official patronage

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Polish Saint Maximilian Kolbe. To commemorate this occasion, Polish Chamber Choir, Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra and soloists conducted by Jan Łukaszewski will perform Paweł Łukaszewski's Requiem on 30 October 2021 at 7.30 p.m. in the Franciscan Fathers Church in Gdynia.

The concert will take place at the St. Anthony's Chapel, which is the foundation of the present church, and which was personally consecrated by the future saint in May 1937. The concert under the patronage of Tadeusz Wojda, Metropolitan Archbishop of Gdańsk, will be held thanks to the cooperation with the Franciscan Order and the support from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the authorities of Gdańsk and Gdynia.

The figure of Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe is known in Poland, but also in the world, for the heroic deed that the Franciscan undertook in 1941. He volunteered to die in place of a fellow prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp of Auschwitz. When he decided to go to death, he said, "I want to encourage others to live." He became the first Pole to be canonized after World War II.

Requiem (Latin for "rest") is a musical setting of the mass performed on All Souls' Day and during mourning ceremonies. On the eve of the celebration of All Saints' Day, Paweł Łukaszewski's Requiem will be presented by world-famous Polish ensembles and soloists: Italian soprano Roberta Mameli and Polish baritone Adam Krużel.

Admission is free!

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the "Music" programme, carried out by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

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

The next concert as part of the 4th Mazovian Music Meetings Without Barriers will take place at the Łochów Palace on 31 October 2021 at 5.00 p.m.

This nineteenth-century palace belonged to the eminent Polish aristocratic families: Hornowski, Downarowicz, Zamoyski and Kurnatowski. One of the frequent visitors was Cyprian Kamil Norwid (the poet's grandmother, Anna Zdzieborska née Sobieska. and Józefa Hornowska were sisters), whose 200th birthday is celebrated this year. The violinist Maksymilian Grzesiak and pianist Iwona Dressesnik will perform in this picturesque place. We will hear works by Fryderyk Chopin, Karol Szymanowski and Arvo Pärt.

The "Czas Sztuki" Foundation was established in November 2017 and one of its main goals is to organise free artistic events for underprivileged people from small rural towns, who are excluded from participation in cultural life. This year, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport, the "Mazovian Music Meetings without Barriers" are held for the fourth time.

Admission is free! Co-financed by the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund. Sponsored by the PZU Foundation.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

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From opera through musical to dance performance. Mix of old and contemporary works, orchestral and chamber pieces, classical and traditional music. The Academy of Music in Łódź invites you to a cultural summary of the activities of its professors, students and invited guests as the 9th edition of the AŻ Festival, which will run from 4 November to 5 December 2021.

This year, the Academy will be visited by artists such as: pianist Cyprien Katsaris, conductor Marcin Sompoliński, New Music Orchestra conducted by Szymon Bywalec, Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, and Gdańsk Percussion Group "Jeunesses Musicales".

The festival will be inaugurated by the long-awaited premiere of the opera Platée by Rameau (4 and 5 Nov). Three performances supervised by Sebastian Gonciarz of the play AŻ się chce... will be staged by students of the Department of Musical Performance (12-14 Nov). The stage works at AŻ Festival will also be joined by the dance performance Lithos, inspired by the myth of Sisyphus and choreographed by Jacek Owczarek (24 Nov).

The oldest Polish ensemble performing contemporary music, the New Music Orchestra will be conducted by Szymon Bywalec (15 Nov). The festival final concert, traditionally devoted to contemporary music, will commence the 78th Musica Moderna Session (5 Dec) with compositions of Łódź artists – Glądys, Hans and Szostak. The Contemporary & Baroque Music concert (2 Dec) will be sort of a bridge between the old and the new music. The programme will feature works by Bach and Vivaldi as well as modern music composers such as Zagajewski and Szymański. This year chamber music will fill the programme of three festival evenings, featuring Polish Violin Duo, Michał Balas and Bacewicz Percussion Ensemble.

The project "Opera-ballet J.-Ph. Rameau Platée – The First Polish Interpretation ”is realized thanks to co-financing from the budget of the City of Łódź.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Programme and ticket information: https://www.amuz.lodz.pl/pl/inne-wydarzenia-cykliczne/az-festiwal/9-az-festiwal 

The Polish Chamber Musicians' Association – Krakow Branch shares on its YouTube channel the results of the "Colours of Music Online" project. Educational materials for teachers of arts subjects are available for free from 27 October 2021.

