from the world

After a long break, Sinfonia Varsovia sets off on a foreign tour to Spain. Two concerts will be held on 24 and 26 May 2021 in Madrid and Barcelona. The programme includes works by Witold Lutosławski, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. The German violinist Viviane Hagner will perform as a soloist, and the orchestra will be conducted by Alexander Liebreich.

Alexander Liebreich is one of the leading conductors of his generation. In the 2012/2013 season, after numerous well-received guest appearances with the National Polish Radio Orchestra in Katowice, Liebreich became its chief conductor. Since 2018, he has been the artistic director of the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Viviane Hagner made her stage debut as a 10-year-old under the baton of Zubin Mehta himself. She has performed with the most important orchestras in the world, such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonics and the Cleveland Orchestra. She is one of the world's leading violinists, successfully combining a concert and teaching career.

The upcoming concerts that will begin with Lutoslawski's Musique funèbre, in homage to the victims of the pandemic, and will conclude with Mendelshonn's Midsummer Night's Dream, as a song of hope to better times. In Madrid, the orchestra will perform at the Auditorio Nacional de Música, in Barcelona – at L 'Auditori de Barcelona.

More information: www.sinfoniavarsovia.org 

In 2021, Mikołaj Laskowski received the 66th Composition Prize of the City of Stuttgart, which is a joint initiative of SWR radio, the ECLAT festival and the city of Stuttgart.

The city of Stuttgart has been awarding a composition prize every year since 1955. This year, 86 participants submitted a total of 151 works for the composition prize.

The Jury was composed of: Björn Gottstein (artistic director of the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival and music editor at SWR), Martin Schüttler (composer, professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart), Annesley Black (Canadian composer), Monika Pasiecznik (musicologist), Boglarka Pecze (Hungarian clarinetist, Trio Catch), Samir Odeh-Tamimi (Palestinian-Israeli composer) and Markus Hechtle (German composer).

Second prizes went ex aequo to Mikołaj Laskowski for 5 Things That Really Matter (2018) for large ensemble and electronics and Francesco Ciurlo for Abstraction to the point of (2020) for oboe and ensemble. According to the Jury, "Laskowski impressed with his post‐digital, media‐critical approach". First prize went to Benjamin Scheuer for Eight Types of Breathing (2020) for clarinet, accordion and samples.

The award‐winning compositions will be presented at the award ceremony at the ECLAT Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart in February 2022.

More information: https://www.stuttgart.de/kultur/kulturpreise-und-stipendien/kompositionspreis.php 

In 2021, Mikołaj Laskowski received the 66th Composition Prize of the City of Stuttgart, which is a joint initiative of SWR radio, the ECLAT festival and the city of Stuttgart.

The city of Stuttgart has been awarding a composition prize every year since 1955. This year, 86 participants submitted a total of 151 works for the composition prize.

The Jury was composed of: Björn Gottstein (artistic director of the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival and music editor at SWR), Martin Schüttler (composer, professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart), Annesley Black (Canadian composer), Monika Pasiecznik (musicologist), Boglarka Pecze (Hungarian clarinetist, Trio Catch), Samir Odeh-Tamimi (Palestinian-Israeli composer) and Markus Hechtle (German composer).

Second prizes went ex aequo to Mikołaj Laskowski for 5 Things That Really Matter (2018) for large ensemble and electronics and Francesco Ciurlo for Abstraction to the point of (2020) for oboe and ensemble. According to the Jury, "Laskowski impressed with his post‐digital, media‐critical approach". First prize went to Benjamin Scheuer for Eight Types of Breathing (2020) for clarinet, accordion and samples.

The award‐winning compositions will be presented at the award ceremony at the ECLAT Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart in February 2022.

More information: https://www.stuttgart.de/kultur/kulturpreise-und-stipendien/kompositionspreis.php 

Agata Zubel's Triptyque for instrumental ensemble will be premiered by the Ensemble InterContemporain on 7 February 2021 in the Radio France Auditorium in Paris as part of the Présences Festival.

Every year, the Présences Festival brings together all lovers of contemporary music. 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the event, initiated by Claude Samuel, then music director of Radio France. This year's concerts will take place between 2 and 7 February. During the grand finale of the festival in the headquarters of Radio France (Maison de la Radio) Ensemble InterContemporain will premiere Agata Zubel's Triptyque. The group has been associated with the Festival for many years and has previously collaborated with the Polish composer.

The recording of the concert will be available online at https://www.francemusique.fr/ and via the France Musique application on 24 March 2021 at 8:00 p.m.