muzyki Organowej i Kameralnej. Organizatorem tego przedsięwzięcia jest Stowarzyszenie Pro Artis, dyrektorem artystycznym Festiwalu – dr hab. Piotr Rojek, prof. AMKL we Wrocławiu, zaś dyrektorem organizacyjnym – prezes Stowarzyszenia Łukasz Kot.

Pomysł powstania Festiwalu zrodził się z potrzeby ożywienia życia muzycznego Sanoka, szczególnie w zakresie muzyki organowej i kameralnej, która na terenie województwa podkarpackiego nadal jeszcze jest mało popularna.

Do udziału w drugiej edycji Festiwalu zaproszeni zostali znani w Polsce i za granicą artyści i pedagodzy: Róża Lorenc, Wiktor Brzuchacz, Bogdan Narloch, Roman Gryń, Jakub Stefek, zespół Vox Varshe, Sławomir Kamiński, Dumitru Harea, Arkadiusz Bialic oraz Żeleński String Quartet. Wychodząc naprzeciw oczekiwaniom słuchaczy, wszystkie koncerty były transmitowane na żywo dzięki profesjonalnej firmie Ars Sonora z Łodzi z Jakubem Garbaczem na czele. Na koncertach mimo ograniczeń sanitarnych, zgromadziła się publiczność, która gromkimi brawami oklaskiwała artystów. Koncerty organowe odbywały się w Sanoku właśnie w kościołach, ponieważ w nich mamy dostęp do takich instrumentów. Poza solowym brzmieniem organów mogliśmy je usłyszeć w połączeniu z trąbką, ze skrzypcami, fletnią Pana, a wraz zespołem Vox Varshe przenieśliśmy się w świat muzyki żydowskiej. Podczas finałowego koncertu rozbrzmiały organy w połączeniu z kwartetem smyczkowym Żeleński String Quartet.

Wielkim sukcesem okazał się I Ogólnopolski Konkurs Młodych Organistów, bowiem uczestnikami konkursu byli uczniowie szkół muzycznych II st. z całej Polski (Wrocław, Opole, Płock, Warszawa, Kraków, Bielsko-Biała, Tarnów, Racibórz, Rybnik, Katowice, Mielec i Rzeszów). Organizatorzy otrzymali 22 zgłoszenia, z których to 20 uczniów wzięło udział w zmaganiach konkursowych. W wyniku oceny wszystkich prezentacji konkursowych, Jury podjęło decyzję o przyznaniu 12 wyróżnień. Każdy z uczestników konkursu otrzymał pamiątkowy dyplom oraz nagrody rzeczowe ufundowane przez Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne oraz Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina. Laureaci poza nagrodami rzeczowymi otrzymali nagrody pieniężne, okolicznościową statuetkę oraz dyplom laureata. Ponadto Jury przyznało nagrody specjalne w postaci indywidualnych koncertów dla laureatów I i II miejsc w grupie starszej.

Patronat medialny nad Festiwalem objęło Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej POLMIC.

Szczegółowe informacje – na stronie http://pro-artis.pl/