The "Colors of Music Online" project assumed the recording of Agnieszka Borek's fairy tales in the form of children's theatre. Joanna Marcisz, Ewa Szczygieł, Agnieszka Klimowska prepared films with a ready-made presentation of a fairy tale in the form of children's theatre (3 films translated into Polish Sign Language, 3 films with subtitles for the deaf), 3 fairy tale scenarios, 3 graphic scores, 3 instrumentation tutorials, 3 tutorials with music and movement exercises, 9 tutorials showing the performance of artworks (including 3 tutorials for children with disabilities / 3D techniques / and with subtitles for the deaf), as well as 3 scenarios in the form of children's theatre inspired by the colour theory.

Based on original scenarios, the events are inspired by the colour theory. They were divided into 3 themes according to the basic colours in art. Each colour is presented in a separate, illustrated narration with music by Fryderyk Chopin, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Zbigniew Preisner, Antoni Cofalik, Janina Garścia, as well as Antonín Dvořák, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Boccherini, Johannes Brahms, Camille Saint-Saëns and Modest Mussorgsky. The project draws attention to the interrelationships, interactions and permeation of various fields of art. Both movement interpretations of works by composers from different eras, as well as art works corresponding to the theme of the workshops will enrich teachers' work tools and inspire their own studies.

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the "Culture – Interventions 2021" programme carried out by the National Centre for Culture.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information: https://spmk.com.pl/projekt/barwy-muzyki/ 

The Józef Elsner Opole Philharmonic invites you on 19 November 2021 at 7.00 p.m. to a concert entitled "Once Upon a Time in Paris", featuring the Opole Philharmonic Orchestra and the organist Karol Mossakowski under the baton of Jakub Chrenowicz.

The thirties and forties of the twentieth century. Two Poles and a French. Probably both Polish composers – Antoni Szałowski and Andrzej Panufnik – met Francis Poulenc in Paris. Before World War II, Szałowski went to study with the famous Nadia Boulanger and he stayed in the capital of France for the rest of his life. The neoclassical, daring and pleasant Overture was the last composition he wrote under the tutelage of the great professor. Concerto for organ, timpani and strings by a Paris born Francis Poulenc was composed two years earlier. This work consists of a single continuous movement with seven tempo marks and it contains references to the Baroque era.

In 1938, when Poulenc was composing his Organ Concerto, Andrzej Panufnik was studying conducting in the same city. However, the young artist soon returned to Poland, where he spent the cruel time of World War II. In his homeland, which was rising from the rubble after the war, remembering the centenary of Chopin's death, he wrote Sinfonia Rustica inspired by the Kurpie folklore. The symmetry of the Kurpie paper-cuts was reflected by the unusual setting of the orchestra on the stage – this unusual idea guarantees not only an unusual view, but also an interesting acoustic experience.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Ticket Information: https://filharmonia.opole.pl/ 

Spanish cello virtuoso Pablo Ferrández will perform as a soloist with the Opole Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Przemysław Neumann on 26 November 2021 at 7.00 p.m. The concert programme will be conducive to reflection.

First, we will hear Krzysztof Penderecki's Chaconne from Polish Requiem. The successive parts of the work commemorate important figures and events in Polish history. The last one, Chaconne, was written in 2005 and is dedicated to John Paul II.

Edward Elgar's moving Cello Concerto in E minor gained fame thanks to Jacqueline du Pré, one of the most expressive artists in the history of music. The British composer's nostalgic phrases will precede the performance of two symphonic poems. The first will be Grzegorz Fitelberg's The Song of the Falcon; an extremely successful composition, which provokes the question: what else would Fitelberg have created if he had not devoted himself to conducting? The last piece of the evening, Death and Transfiguration, was written by the 25-year-old Richard Strauss as the first of his symphonic poems not inspired by literature – Aleksander Ritter's poem included in the score was written after the completion of the piece. Strauss himself wrote about the programmatic assumption of this composition in one of his letters: "It was six years ago when the idea came to me to write a tone poem describing the last hours of a man who had striven for the highest ideals." The audience fell in love with the work, the critics remained unconvinced – it seems that the very attempt by Strauss to deal with the subject of the final issues aroused their concern. The theme of liberation with which the poem ends, full of strength and majesty, however, brings hope for a unique dimension of this unknown reality.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Ticket Information: https://filharmonia.opole.pl/ 

The Polish music community award gala will be broadcast on 14 November 2021 at 7.00 p.m. on TVP Kultura, TVP Kultura 2 and on the YouTube channel of the National Institute of Music and Dance. Outstanding musicians will perform works by famous Polish composers, including Wojciech Młynarski, Jerzy "Duduś" Matuszkiewicz and Wojciech Karolak.

