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“Krzysztof Penderecki: Europe in tribute to the Master” is a series of two concerts organised in 2021 by the Polish Composers’ Union in collaboration with foreign partners from Lithuania and Ireland as part of the "Promotion of Polish Culture Abroad" programme of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport of the Republic of Poland.

We want to commemorate the world-famous composer, conductor and teacher, a longtime Honorary Member and the Honorary President of the Polish Composers’ Union, who passed away on 29 March 2020. The programme of each concert includes Krzysztof Penderecki’s compositions alongside corresponding works by other contemporary composers from Poland and our partner’s countries. We will hear pieces by peers and students of the Maestro, as well as winners of the composers’ competitions under his name, including Marek Stachowski, Maciej Bałenkowski, Wojciech Kostrzewa, Andrzej Ojczenasz or Paweł Siek.

Local chamber ensembles will present this repertoire to the international audience. The Vilnius City Municipality St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra conducted by Modestas Barkauskas will perform on 15 July at 7 p.m. at the St. Catherine Church in Vilnius and the Hard Rain Soloists Ensemble under the artistic direction of Greg Caffrey will play on 10th October at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin as part of The Sundays @ Noon Concert Series. Both events will be live streamed on YouTube and made available to watch later.

More detailed information will be soon available on the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC website and Facebook page.

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund.

As part of the "Polish Music Today – Portraits of Contemporary Polish Composers" series, initiated in 2013, the Polish Composers' Union released three more albums last year. The first of them, containing Roman Berger's monumental Missa pro nobis, was very important to the composer who wrote a text summarizing his work and philosophy especially for the booklet and fortunately received the album before his death in December 2020. The next two albums are devoted to two great figures whose work started already in the interwar period: Roman Maciejewski and Konstanty Regamey.

The album with Maciejewski's music (catalog number: polmic 161) contains a set of "minor" pieces for two pianos by this composer: Oberek (1943), four Negro Spirituals (1943), Mazurka (1948), Lullaby (1938), Tarantella (1938) and Swedish dances (six miniatures from 1940-1942). All of them were performed by Chopin Piano Duo composed of Anna Boczar and Bartłomiej Kominek; the recording was made by DUX Recording Producers at the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice between 29 September and 1 October and on 24-25 November 2020. The essay for the album was written by Marlena Wieczorek – the author of the composer's monograph, published in Poznań (PTPN Publishing House) in 2008.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the "Musical Trace" programme operated by the Institute of Music and Dance. The album was released thanks to the support of the ZAiKS Authors' Association. The project partner was Repliq Media Sp. z o.o.

The Polish Composers' Union own releases are intended solely for promotional, educational and research purposes. They are not intended for sale. They are provided free of charge to interested institutions and individuals, but due to the very small circulation and large interest, priority is given to music libraries, where a broad audience can benefit from each set. If you are interested, please contact the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC (contact: Izabela Zymer, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC: HERE

The Vilnius City Municipality St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra conducted by Modestas Barkauskas will perform a concert devoted to Krzysztof Penderecki on 15 July 2021 at 7 p.m. at the St. Catherine Church in Vilnius. The event with live broadcast by LRT Klasika is a part of the project “Krzysztof Penderecki: Europe in tribute to the Master” carried out by the Polish Composers’ Union in collaboration with foreign partners.

With this concert, we want to commemorate the world-famous composer, conductor and teacher, a long-time Honorary Member and the Honorary President of the Polish Composers’ Union, who passed away on 29 March 2020. The programme includes Penderecki’s Sinfonietta per archi alongside corresponding works by other composers from Poland, including students of the Maestro and winners of the composers’ competitions under his name, as well as a piece by one of the most famous contemporary Lithuanian composers, Raminta Šerkšnytė.

Penderecki’s Sinfonietta is the orchestral equivalent of his String Trio (1990/91). It is a perfect example of a neo-classical work influenced by the Baroque form of concerto grosso with clear references to Bartók’s music. The piece will be juxtaposed with Sinfonietta – Time is ticking written by Penderecki’s student, Maciej Bałenkowski. This motoric piece inspired by the concept of time received the 1st prize in the "Sinfonietta per Sinfonietta" Composition Competition (2018) held under the honorary patronage of Krzysztof Penderecki. The programme will also include Wojciech Kostrzewa’s Novelette (2018, 1st prize in the 3rd Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers’ Competition “Arboretum”), and Andrzej Ojczenasz’s Tech-uniques (2019, 1st prize in the 5th Krzysztof Penderecki Composers’ Competition as part of the 9th NDI Sopot Classic Festival). The concert will be completed by Raminta Šerkšnytė’s early work De profundis (1998), which aims at displaying a wide range of sound possibilities in various orchestral textures.

