official patronage

Songs by Agnieszka Osiecka and Mrozu performed by the Mundus Cantat Choir, performances by choirs from Norway, Ukraine and Great Britain – this musical feast awaits the Tri-City audience as part of Gdańsk Concerts Accompanying the 14th edition of the International Choir Festival "Mundus Cantat " 2018.

A series of Gdańsk Accompanying Concerts, which are part of the International Choir Festival "Mundus Cantat" 2018, will start on April 21, 2018. The Mundus Cantat Festival Choir invites you to the Osiedlowy Dom Kultury (Cultural Center) at 5.00 p.m. for the concert titled "Osiecka for choir and other hits of popular music". The repertoire of the ensemble will include the most popular songs by Agnieszka Osiecka and contemporary hits known from the radio, such as We have nothing to lose by Mrozu and Sound'n'Grace, or Starboy by The Weekend.

If someone will not be able to attend this concert, another chance to hear Mundus Cantat in a similar repertoire will apear on April 28 at the Old Town Hall (7.00 p.m.), where they will perform together with the Kor Som Helst choir from Kristiansand (Norway). Our guests from far-away Norway will present folk songs from the far North as well as jazz ballads. During the concert, donations will be collected on behalf of the Foundation for Magdalena Piorunek. She has been struggling with a serious illness since her birth – Progressive Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA type 1 Werdnig-Hoffmann).

On July 14 at 7.00 pm in the Oliwa City Hall of Culture you will be able to hear the performance of the Choir of the School for Girls from Bruton (Great Britain). The program of the concert will include religious and classical music. GKT will end the concert of Colombian tenor Juan Felipe Alvarado, who will perform on September 21 in the "Piastuś" Community Center of Culture and present a Latin American boleros about people, their temperament and feelings.

The project also includes choral workshops: "Choir – musical activation through social reintegration" and "You can take the floor", addressed to young people gathered at the OHP Youth Education Center in Gdańsk. Workshop participants – young people requiring special attention – learn about the correct voice emission, take part in vocal activities, and even work on the repertoire that will be performed during the important ceremony of the institution.

The organizers of Gdańsk Accompanying Concerts are the City of Gdańsk and the Mundus Cantat Foundation and the co-organizers are the Baltic Sea Cultural Center and the Gdańsk Community. The project was co-financed by the city of Gdańsk. Admission to all concerts is free.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

DOWNLOAD: Event programme.

The next chamber concert in the cycle "Wednesday on Okolnik Street" will take place on May 9, 2018 at 7.00 p.m. at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

The concert will be performed by outstanding artists: violinist Janusz Wawrowski, cellist Jakub Dubik and pianist Grzegorz Skrobiński. In their interpretation, we will hear rarely performed works by Andrzej Panufnik (Piano Trio) and Mieczysław Wajnberg (Sonatina for violin and piano), as well as works by two composers of the "Young Poland" group: Ludomir Różycki (Rhapsody for Piano Trio, Op. 33) and Karol Szymanowski (Dance from the ballet Harnasie, Op. 55 in transcription for violin and piano by the composer and Paweł Kochański).

The concert will also premiere the 3rd Sonatina by Norbert Palej – Polish composer currently living in Canada, lecturer at the University of Toronto, artistic director of the Festival of Contemporary Music in Toronto.

Tickets available from the 26th of April at the Chopin University Press (Mon.–Fri., 12.00 p.m.–7.00 p.m.) and through the website: www.umfc.bilety24.pl.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

The next concert of the series "Polish music too little known" will be held on April 28, 2018 at 7.30 p.m. in the Katowice headquarters of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. It will be a great opportunity to get acquainted with the lesser-known works of Karol Lipiński.

During the April concert we will hear Trio in A major, Op. 12 and Trio in G minor, Op. 8 for 2 violins and cello by Karol Lipiński. The programme will be presented by graduates of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music: violinists Voytek Proniewicz and Adam Roszkowski, and cellist and composer Jan Roszkowski.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Information about tickets at the NOSPR website.

