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Concert of Young Composers as part of the 77th Musica Moderna

The Department of Composition at the Academy of Music in Łódź and the Polish Composers' Union invite you to the concert "Young Composers, Young Performers" as part of the 77th Musica Moderna Session. The concert will be broadcast on 20 May 2021 at 6.00 p.m. on the Academy's YouTube channel.

For many years, the events of this series have been a platform for young composers and performers from Łódź to present the most interesting experimental contemporary compositions. The upcoming concert will begin with Structure Holophonizing by Synthia Chojnowska, who is also responsible for video recording and event coordination. This piece for flute solo will be performed by Przemysław Szczygielski. Then, Agata Miłoś, Alicja Poręba, Szymon Kałużny and Michał Schab will perform the second and third movements of Jakub Jung's Violin Quartet No. 1. The programme will also include Bartosz Jawor's Beetle Music performed by violinist Kacper Pałuba, cellist Urszula Markowska and pianist Magdalena Salmanowicz. The concert will end with Maria Łojko's Dream performed by an instrumental trio: Krzysztof Królik (tenor trombone), Filip Madej (bass trombone) and Oliwia Kwiatkowska (piano).

Bogusław Litwiniuk will be responsible for the sound production and the concert will be hosted by Kacper Sadowski.

More information: http://www.amuz.lodz.pl/pl/koncerty-i-wydarzenia-zapowiedzi/maj-2021/155934-koncert-mlodzi-kompozytorzy-mlodzi-wykonawcy

4th Student Scientific Session "In the sea of inspiration" as part of the World Accordion Day 2021

The Accordionists Research Group of the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk invites you on 19 May 2021 at 10.00 p.m. to the 4th Student Scientific Session on the occasion of the World Accordion Day. The theme of this year's event is "In the sea of inspiration".

The papers will be devoted to Polish accordion works inspired by native folklore, connections of Mikołaj Majkusiak's works with jazz music, repertoire for the "flute-accordion" duet, compositions 'in memoriam' in accordion literature, techniques characteristic of accordion music in transcriptions, and the role of accordion in a folk ensemble from the performer's perspective.

The conference will be attended by students and doctoral students of the Academy of Art in Szczecin, the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice.

A special guest of the World Accordion Day will be Marcin Wyrostek, who will deliver a lecture entitled Silesian Music as a source of inspiration for accordion arrangement and improvisation.

Link to the conference on the MS Teams platform: http://bityl.pl/kIkER

12th Polish National Congress of Musicology Students and 6th Week of Musicology

For over 10 years, the Opole University offers musicology as first and second cycle studies. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Department of Musicology at the Opole University organises the 12th Polish National Congress of Musicology Students on 19–20 May 2021.

A special guest of the Congress will be Prof. Jasmina Talam (Academy of Music in Sarajevo) – a world-famous ethnomusicologist who will give the inaugural lecture. The student scientific conference will consist of thematic sessions presenting the effects of musicological research conducted by students and doctoral students.

The 12th Polish National Congress of Musicology Students is a part of a bigger event organised by the Department of Musicology at the Opole University, which is the 6th Week of Musicology at the Opole University (17–22 May). It will feature a number of additional scientific, cultural and artistic events, including workshops, concerts and an organological conference from the series "Silesian Organ VII".

The programme is available at: www.muzykologia.uni.opole.pl

Paderewski Centre in Kąśna Dolna | Talent Week Festival 2021 Online

It is hard to imagine the concert season in Kąśna Dolna without the Week of Talents – a festival with almost 40 years of tradition. In 2021, the event will take place without the audience, with all concerts broadcast online on 18-23 May.

The Paderewski Centre scheduled two new events as part pf the festival: the Competition for the Anna Knapik Award for students of music schools in Lesser Poland and the Competition for the Scholarship of the Paderewski Center in Kąśna Dolna for students of Polish art schools. The general assumption of both competitions is to focus on one specialization in a given year, in the cycle: vocal, string instruments, piano. Participants of the current vocal edition will present their skills at competition concerts in a unique place – the last surviving property of Ignacy Jan Paderewski in the world. We will hear works by Paderewski himself, Grażyna Bacewicz, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Franciszek Maklakiewicz, Feliks Nowowiejski, Ludomir Różycki, Władysław Żeleński, as well as representatives of various European composers' schools. The competition participants will be assessed by committees composed of eminent figures of Polish culture.