The project is realised by the Polish Composers’ Union / Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC in partnership with the Vilnius City Municipality St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra with the support of the Polish Institute in Vilnius. Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund.

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Live broadcast: LRT Klasika website, Šv. Kristoforo Kamerinis Orkestras’ Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Krzysztof Penderecki's music will be heard on 10 October 2021 at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin as part of the popular Sundays@Noon series. The concert performed by Hard Rain Soloists Ensemble conducted by Sinead Hayes will be held as part of the "Krzysztof Penderecki: Europe in Tribute to the Master" project, organised by the Polish Composers' Union in collaboration with foreign partners.

The concert will begin and end with early compositions by the world-famous composer, conductor and teacher, a long-time Honorary Member and the Honorary President of the Polish Composers' Union, who passed away in March 2020. His Three Miniatures for clarinet and piano, showing no traces of later radicalism, were composed in 1956 when Penderecki was still a student of the State Higher School of Music in Krakow. Three years later he wrote Three Miniatures for violin and piano which heralds the 'sonoristic' period in his work. It was on the threshold of the 1960s that his career took off due to winning all three awards in the 2nd PCU's Competition for Young Composers. At the time he was also teaching at the Krakow academy and among his students was Marek Stachowski, whose Audition for flute, cello and piano (1970) we will hear at the concert.

Throughout his life Krzysztof Penderecki was an ardent promoter of the latest contemporary music. The programme will therefore include the works of Polish composers of the young generation: ReVerse 4 (2014) by Adam Porębski, Dance with my Breath (2015) by Agnieszka Stulgińska, and Lignes d'hauntologie / 1949? (2017) by Paweł Siek. The compositions will be performed by Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble (HRSE) – a contemporary music group from Belfast, whose remit is to present music by local composers in the context of works by leading exponents of contemporary music from around the world. The concert programme will be complemented by two contemporary Irish works: Blunt Instrument (2008-09) by Greg Caffrey and LUCA (2017) by Gráinne Mulvey.

The project is carried out by the Polish Composers’ Union / Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC in partnership with the Contemporary Music Centre in Dublin with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dublin. Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund.

More information: https://www.cmc.ie/

The Polish Composers' Union, PWM Edition and the Konstanty Gorski Music Society on the 26th of April, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. invite you to a music and art gathering 'Resurrection of Music: The Forgotten Composer Konstanty Gorski. The Lost Opera "Margier" and the full reconstruction of its score by conductor Ivan Kostyakhin'. The event, featuring Maestro Kostyakhin, as well as the Polish Composers Union President Mieczysław Kominek, Grzegorz Seroczyński - the head of the recently established Konstanty Gorski Music Society - and artists who will present excerpts from the work, will take place at the Polish Music Edition office in the center of Warsaw (Fredry 8 street). Admission is free!

WHO WAS THE AUTHOR OF "MARGIER"?

This remarkable artist, active and significant on the map of musical culture of his time, lived the life of an "eternal migrant" and, probably, for this reason he is almost completely forgotten today. Composer, violinist, and teacher Konstanty Gorski was born in 1859 in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (in Lida, now a city in Belarus), died in 1924 in Poznań, studied in Grodno, Vilnius, Warsaw, and St. Petersburg, worked in Georgia, Ukraine, and in the reborn Second Polish Republic. His beautiful music deserves to be popularized especially since next year marks the 100th anniversary of Konstanty Gorski's death.

FIRST RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SCORE OF "MARGIER"

The content of Konstanty Gorski's three-act opera "Margier" based on the poem by Vladislav Syrokomla provides examples of dramatic, sacrificial patriotism. The action takes place in the 14th century on the Neman River and at Malbork Castle: legend has it that Lithuanian prince Margier, together with the garrison of his castle in Punah and the surrounding population, heroically resisted a Teutonic siege. Gorski created his first opera during his Kharkiv period, as evidenced by the piano score released in 1905, which is kept in the University Library in Poznań. The handwritten score of the work, staged in 1927 at the Grand Theater in Poznań (already after the composer's death), burned down during World War II.

Only this year, as part of the InBelKult 2.0 project, opera conductor and choirmaster Ivan Kostyakhin became the first to reconstruct the full score. The cast is impressive: a large symphony orchestra, choir, and soloists.

We invite you to participate in a meeting and discussion dedicated to the presentation of the reconstructed score. As a treat for music lovers, young artists will perform excerpts of the opera, accompanied on the piano by the maestro himself.

https://www.facebook.com/events/6913350662014379