The awards will be presented in four categories: Honorary Award, Discovery of the Year, Personality of the Year and Event of the Year. The financial awards were sponsored by the ZAiKS Authors' Association and the STOART Union of Performing Artists.

“For the second time in the eleven-year history of the Coryphaeus of Polish Music awards, we invite you to the gala in front of TV screens and computers. This year we will present a kind of kaleidoscope of classical and jazz music in new performances and arrangements, ”says Katarzyna Meissner, director of the National Institute of Music and Dance.

The programme of the event under the musical direction Paweł Tomaszewski will include works by great artists who passed away years ago and those whom we lost recently, interpreted by exceptional artists, repeatedly awarded by the National Institute of Music and Dance. To commemorate Wojciech Karolak, Maciej Sikała on saxophone, Paweł Tomaszewski on Hammond organ, Robert Kubiszyn on double bass and Paweł Dobrowolski on percussion will recall the repertoire of the legendary trio Time Killers. Alicja Szemplińska will remind the figures of Jerzy "Duduś" Matuszkiewicz and Wojciech Młynarski with her interpretation of the hit song Jeszcze w zielone gramy.

The programme will also include chamber music. The Polish Violin Duo, winners of the 1st International Polish Music Competition, will present Michał Spisak's Suite for two violins. The flautist Marianna Żołnacz, winner of the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award 2017, will perform Tadeusz Baird's Colas Breugnon suite with the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra under the baton of Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, a participant of the Conductor-in-Residence programme run by NIMiT. To mark the 70th birthday of Andrzej Krzanowski, the accordionist Marcin Wyrostek will present a new arrangement of the composer's Highlander Dance.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information about the award: www.koryfeusz.org.pl 

Link to the online broadcast on TVP Kultura 2: https://kultura2.tvp.pl/ 

The final of the project "This is my Mother, this Homeland" will take place on 7 November 2021 at 6.00 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Sports and Didactic Centre of the State University in Sanok.

The SOUL ensemble is known domestically and internationally for performerming Polish patriotic songs. During the upcoming concert, it will perform with an instrumental ensemble composed of musicians from the Subcarpathian Philharmonic conducted by Monika Brewczak. The programme will include works by Monika Brewczak to texts by Maria Szulikowska, Grażyna Brączyk and Władysław Bełza.

The project, as an artistic event promoting patriotic attitudes, received financial support from the Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski Institute for the Heritage of National Thought as part of the "Freedom in Polish" Patriotic Fund. The national patronage over the concert was assumed by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and the honorary patrons are: Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Minister of Culture and National Heritage Piotr Gliński, Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek, Voivode of Podkarpacie Ewa Leniart, and Marshal of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship Władysław Ortyl.

The concert will be live streamed on the Radia FARA YouTube channel.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

The "Czas Sztuki" Foundation invites you to another concert as part of the 4th Mazovian Musical Meetings without Barriers, which will take place in the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Seroczyn on 7 November 2021 at 10.00 a.m.

The event will feature the premiere of Dawid Pajdzik's sacred composition The Book of Tobias for string quartet. The piece was created as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme carried out by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

The concert will be performed by the Time Quartet composed of: Maksymilian Grzesiak (violin), Katarzyna Grzesiak (violin), Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska (viola) and Małgorzata Maśluszczak (cello). In addition to the premiere work, we will hear baroque compositions by Arcangelo Corelli, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friedrich Handel.

The "Czas Sztuki" Foundation was established in November 2017 and one of its main goals is to organise free artistic events for underprivileged people from small rural towns, who are excluded from participation in cultural life. This year, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport, the "Mazovian Music Meetings without Barriers" are held for the fourth time.

Admission is free! Sponsored by the PZU Foundation.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

JOIN: Facebook Event