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Musicians’ Community Contemporary Ensemble

Band members:

Małgorzata Mikulska – flute[s]
Krzysztof Guńka – saxophone[s]
Wiktor Krzak – bassoon
Mateusz Rusowicz – trumpet, conductor
Bartosz Sałdan – percussion
Aleksander Wnuk – percussion
Michał Lazar – guitar[s]
Martyna Zakrzewska – piano, MIDI
Barbarba Mglej – violin
Paulina Woś – violin
Gabriela Biel – viola
Jakub Gucik – cello
Piotr Peszat – multimedia, management

In 2014, a group of Krakow-based musicians, who had performed together as part of the European Workshop for Contemporary Music, attended Darmstadt’s International Summer Courses for New Music. So an idea was born to maintain the already fruitful collaboration, now in the shape of a regular ensemble, soon to be named Spółdzielnia Muzyczna (Musicians’ Community).

The members of the ensemble share passion for contemporary music: both Polish and foreign, European as well as originating from other continents, known or still waiting to be discovered — such that makes them and their audiences grow and develop. They play chamber music, in the broadest sense of the term: ranging from solo compositions to those involving more than a dozen instrumentalists. Adopting equal partnership as a guiding principle, the group aim their efforts at uniting different personalities to form a novel whole—that is why they call themselves Musicians’ Community.

Musicians’ Community is an amalgam of personalities, and each one of the members deserves credit for his or her own, individual achievements in music. Besides, they – as members of the European Workshop for Contemporary Music – have had the privilege to work with instrumentalists representing groups like Ensemble Moderne and Ensemble Garage. All in all, they owe a lot to EWCM's chief conductor Rüdiger Bohn.

Over the course of their independent activity, by now spanning over a year, three musicians from the ensemble—Barbara Borowicz, Gabriela Biel and Bartosz Sałdan—worked with Helmut Lachenmann on interpreting his Trio fluido. Subsequent performance of the piece took place at the Brand New Music Festival in Katowice. The Community also featured in Kraków’s festival aXes – the New Music Triduum, Musica Moderna Festival in Łódź, including pieces by Artur Zagajewski and Marta Śniady composed specifically for Musicians’ Community, as well as Warsaw Autumn Festival, Sacrum Profanum and Audio Art Festival.

On December 5th, 2015 ew were administered a catalyst in the form of Piotr Peszat’s monographic multimedia concert. Compositions combining music and performance, employing instrumental capabilities on a par with acting skills, opened the Community up to a whole new perspective. That unique and significant experience will undoubtedly affect the path of their further development.

updated: 2018 (ac)