The festival will also include a traditional concert of Tarnów Talents, i.e. distinguished students of the Tarnów music school, under the patronage of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The list of performers includes: Grzegorz Wijas (organ), Karolina Starzyk and Borys Komisarz (piano duo), Aleksandra Kubala (violin) and Jan Łukasik (drums).

All concerts will be broadcast live (free of charge) on Paderewski Centre's YouTube and Facebook.

More information: https://www.centrumpaderewskiego.pl/

Festival of Polish Music and Art – performance

To celebrate the Festival of Polish Music and Art, Zajezdnia Kultury in Pleszew has created an artistic project which will have its premiere on 15 May 2021 at 8:00 p.m. on the institution's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

The project combines paintings of a Polish artist and cultural animator associated with Pleszew – Marian Bogusz with music composed for this occasion by composer Artur Żuchowski and performed by flautist Natalia Chudzicka, who is associated with the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. The film material was produced by Dawid "Budzik" Budziński and Norbert "Nupa" Radomski. The result is a several-minute presentation of three selected paintings by the artist from the collections of the Regional Museum in Pleszew, on behalf of which Katarzyna Rutkowska is the curator of the exhibition.

The idea of the event itself may owe its final shape to the times of self-isolation in which we have recently lived. It might be considered as a condensation of the elements of a vernissage, presented through the subjective eye of the producers and published online. Nevertheless, it can aspire to be an independent art form, a certain attempt at an artistic presentation of the world.

WATCH: Event Announcement

Warsaw | Night of Museums in Białołęka with Henryk Melcer

Few people know that the great Polish pianist and composer Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński was born in 1869 in the Marcelin estate in Warsaw's Białołęka district. It is to him that the AVE Foundation dedicates the Night of Museums on 15 May 2021. An exhibition, vintage bus tours, activities for children and a unique musical spectacle are planned!

Dr Michał Piekarski from the Institute of the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences is the author of the exhibition, which will be opened during the Night of Museums at 5.00 p.m. at the Majlert family's horticultural farm "Rysiny" at Smugowa St. in Marcelin. It covers the entire biography of the composer and presents his work.

The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a unique outdoor musical performance about the life and work of the composer. Those present will hear his Sonata in G major for violin and piano, considered the most outstanding Polish violin sonata of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, selected songs and the ballad MrsTwardowska to the words of Adam Mickiewicz. Outstanding musicians will perform: violinist Celina Kotz, laureate of the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, pianists Grzegorz Skrobiński (lecturer at the FCUM) and Gabriela Machowska, soloist of the Polish Royal Opera Witold Żołądkiewicz and the Białołęka AVE choir with friends from the National Philharmonic Choir conducted by Barbara Hijewska.

Moreover, historic bus trips around Białołęka from Melcer's times will depart from in front of the town hall of the Białołęka District at 7.00 and 10.00 p.m., and during the day there will be interactive workshops for children about the composer's life and work, conducted by an excellent musicologist, Anna Ługowska (four tours: 9.00, 10.10, 11.20, 12.30).

Activities are planned on-site. Due to the pandemic, reservations are required for all events (http://fundacjaave.pl/en/ and tel. 608 178 447).

Night of Museums 2021 at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic

On 15 May 2021, the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic (OiFP) invites you to the "Night of Museums" in a hybrid form. The programme includes performances by the OiFP Children's and Youth Choir, a show of the skills of ballet artists, a photo exhibition "The Birth of a Musical" and an online concert.

“On Saturday evening, we invite you for a family walk on Odeska Street. Here at 6.00 and 7.00 p.m., the Children's and Youth Choir of the OiFP will perform in our Amphitheater under the direction of Ewa Rafałko. Young artists will present the programme "Brzechwa Musically", composed of the works of the king of children's literature to music by Marcin Nagnajewicz. At 6.30 and 7.30 p.m., in the square at the entrance to the Amphitheater, a dance show by the artists of our ballet company will begin, to the music from the concert dedicated to the memory of Krzysztof Krawczyk," – explains Prof. Violetta Bielecka, acting director of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic.

