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The winners of the International Stanisław Moniuszko Composers’ Competition for a micro-opera entitled “12 Minutes for Moniuszko”, organized by the Polish Composers' Union and Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera, were announced during the Evening of Premieres, which was held on 18 December 2019 at 7 p.m. in the Emil Młynarski Chamber Hall of the Grand Theater – Polish National Opera.

The competition aimed to revive, in present-day conditions, the specific idea of Moniuszko’s operas as musical dramas based on social topics. After the auditions of the 2nd stage of the Competition, the Jury composed of: Zygmunt Krauze – composer, chairman of the Jury, Waldemar Dąbrowski – director of the Grand Theater – National Opera, Ryszard Daniel Golianek – musicologist, Jerzy Kornowicz – composer, Hanna Kulenty – composer, Janusz Wiśniewski – opera director, Jerzy Wołosiuk – conductor, awarded the main prize of PLN 40,000 to Tomasz Szczepanik, PhD, for the work The Immigrant. The winner of the Competition is a lecturer at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź.

Other finalists – Ignacy Zalewski, Patricia Elizabeth Martínez, Otto Wanke, Paweł Siek and Estera Wityńska – received prizes in the amount of PLN 20,000 and titles of the laureates of the Competition. The Audience Award in the amount of PLN 10,000 was awarded to Ignacy Zalewski, PhD, assistant professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

We warmly congratulate all the winners!

The outstanding Polish-Jewish-Soviet composer, marked by the drama of World War II, will be the hero of Sinfonia Varsovia's concert in Moscow – the place where he spent the last years of his life. The event is organized on 19 December 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Zaryadye Concert Hall on the 100th anniversary of his birth, but also at the end of the Moniuszko Year celebrations.

Mieczysław Weinberg is a composer whose work, so far poorly known, has recently aroused great emotions among music critics as well as the artists themselves, fascinated by his style and rich artistic output. For many years his work was influenced by dramatic war events and personal experiences, including loss of loved ones during the extermination of the Warsaw Ghetto and emigration to Russia. Referring to neoclassicism in the undertaken forms and genres, i.e. symphony, string quartet or solo concert, he created his individual compositional style, captivating with emotional depth, richness of references to Polish folklore, Jewish and Moldavian music and symphonic panache. Weinberg's work is characterized by balanced form and clarity of instrumentation.

The programme of the concert will feature Mieczysław Weinberg's Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 61 as well as Stanisław Moniuszko's the Fairy Tale ouverture and Fryderyk Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor. The concert will be conducted by a great interpreter of Mieczysław Weinberg's works – Gabriel Chmura. He was the first to record the composer's three symphonies: IV, XIV and XVI, which were released by the Chandos label. Yulianna Avdeeva will perform as a soloist.

More information at:: http://www.sinfoniavarsovia.org/pl/ 

On 20 December 2019 at 7 p.m. the Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic in Kielce will host a Christmas concert as part of the "Stage for Youth" concert series.

The Mixed Choir and Chamber Orchestra of the State Music Schools Complex in Warsaw were invited to the Świętokrzyska Philharmonic for the pre-Christmas evening. The musicians will be conducted by Katarzyna Sokołowska, the deputy director of artistic affairs for the School. The Orchestra was prepared by Radosław Labahua – conductor, music producer and trumpeter.

The concert programme will include traditional Polish Christmas carols arranged by Marian Sawa – distinguished composer and pedagogue who died in 2005. He dedicated his arrangements to the Mixed Choir of the Józef Elsner Secondary Music School, which was led by outstanding choirmaster Zbigniew Soja back in the seventies. These compositions were written for a four-voice choir with organ accompaniment, but for the purpose of the upcoming concert they were arranged for a chamber orchestra and mixed choir by Marcin Molski. Thanks to their classic, traditional form and rich harmony, they create a moving atmosphere of Polish Christmas.

More information at: http://filharmonia.kielce.com.pl/press/press_20.12.19.html 

Regardless of the weather, the Artur Rubinstein Łódź Philharmonic will host a "Winter Concert" on 20 December 2019 at 7 p.m.

Antoni Wit, one of the greatest Polish conductors, will conduct the concert. Maestro toured in many countries and worked with the best orchestras, including Tokyo NHK, Berlin Philharmonic or Cleveland Orchestra. Exactly half a century ago he conducted in Łódź for the first time.

Polish music plays an important role in Wit's repertoire. Therefore, the upcoming concert will begin with the concert overture Morskie Oko, Op. 19 by Zygmunt Noskowski, inpired by the composer's trips to the Tatra mountains. The programme will include "Alpine" Symphony, Op. 64 by Richard Strauss, also inspiried by the mountain landscape, and Symphony No. 8 in B minor "Unfinished" D.759 by Franz Schubert.

The pre-concert meeting at 6:15 pm will be hosted by Piotr Matwiejczuk ("Ruch Muzyczny"). A vernissage of the woodcut exhibition "Qi Gardens" by Tomasz Kawełczyk will take place before the concert.

Full programme available at: https://filharmonia.lodz.pl/pl/wydarzenia/koncert-zimowy-0 

A concert performance of the opera Ahat Ilī - Sister of Gods by Alexander Nowak to the libretto of Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk will take place on 20 December 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Mediateka in Tychy as part of this year's Auksodrone festival.

Ahat Ilī – Sister of Gods is the award-winning Polish writer, Olga Tokarzcuk's, first libretto. Tokarczuk is famous for deconstructed novels, short stories and essays centered on life and death and the translucent inner core of the human soul. The commissioned artwork for the libretto, hanging above the singers and dancers, has been described as a pair of lungs, a cell, embryo, or a zygote, celebrating that transparent, yet organic shape. Constructed by sixty-five segments, each with an individual pattern, the artwork is achieving a perfect sphere; only once all pieces are placed together.

In Ahat Ilī , the gods and humans gather on a slowly rotating circular steel platform, tucked underneath the deflating zygote, whilst a projection is being made above them. The orbit, its zenith and perhaps the projected past, all acts as the intrinsic set for a modern dystopian myth, reflecting on the themes of sisterhood, ethos, environment, and consequence.

The title role of Ninszubur will be performed by Urszula Kryger. Joanna Freszel will perform as the goddess of life Inanna, Ewa Biegas as the sister of Inanna, the goddess of death Ereszkigal, and Jan Jakub Monowid as Inanna's lover, Dumuzi. Sebastian Szumski, Bartłomiej Misiuda and Szymon Kobyliński will perform as gods-fathers. They will be accompanied by the Katowice Camerata Silesia Singers' Ensemble (prepared by Anna Szostak-Myrczek) and the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy under the direction of Marek Moś.

More information at: http://www.auksodrone.com/