The results of the first stage of the 60th Tadeusz Baird Young Composers Competition were announced on Fabruary 28, 2019.
The Tadeusz Baird Young Composers Competition (formerly called the Youth Competition of the Polish Composers' Union) is organized annually since 1958. Its aim is to give a start to young Polish composers and to encourage them to work and take independent initiative. Since 1990, the Main Prize, the Tadeusz Baird Award of $ 2,500 to be dedicated for further studies in composition is funded by Alina Sawicka-Baird, the wife of the deceased composer, Tadeusz Baird. The two second prizes and the award of distinction are financed by the Executive Board of the Polish Composers' Union. Since 2003, the competition consists of two stages. The works that have been qualified by the jury to the second stage are performed during a public concert, after which the final verdict is announced. The Main Prize of the 60th edition of the Competition was funded by Marta Ptaszyńska, an outstanding composer, a professor at the University of Chicago.
In the first stage, the jury composed of Eugeniusz Knapik (chairman), Krzysztof Baculewski, Miłosz Bembinow, Arkadiusz Kubica, and Hanna Kulenty, has chosen the following works: Magiczne kwadraty (emblem Trójkąt), Une saison dans rêve (emblem Rimarth), Śpiew kresu dnia (emblem Kasztan 12), Sublimacje (TBQ emblem), String Quartet Shapes (Maple leave emblem).
The concert presenting selected works, after which the results will be announced, will take place on June 25, 2019 at 6.00 p.m. at the PWM Editions at 8 Fredry Street in Warsaw. The performer of the concert will be the String Quartet Polonika composed of Paulina Kusa (I violin), Anna Szalińska-Zaziębło (II violin), Magdalena Małecka-Wippich (viola), and Olga Łosakiewicz-Marcyniak (cello).