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In 2020 40 years will have passed since the signing of the agreement in Gdańsk and the establishment of 'Solidarity'. This occasion will be commemorated by the premieres of two carillon pieces by the most sought-after Polish contemporary composers. On 30 August, on the eve of the anniversary, Paweł Mykietyn's STOP and Elżbieta Sikora's Running Northon will be performed on the Gdańsk carillons in the Main Town Hall (12 p.m.) and in the St. Catherine's Church (3 p.m.).

Initially instruments of simple construction, over time carillons became more and more complex, gradually gaining the fullness of sound. According to sources, the beginnings of the Gdańsk carillon date back to the mid-16th century. Currently, carillon music in Poland is vividly cultivated in Gdańsk, which has three instruments, including one on the tower of the Town Hall of the Main City of Gdańsk, where Paweł Mykietyn's work will be premiered, and one on the tower of St. Catherine's Church, where Elżbieta Sikora's composition will be performed for the first time. Both works were commissioned by the City of Gdańsk and the Gdańsk Museum.

Paweł Mykietyn writes about his work STOP: 'The title may express a naive but beautiful dream of the victory of good over evil. Let this dream resonate on the carillon of the Main Town Hall in Gdańsk – a city that experienced both great good, when Solidarity was created, and great evil, when its president was murdered'. Elżbieta Sikora comments on Runninung North: 'To escape from fate, from ourselves, from the plague, pestilence, war, enslavement and all evil. To the north. Where the sea opens, beyond which the unknown, freedom, tempting mystery'. Both pieces, published by PWM Edition, will be performed by the outstanding carillonist Monika Kaźmierczak.

Admission to the concerts is free.

The eighth edition of the "Emanacje" Festival, dedicated to the memory of Krzysztof Penderecki and symbolically entitled "The Artist – Work – Meetings", is coming to an end. The final concert on 30 August 2020 at 7.00 p.m. promises to be extremely impressive and reflective. In the concert hall of the European Music Centre we will hear the most personal works that can be desribed as Penderecki's musica domestica.

Chamber music occupied an important place in the composer's oeuvre in the 1990s. Critically labeled the "path by the main road", it was in fact an important line of Penderecki's work. The last festival concert will feature lyrical compositions interpreted by great musicians – Janusz Wawrowski (violin), Marcin Zdunik (cello), Szymon Nehring (piano), Katarzyna Budnik (viola), Andrzej Ciepliński (clarinet) and Tomasz Bińkowski (horn).

Quartet for clarinet and string trio is one of the most subtle and personal works by Krzysztof Penderecki, marking a turning point in the career of the 60-year-old artist. The composer wrote the piece in June 1993 on the porch of the Lusławice manor, when azaleas and rhododendrons were blooming around. The time and atmosphere of this place changed the sound language and revealed themselves fully in the aesthetic ideal of claritas, a new kind of music – transparent and intimate, perfectly balanced in terms of form and content. The Sextet (2000) was born out of the tradition of chamber music and is part of the "clarity" trend initiated by the Quartet for clarinet and string trio. It is one of Penderecki's most extensive chamber works. The Sextet was written for Mstislav Rostropovich and Jurij Baszmet who premiered the piece.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme is available at: www.emanacje.pl 

The JAX Association invites to the concert on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Paul II, which will take place on 30 August 2020 at 6.45 p. m. at the Church of the Holy Family (ul. Rozwadowska 9/11).

During this unique cultural event a wide range of Polish and foreign music from the baroque to the present day will be presented. The audience will have the opportunity to discover new cultural contexts, especially by getting to know the works of Polish composers of the Romantic era who worked in Warsaw. We will hear, among others Piosnka Broni from the opera Hrabina and Dumka Zuzi from the opera Verbum nobile by Stanisław Moniuszko, Gdy ostatnia róża zwiędła by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Dumka by Roman Statkowski, Kołysanka by Stanisław Niewiadomski, Frottola Italiana from the opera Zygmunt August by Tadeusz Joteyko, Kołysanka słowiańska by Emil Młynarski. The concert programme will include compositions by Antonio Vivaldi and Victor Herbert. This evening fragments of John Paul II's books will be also read.

Barbara Żarnowiecka (soprano), violinist Róża Lorenc and organist Wiktor Brzuchacz will take part in the concert.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme is available at: https://stowarzyszeniejax.pl/ 

"Sleeplessness" is the name of the festival organized by the Henryk Wieniawski Music Society in Poznań on 30 August – 4 September 2020. The concerts will take place in open spaces and places that are not often used as concert halls.

Atom String Quartet will perform in Poznań on 30 August in the renowated courtyard of Stara Papiernia (8 Szyperska St., currently one of the addresses of the University of Arts in Poznań), while on 4 September in the FAN Pianos and Grand Pianos Salon (6 I. J. Paderewskiego St.) we will hear Marcin Zdunik and Aleksander Dębicz. Both of these places will present live music for the first time, and for this reason "Sleeplessness 2020" could be described as the festival that seeks "New Spaces for Music", which, paradoxically, fits perfectly into the difficult time of the pandemic.

Atom String Quartet will perform works from the albums Places, Penderecki, AtomSPHERE, Seifert as well as their new compositions. Marcin Zdunik (cello) & Aleksander Dębicz (piano and electronic instruments) will present their original arrangements from the Bach Stories and REnaissance albums.

Admission to the concerts of the "Sleeplessness" Festival with free invitations (unnumbered places, the number of invitations is limited) and in accordance with the sanitary rules introduced during the pandemic.

More information at: www.wieniawski.pl 

The final of the eighth edition of the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra Online workshop will take place on 30 August 2020 at 7.00 p.m. at the Szczecin Philharmonic. Rune Bergmann will lead a symphonic concert of the ILYO orchestra, soloists and singers from the Visegrad Group countries.

Witold Lutosławski, the patron of the International Youth Orchestra project, once confessed: "I do not want to win hearts, but I want to find those who feel the same as I do". This approach has become a real inspiration for many initiatives around the world. Joint actions of people who think similarly also take place in Szczecin Philharmonic. Every year in August, several dozen students and teachers meet as part of the International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra to work together on selected works. This year, all the activities were moved to virtual reality! The concert in the Philharmonic Hall will be broadcast on the institution's Facebook and YouTube.

After two weeks of intense work, the young musicians will present the fourth movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to celebrate the 250th birth anniversary of this great composer. In addition, the project participants will perform Fanfare for the University of Lancaster by Witold Lutosławski, the patron of the project, and Bot-tánc from the series Romanian Folk Dances by one of the most outstanding composers from the Visegrad Group countries – Béla Bartók. The soloists will be Iwona Sobotka (soprano), Agnieszka Rehlis (mezzo-soprano), Rafał Bartmiński (tenor) and Szymon Mechliński (baritone).

The 8th International Lutosławski Youth Orchestra in Szczecin is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Katarzyna Plater-Zyberk

More information at: https://filharmonia.szczecin.pl/events/1359-International_Lutoslawski_Youth_Orchestra_Final_I_BEETHOVEN_250_