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Paweł Romańczuk, leader of Small Instruments in "House Party with Dwojka"

Paweł Romańczuk – multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer, leader of the Small Instruments ensemble and popularizer of "toy music" in Poland will be the guest of the next "House Party with Dwójka". The concert broadcast straight from his home studio will begin at 7.00 p.m. on 13 June 2020.

Every weekend, Polish Radio Channel 2 (Dwójka) invites you to concerts taking place in the homes of artists who want to share their music with listeners and Internet users in these difficult times of isolation. This Saturday, the guest of the programme will be Paweł Romańczuk – an artist who creates great art by using small, often children's instruments.

The initiator and leader of the Small Instruments ensemble, as well as the designer of his own instruments and mechanical sound installations, prepared a series of completely new works, including compositions for musical constructions that are difficult to transport and assemble in concert halls. Since he currently creates alone in his studio, it will be an unusual concert – with the help of a looper and automatic playing mechanisms built in the Small Instruments studio in Wrocław, the composer and musician will play dozens of instruments by himself.

Broadcasts of concerts in the "House Party with Dwójka" series are available on Polish Radio Channel 2, its website and Facebook page.

Białystok | Online Concert "From Mountains and Fields"

The Court Quartet with Małgorzata Trojanowska (soprano) and Joanna Motulewicz (mezzo-soprano) will present works by Fryderyk Chopin, Stanisław Moniuszko and Mieczysław Karłowicz during a special online concert on 13 June 2020 at 7:00 p.m.

Mieczysław Karłowicz, prematurely deceased in an avalanche in the Tatra Mountains, introduced Polish music into the mainstream of late Romantic art, but the style of his youthful songs is sometimes described as standing on the threshold of modernism. Stanisław Moniuszko's String Quartet No. 1 was written during his studies in Berlin and is characterised by simplicity and tunefulness. Fryderyk Chopin wrote all of his songs before his departure from Poland. Composed to the words of Polish poets, like songs of Moniuszko, they refer to Polish folklore and move with the power of expression and lyricism.

Full programme is available at: https://www.oifp.eu/

Penderecki's and Williams' film music

Next online concert of the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic Orchestra will feature Krzysztof Penderecki's Polymorphia and John Williams' film music. The broadcast will be held on 14 June 2020 at 7:00 p.m. on Facebook and YouTube.

The concert under the baton of Rune Bergmann will take us to the world of film music. Krzysztof Penderecki's Polymorphia for 48 string instruments was used in such famous films as The Exorcist and The Shining. Ewa Szczecińska, radio journalist, has compared Penderecki's early work to Hieronim Bosch's painting: "This music molds a variety of states and emotions, leaving the listener with the impression of having touched something unnameable, some secret metaphysics. The piece as a whole has an effect not unlike that of a Bosch painting: it becomes a heart-rending fresco whose sounds convey a whole range of fears, anxieties, pains, and anguish".

The orchestra will also present themes from the films Jurassic Park and Hook by John Williams – one of the greatest film music composers who has received 50 Oscar nominations and won five golden statuettes.

More information at: https://filharmonia.szczecin.pl/pl

Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera announces 2020/2021 season repertoire

Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera will begin its next artistic season on 12 September 2020. French conductor Patrick Fournillier will held the position of TW–ON's musical director.

In the upcoming season, the theater plans to present six premieres, 25 opera and ballet titles, a number of concerts and recitals. Over 300 hours of music. Over 200 events on the stages of the theatre performed by outstanding opera and ballet artists, including the internationally renowned Aleksandra Kurzak, Tomasz Konieczny and Piotr Beczała. Patrick Fournillier will conduct seven productions: operas Fidelio, Bohemia, Werther, Tosca, Carmen, Traviata and ballet Mayerling. Traditionally, the premieres will be preceded by chamber concerts (series of "Premiere Preludes").

The proposals for September 2020 include an evening with charismatic Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński and a concert "Voices of the mountains", featuring music of outstanding Polish composers – Fryderyk Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Wojciech Kilar – performed by Atom String Quartet, Quartet of the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra, Sebastian Karpiel Bułecka Highland Quartet, Janusz Olejniczak and Jan Smoczyński under the direction of Jerzy Maksymiuk and Marek Moś. The concert "Krzysztof Penderecki in memoriam" will take place on 23 November.

Ticket sales for performances held until 31 December 2020 will start on 15 June 2020.

More information at: https://teatrwielki.pl/

Before Romuald Twardowski's anniversary

After a long break caused by the pandemic, we will hear the first recital from the Vienna State Opera. Tomasz Konieczny's performance on 12 June 2020 at 7.30 p.m. will be broadcast on Polish Radio Channel 2, its social media and website.

After successes at the Vienna State Opera, incuding as Alberich, Jochanaan and Wotan, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is expected to return to the Viennese stage in the coming season in Richard Strauss' Salome planned for October. Although the 2020/2021 season is still in question, in June the artist will give an extraordinary recital. Accompanied on the piano by Lech Napierała, Konieczny will present late romantic songs by Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninov.

