official patronage

The 14th International Festival of Contemporary Music and Visual Arts „Mózg Festival” will take place in two cities: Bydgoszcz (September 22 – November 10, 2018) and Warsaw (November 21-24, 2018)

"Mózg Festival" is an encounter of artists who work and create in all areas of contemporary music as well as performance art and multimedia installations where music plays an important part. Artists who participate in the festival come from all around the world. In the years 2016-2018 each edition of the festival had a motto, which directed the attention to problems emerging in the modern world. In 2018 the topic of the festival is: "Spirituality is everywhere".

The October edition of the Festival will start with Martin Scorsese's movie Silence. During the upcoming concert we will hear such improvisers as Seabuckthorn, Dean McPhee, Ido Bukelman, Agnes Hvizdalek, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Sławek Janicki, Małgorzata Wrzosek, Jarosław Majewski, Piotr Dąbrowski, Trio Duthoit Oshima Lebrant. The only Polish female percussion duo Dalbergia Duo will present works by Polish composers and composers of the younger generation. Teonika Rożynek and Qba Janicki will perform improvisations for drums and electronics, using electronic processing of the audio signal generated by acoustic instruments. On the same day, we will hear Anna Zielińska's compositions performed by the composer, who is also a great violinist. Anna Zielińska's special area of ​​interest is solo and group improvisation using various sources of sound. The concerts will take place at the Mózg Club (Bydgoszcz, 2 Parkowa Street).

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://festiwal.mozg.pl/ 

On October 17, 2018 at 7 p.m., as part of the regular concerts of the artistic season of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music entitled "Wednesday on Okólnik Street", there will be a symphonic concert "Our graduates", which will feature a premiere of the new work by Nikola Kołodziejczyk.

The concert will start with Karol Szymanowski's Etude in B flat minor – the third of the early piano series Four etudes, Op. 4, arranged for the orchestra by Grzegorz Fitelberg. Next, the FCUM Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk will present the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 by Johannes Brahms and the premiere of the accordion concerto Olgino by Nikola Kołodziejczyk – composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, winner of two "Fryderyk" awards. The work will be performed by Rafał Grząka, graduate of the FCUM, student of prof. zw. dr hab. Klaudiusz Baran, rector of the same university. The concert by Nikola Kołodziejczyk was commissioned by the Accordionists Association as part of the "Collections" programme – "Composing Commissions" priority, operated by the Institute of Music and Dance.

For all concerts from the cycle "Wednesday on Okólnik Street" tickets for PLN 15 can be purchased at the earliest two weeks before the concert. The sale takes place at the Chopin University Press in the main university hall from Monday to Wednesday and on Fridays from 4 to 7pm, and through the website www.umfc.bilety24.pl. 

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

On October 14, 2018, the "Czas Sztuki" Foundation invites you to a concert within  the cycle "Mazovian Musical Meetings Without Barriers", during which the composition of Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko will be premiered.

The Foundation organizes a series of seven concerts of classical and jazz music, which will take place in very small towns in the district of Mińsk and Siedlce, where the residents are deprived of cultural offer and access to cultural goods. The concerts take place in churches and cultural centers, which are the only places in this area that gather the majority of the local community. The varied musical programme is adapted to the mentality and needs of the target group.

The third concert of the cycle, entitled "Traditional singing with strings", will take place on Sunday in Żeliszew Podkościelny in a beautiful wooden historic Holy Trinity Church at 12.30 p.m. This event will be exceptional because of the premiere of Weronika Ratusińska-Zamuszko's Agnus Dei for string quartet and traditional voice. The work has been specially composed for this series of concerts. The program will also feature a string quartet in a minimalist style by the composer, as well as folk songs. Vocalist Weronika Grozdew-Kołacińska and The Time Quartet will be among the performers.

Admission free!

The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the "Composition Commissions" programme implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

On October 27, 2018 at 7.00 p.m., the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw will host the world premiere of Lightflight for violin and organs by a talented young composer Nikolet Burzyńska. The concert will take place as part of the "Musica Sacra" series.