Throughout the evening, you will also be able to see photos from the exhibition "The Birth of a Musical" by OiFP photographer Michał Heller. Amateurs of beautiful views will be able to enter the terraces and the roof of the Opera House between 5.30 and 9.00 p.m.

This year's "Night of Museums" will take place in a hybrid form: the concert "On a beautiful cruise..." with works by Krzysztof Krawczyk will be streamed on the OiFP YouTube channel and Facebook page at 7:00 p.m.

All the events are free of charge! Detailed programme is available at: https://www.oifp.eu/repertuar/noc-muzeow-2021/

Stars of World Stages at Poznań Philharmonic. Mozart our Contemporary

Jan Lisiecki, a prominent Canadian pianist with Polish roots (and a connection with Poznań) will be the main performer of the next Poznań Philharmonic’s Internet Concert held as part of the Stars of World Stages series on 14 May 2021 at 7 p.m. The event was entitled “Mozart Our Contemporary”, as during the concert we will listen to one of Mozart’s works, as well as a contemporary piece composed… in Mozart style.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major KV 482 in Vienna, which he called, in a letter to his father, the land of the piano. He began to compose the Concerto in E-flat major in November 1785, while simultaneously working on The Marriage of Figaro. He completed it on 16 December and the same evening he performed it… between the acts of the Ester oratorio by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf! It has been found in the notes of Leopold Mozart, father of Amadeus, that the listeners back then were particularly captivated by the second movement of the Concerto and that they regularly called for an encore.

After Mozart – Symphony in Mozart Style by Krzysztof Meyer – a unique example of a pastiche of Mozart style revealing how well the composer is able to handle various styles and techniques. The audience truly has an impression of listening to a work from the 18th century. Poznań music lovers who sat in the audience of the AMU Concert Hall on the 1 April 1977 were entirely sure that the piece was written by Mozart. Only the conductor Renard Czajkowski was aware of that April Fools’ Day joke (the concert even had a subheading: “April Fools’ Day”). Everybody else (even the musicians!) didn’t know the truth until it was revealed after the premiere performance. Could they fall for it? Listen and assess yourself…

More information: https://filharmoniapoznanska.pl/en/

9th "New Music" Festival

The 9th "New Music" Festival, organised by the Kujavian-Pomeranian Branch of the Polish Composers' Union in Bydgoszcz, the Municipal Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz and the Department of Music Education of the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, will be held on 7-16 May 2021. The rich programme of the festival will include over a dozen world premieres. All concerts will be available online.

The festival will start with a concert of electroacoustic music with harpsichord at the Municipal Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz. Subsequent events – chamber music concerts, an evening of songs and a concert of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Mariusz Kończal, will take place in the Copernicanum Hall of the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz on 8, 9, 10, 11 and 16 May at 5.00 p.m.

We will hear the latest works by Paulina Zujewska, Angelika Iżykowska, Sławomir Opaliński, Magdalena Kurdziel, Marcin Kopczyński, Marcin Gumiela, Aleksandra Brejza, Agnieszka Zdrojek-Suchodolska, Artur Kroschel, and Piotr A. Komorowski. The list of performers will include many great musicians who specialize in the performance of contemporary music: soprano Kornelia Wojnarowska, violists Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf and Lech Bałaban, cellists Filip Syska and Agnieszka Bałaban, harpsichordist Dorota Zimna, accordionist Stanisław Miłek, violinists Jan Bałaban and Michał Szałach, and pianists Marcin Kopczyński, Rafał Tworek, Maciej Gański, Małgorzata Furche-Jurczyk, Witold Kawalec, and Krzysztof Sowiński.

All concerts will be broadcast on the "New Music Festival in Bydgoszcz" YouTube channel.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme is available at: http://www.nowamuzyka.bydgoszcz.pl/