The programme will also include three songs from the cycle Above the Villa by Romuald Twardowski, who will be celebrating his 90th birthday on 17 June. On this occasion, Anaklasis Records plans to release a special album Songs & Sonnets with Twardowski's chamber vocal and instrumental works. The album will include, among others, his Sonnets of Michelangelo for baritone and piano, dedicated to Tomasz Konieczny. In addition, PWM Edition is preparing a new printed edition of Romuald Twardowski's songs. The premiere of these materials will take place in the fall.

Warsaw | 20th Sinfonia Varsovia to Its City Festival

Sinfonia Varsovia returns to the stage and invites you to holiday concerts at its headquarters on Grochowska street. 20th Franciszek Wybrańczyk Sinfonia Varsovia to Its City Festival will take place in the beautiful surroundings of the park and historic buildings of Praga Południe between 2 August and 3 September 2020.

Sinfonia Varsovia returns to the game after several-months break! Four days a week, four types of events and a lot of diverse music – this is how you can describe the rich offer prepared by the orchestra for the summer season in its Concert Pavilion.

The Festival will follow a strict sanitary regime, which means that the powerful sound of the symphony orchestra will be replaced by smaller ensembles and the audience members will be seated with a safe distance from each other. Musicians of Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of recognized conductors and guest ensembles will present works of various genres, eras and forms. This year's edition will feature, for the first time, multimedia concerts of contemporary music. There will be also special events for the youngest audience and entire families.

Tickets will be on sale in July.

Full programme and safety guidelines will be soon available at: http://www.sinfoniavarsovia.org/pl/.

Andrzej Karałow's metaopera "De invitatione mortis” – album premiere

The premiere of Andrzej Karałow's album De invitatione mortis, published by the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music – Chopin University Press will take place on 10 June 2020.

In De invitatione mortis we are dealing with a text that is related to the values and philosophy of the Christian religion. Death, around which the main theme revolves, is not presented as the evil awaiting the man at the end of his life. It is only a symbolic transition to another, new world. The metaopera De invitatione mortis aims to show a different approach to the genre of opera by combining different stylistic and technical influences. It is a kind of a “desktop” opera, devoid of stage action: It adopts the form of a mystery play, in many aspects of an ascetic music drama, in which the voice acts as the communicator of the libretto’s content and its message. The mystery play character of De invitatione mortis concerns primarily the creation of a sound environment whose centre is occupied by the word, leading the course of the entire metaopera, which can be perceived as a ritual. One can say that De invitatione mortis is a mystery play in which the sound and word, dominating the whole structure, create a new, alien world based on synesthetic and abstract references. De invitatione mortis is also an attempt to address the issue of merging various genres from the borderline of classical, improvised, and electronic music.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://andrzejkaralow.pl/2-8/de_invitatione_mortis/

WATCH: Album Preview

Chopin online

Fryderyk Chopin's music has inspired projects that connect only seemingly distant worlds. When we look closer, it turns out that they have more in common than we thought. The Polish Radio Choir invites you to the premiere concert 'Chopin's Birthday', which will be broadcast online on 9 June 2020 at 7.30 p.m.

This time, the music of the most famous Polish composer was used by jazz and classical musicians – we will listen to Chopin's works in the joint performance of the Polish Radio Choir, vocalist Dorota Miśkiewicz and trio composed of: Paweł Tomaszewski (piano, arrangements), Robert Kubiszyn (bass) and Paweł Dobrowolski (percussion). Maria Piotrowska-Bogalecka will host the concert.

Chopin has always inspired jazz musicians who constantly reach for his music despite changing styles and fashions. Chopin's mazurkas and preludes are a true mine of harmonic inspirations. The concert will present these works in Paweł Tomaszewski's arrangament for choir, jazz band and voice. The programme will also feature Waltz scherzo for mixed choir by Maciej Małecki, written in 2010 on the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birthday.

The "Chopin's Birthday" concert will be broadcast online / LIVE on the YouTube channel of the Polish Radio Choir.

"Navigatio. Amor. Chopin's Birthday" concert from the series "Polish Radio Choir Music Dedications" was co-financed by the Municipality of Kraków and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund under the "Music" programme run by the Institute of Music and Dance.

Łódź | Bacewicz International Summer Music Academy 2020

BISMA Bacewicz International Summer Music Academy are master classes directed at musicians who want to expand their knowledge and develop skills in piano playing. The courses will take place between 2 and 8 August 2020 in the buildings of the Academy of Music in Łódź.

This year's classes will be led by the most outstanding pianists from prestigious music academies: Michel Béroff (professor of Seong-Jin Cho, the winner of the 17th Chopin Piano Competition) and Claudio Martinez Mehner as well as artists of the young generation: Alexej Gorlatch and Ilya Maximov. There will be several concerts broadcast live on the Internet.

The summer courses will culminate in a gala concert during which the Grażyna Bacewicz International Prize of 1,000 € will be granted to the best participant.

The application deadline is 8 June 2020. The entry fee is 50 € (participants from Poland are exempt from the entry fee). The cost of participation in the course is 520 €.

The director of BISMA is the Polish pianist Julia Kociuban.