Nikolet Burzyńska is a laureate of numerous international awards. Her works are performed by significant Polish and European orchestras, as well as world-famous soloists, like the American violinist Hilary Hahn. Her latest work was written as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme, operated by the Institute of Music and Dance.

"Light and flight, flight to light, light-bulb, light flight ... the title of the piece is very ambiguous. The composition was initiated by the exceptional violinist Jolanta Sosnowska and written for her. I was captivated by her agility and the airiness of the game, as well as the deep emotionality and naturalness of phrasing." – says the composer. 

The work will be premiered by Jolanta Sosnowska, a Warsaw resident living in Vienna, the winner of international competitions specializing in discovering and creating new music from the baroque to the present, and an excellent Hungarian organist, partner of the Vienna Philharmonics, winner of the first prizes in organ improvisation competitions – Robert Kovács.The artists will also present works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Eugène Ysaÿe, Komitas Vardapeda and Nicola Matteis as well as organ improvisations. The concert will be hosted by Magdalena Łoś-Komarnicka.

Admission free!

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

The National Scientific Conference "Stanisław Wisłocki – life and work" will take place in Rzeszów on October 12-13, 2018. 

2018 marks the 20th death anniversary of the great Polish conductor, pedagogue and composer Stanisław Wisłocki (1921-1998), born in Rzeszów. On this occasion, the Rzeszów Music Society together with the Artur Malawski Philharmonic in Rzeszów organise a National Scientific Conference entitled "Stanisław Wisłocki – life and work".

On October 13, 2018, in the chamber hall of the Podkarpacka Philharmonic, we will hear papers by the chairman of the Philharmonic, prof. dr hab. Marta Wierzbieniec, prof. dr hab. Sławek Wróblewski (UMFC), prof. dr hab. Krystyna Juszyńska (UMFC), conductor and composer Przemysław Zych (UMFC) and the president of the Rzeszów Music Society Andrzej Szypuła. The post-conference materials will appear in the music-literary magazine "Kamerton" published by Zygmunt Mycielski Society in Wiśniowa.

The day before, on Friday, October 12, 2018, at 7.00 p.m., a symphony concert will take place in the grand hall of the Philharmonic, featuring the Piano concert by Stanisław Wisłocki. The soloist will be Michał Drewnowski. The Symphony Orchestra of the Podkarpacka Philharmonic will be led by Massimiliano Caldi. The concert and conference will be accompanied by an exhibition of memorabilia of Stanisław Wisłocki prepared by Tadeusz Deszkiewicz.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Information on tickets at: http://www.filharmonia.rzeszow.pl

The new staging of Camille Saint-Saëns' opera Samson et Dalila opened in September 2018-19 in The Metropolitan Opera. On October 20th it will be screened in cinemas around the world in the broadcast series "The Met: Live in HD". The transmission at the Warsaw Cinema "Praha" will take place at 6:35 pm.

When mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and tenor Roberto Alagna joined forces for a new production of Carmen at the Met, the results were electrifying. Now this star duo reunites for another sensual French opera when they open the season in the title roles of Saint-Saëns’s biblical epic Samson et Dalila. Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2014 for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, makes his Met debut directing a vivid, seductive staging, featuring a monumental setting for the last-act Temple of Dagon, where the hero crushes his Philistine enemies. Sir Mark Elder conducts the first new Met production of the work in 20 years.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) was a leading figure of the French musical world throughout his life, successful as an organist, pianist, conductor, and prominent music commentator in addition to his work as a composer. Ferdinand Lemaire (1832–1879), a poet who married a cousin of Saint-Saëns’s and who made his most lasting impression with this work, contributed the libretto. The score of this opera teems over with color and dramatic aptitude and is a worthy compendium of Saint-Saëns’s diversified genius. Portions of the opera, including Dalila’s seduction aria “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” and the extraordinary ballet sequence in the final scene—the Bacchanale—are known well beyond the opera house. Throughout the work, the score brilliantly animates all the powerful and diverse colors in the iconic story, from the lurid to the exotic, the crass, the sensual, and even the sublimely spiritual.

The performance in the original language (French) with Polish subtitles will take about 3 hours. The list of places in Poland where you can watch broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera is available here.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://www.kinopraha.pl