Psychology Students' Scientific Association  at the Pedagogical University of Cracow and Student Government at the M. Karłowicz Secondary Music School in Cracow invite you to the Composers' Concert accompanying the Festival of Science and Art. It will take place on May 17, 2018 at 6.00 p.m. in the Cellar under the Rams (Rynek Główny 27).

Young composers – students of the Academy of Music in Cracow, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, the M. Karłowicz and the B. Rutkowski Secondary Music Schools in Cracow, as well as students from other centers – will present their works. Monika Kozakiewicz and Krzysztof Madziar will conduct the ensembles.

The musicians will present eleven pieces, including eight world premieres: Three Spanish Songs by Katarzyna Ignatowicz, El Abismo de la Mente II – Diálogos and Discarmin b yJustyna Skowronek, Fantaisie for piano by Jacek Sienkiewicz, Fantasia feroce, Dumka "Soul cries ..." and In the Andalusian Orchard by Monika Wiktoria Kozakiewicz. The aim of the concert is to show the diversity of instrumental and vocal-intrumental music by young artists - atonal harmonies, references to classic patterns, using folklore, using electronics ... The concert will be a kind of journey through music full of contrasts, shocking solutions, and reflections.

Admission to the event is free.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

The 2017/2018 season of transmissions from the Metropolitan Opera will end on April 28 with Jules Massenet's Cinderella. The opera will be broadcast live in HD to the Praha Cinema in Warsaw at 6.35 p.m.

Someone has counted that there are about 700 versions of the story about an orphan girl oppressed by her stepmother and bad sisters. The most popular on the European land, of course, is the fairy tale of Charles Perrault from the volume The Tales of Mother Goose. Later works for children were created on this theme, as well as Cinderella ballet by Prokofiev and operas, including those by Rossini and Massenet. This last work had its premiere in 1899 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. It was a great success – it was played over 50 times only in the first season of the presentation.

In the staging of Laurent Pelly, the poetic story of a poor girl gained a fancy set design and was transferred to the world of children's books. The star of the MET performance will be American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. Alice Coote as the Prince of Fairy Tales, Stephanie Blythe as an evil stepmother and Laurent Naouri as the father of Cinderella will join her on the stage. The fairy will be Kathleen Kim. Conducts Bertrand de Billy.

The end of the current season of live shows does not mean parting with the New York scene until October. Before the next season begins, viewers around the world could watch the summer-autumn replays of the most valuable MET shows from past years. MET decided to dedicate two of them to the memory of the recently deceased baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky. The repertoire will include Eugeniusz Oniegin by Piotr Czajkowski (2007) and Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi (2015).

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Additional information at: http://www.kinopraha.pl and http://new.nazywowkinach.pl/met-in-hd 

The Oskar Kolberg Primary Music School in Czasław invites you to take part in the Antoni Cofalik National Violin and Viola Competition for Primary Music Schools' Students, which will be held on June 8-9, 2018.

The aim of the competition is to develop children's musical talent, present their artistic achievements, promote the most talented students, improve  methodological and pedagogical skills of teachers and popularize the work of Professor Antoni Cofalik, an outstanding pedagogue and composer of numerous works for children and youth.

Open auditions will be held on June 8-9, 2018 in the Concert Hall located in the ZSZiO hall of residence in Sułkowice (1 Maja 66 St.). Students of primary music schools, both six- and four-year cycles, playing the violin or viola can apply for the auditions. The organizers provide an accompanist. The compulsory program of the Competition includes works from collections by Antoni Cofalik: At the zoo, At the circus and Aviary. The Laureats Concert will take place in the Sułkowice Concert Hall.

