news

Registrations of nearly 60 mazurkas by Polish composers of the 19^th and 20^th centuries were included in the collection entitled ‘Mazurka anthology’ prepared by the pianist Łukasz Chrzęszczyk www.antologiamazurka.pl

The recordings, realized since 2020 as part of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship, present the development of the mazurka in Polish music from the times of Elsner and Kurpiński, by Fontana, Żeleński, Noskowski, Leszetycki, Paderewski, Stojowski, Michałowski to Friedman and Tansman.
The Mazurka Anthology is an extremely interesting collection for music lovers, performers and educators seeking exemplification of interesting performance problems.

Project is realized as part of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship.

Less than 100 days remain until the start of scores enrollment for the Karol Szymanowski International Music Competition in the Composition category. Composers will be able to submit their composition from the 1^st of July until the 30^th of September 2022.

The winning compositions will be included in the repertoire of the performance competition, published by Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne and recorded. Prize pool is € 27,000.

The works will be assessed in two stages. In the first stage the scores will be assessed by a selection committee composed of composers and performers. In the second stage a jury consisting of the Italian composer and organist Francesco Filidea (chair) Agata Zubel, Daniel Cichy, Dutch composer and poet Rozalie Hirs and Yann Robin from France will make the final selection of the submitted compositions.

The competition is open to artists from all over the world who are under 40 years of age. Works can be submitted in one of four disciplines: piano, violin (solo or with piano), voice (solo or with piano) or string quartet. Each participant can submit more than one piece, increasing their chances of winning. Works intended for voice may use text in any language chosen by the composer.

Applications for the competition may be submitted from the 1^st of July to the 30^th of September 2022 via the online recruitment form that will be launched on the website www.szymanowski-competition.com 

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC

On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the death of Karol Szymanowski, the University of Warsaw Library, which boasts the largest collection of the composer's manuscripts and documents in Poland, makes their extensive selection available in the CRISPA digital library.

The first group of documents includes: 

- musical autographs of Szymanowski's works with opus numbers (105 musical manuscripts in various forms: score, piano excerpt, fair copy, draft, sketch, fragment),
- photographs of the composer - portraits and chronicles of his life (49 items),
- first editions of some of his compositions (27 items).

Karol Szymanowski's legacy was transferred to the University of Warsaw Library in 1961 and its survival is largely due to the tireless work of the musicologist Stanisław Golachowski, who during the Second World War undertook and pursued the intention of integrating and securing the composer's scattered material output: his manuscripts, memorabilia, and correspondence.

After Piotra Maculewicz's note

The materials are available at https://crispa.uw.edu.pl/objects/collection/42

On the 1^st of April 2022 at 5.30 p.m. at the final concert of the 2^nd International Composition Competition ‘art and violence’ at the Decjusz Willa Cultural Institute in Cracow premiere of the two winning pieces performed by Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble will take place.

The subject of the competition was a piece for a piano trio with a duration of up to 12 minutes referring to the Competition’s theme ‘art and violence. The jury composed of: Prof. Marcel Chyrzyński - chairman, Prof. Wojciech Ziemowit Zych and Prof. Maciej Jabłoński - appraised 27 scores from all over the world: Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Poland, Russia, the United States, Sweden and Great Britain. Among them were works of Olgierd Juzal-Deprati (1^st prize) and Tomasz Szczepanik (2^nd prize).

We will hear the winning compositions Ci-sza by Juzal-Deprati for soprano saxophone, percussion and piano (2022) and Szczepanik's Inquietudine for alto flute, percussion and piano (2022). Pieces by Georges Aperghis, Giacinto Scelsi and Rachel C. Walker will also be performed at the concert.

More: wydarzenie na FB

Board of Musicology Section of the Polish Composers’ Union announces 51st Musicological Conference ZKP taking place between the 13^th and 15^th of October 2022 in Katowice titled ‘Music and Expression’. Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice will be the host of the event. Application deadline is 31^st of March 2022.

Conference “Music and Expression’ will be yet another chance to think of music as expressive art. Special guests of the event will be Karol Berger (Stanford University) and Krzysztof Guczalski (Jagiellonian University) who will give plenary lectures.

Organizers await proposals of papers up to 20 minutes long and short speeches up to 10 minutes long (presenting main research theses only). Application forms together with abstracts (up to 1500 signs with spaces) are to be submitted till the 31^st of March to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Organizational committee whose members are: Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska, Marcin Trzęsiok, Bartłomiej Barwinek, Agnieszka Nowok-Zych, Wojciech Stępień, Magdalena Stochnio will decide upon acceptance of the applications.

Conference fees:

400 zł – full fee

300 zł – Polish Composers’ Union members fee

200 zł – short speech fee

Pensionists and unaffiliated participants – no fee.

Fees include VAT, full board but no accommodation. Organizers offer help in booking the accommodation.

DOWNLOAD: formularz zgłoszeniowy

Conference is supported by the Minister of Science and Higher Education as part of the programme:  ‘Doskonała nauka - wsparcie konferencji naukowych 2021’ (‘Excellent Science – Support of Academic Conferences 2021’)