Application form and Rules of the competition are available for download on the website of the Oskar Kolber Primary Music School in Czasław: www.smczaslaw.pl 

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra will play along with the students of music schools on 10th May 2018, at 7.00 p.m., in the Concert Hall of the F. Chopin University of Music in Warsaw (2 Okólnik St.).

Iuventus is a Latin word denoting youth, and the youth of pupils of music schools combined with their professionalism are the main attributes of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra. The May concert refers to the experiences of even younger artists, students of music schools. For them, a performance with a professional orchestra and outstanding conductor – Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk – is a great distinction, as well as a test of their already impressive skills, as shown by the ambitious and interesting repertoire.

The talented violinist Klara Gronet, student of Robert Szreder and the youngest participant and laureate of the International Anton Rubinstein Competition in Düsseldorf will showcase her skills in the superb Violin Concerto in D Major composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. This fascinating work has changed its genre and to date it remains one of the most popular pieces in the repertoire of violinists.

The Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major by Dmitri Shostakovich is one of his pieces inspired by the talent and charisma of Mstislav Rostropovich, who performed it for the first time in 1959, led by the great Yevgeny Mravinsky, evoking admiration for the beauty of music, as well as its great difficulty, making the work accessible only for the greatest of virtuosos. Their ranks include a teenage cellist Gustaw Bafeltowski, who hones his skills under the eye of Marcin Zdunik, and who can boast an impressive list of achievements, competition prizes and concerts. The instrumentalists are students of the Z. Brzewski State Higher School of Music, known to some as the so-called “talent school”, which is a part of the State Music School Complex no. 1 in Warsaw. The harp player Wojciech Trefon hails from S. Moniuszko State Music School Complex in Bielsko-Biała, where he studies under Anna Scheller. He is going to present a charming and masterful work by Camille Saint-Saëns – Morceau de Concert, which is a kind of a miniature harp concerto.

Media patronage: Polish Music Inforamtion Centre POLMIC.

Information about tickets at: www.sinfoniaiuventus.pl

Between April 29 and May 4, 2018, Moldova's residents will have an opportunity to listen to music by Polish composers. Recitals, master classes, lectures, and a symphony concert in the Filarmonica Naţională "Serghei Lunchevici" will take place within the project implemented by the "Porta Musicae" Artistic Association as part of the Polish Music Experience.

On April 29, Marian Sobula will perform a piano recital in the Chamber Hall of the National Philharmonic of Moldova in Chisinau with the works of Fryderyk Chopin and Ignacy Jan Paderewski. On the same day, Jan Kalinowski (cello) and Marek Szlezer (piano) will perform a chamber recital in Rybnica, where they will perform, among others, works by Feliks Nowowiejski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Aleksander Tansman or Ludomir Różycki.

In the first days of May, the artists will conduct master classes for students of the Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts in Chisinau and give a lecture on Polish music, during which they will present works by contemporary composers, including Marta Ptaszyńska and Marcel Chyrzyński.

The culmination of the project will be a unique concert in the Concert Hall of the  National Philharmonic of Moldova, during which, under the baton of Paweł Kotla, the Moldovan premiere of Cello Concerto, Op. 43 by Mieczysław Wajnberg, Piano Concerto No. 2 by Wojciech Kilar and the symphonic poem The Steppe op. 66 by Zygmunt Noskowski will take place. The Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Moldova will perform along with Jan Kalinowski and Marek Szlezer.

The concerts are co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: www.polishmusicexperience.com

On May 6, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in the Katowice headquarters of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra a duo of great musicians will perform: Turkish-Georgian violinist Veriko Tchumburidze and Polish pianist Marcin Sikorski.

The programme will include: Karol Szymanowski – Myths. Three Poems for violin and piano, Op. 30 (Fountain of Arethusa, Narcissus, Dryads and Pan), Maurice Ravel – Sopnata in G Major for violin and piano (1927), Richard Strauss – Sonata in E Flat Major for violin and piano, Op. 18 (1887).

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Information about tickets: www.nospr.org.pl