11th Katowice Culture Nature Festival "Melancholy and Ecstasy"

The 11th edition of the Culture Nature Festival, held from May 14–24, 2026 under the theme "Melancholy and Ecstasy" at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra's seat, will be filled with outstanding concerts, special productions, and surprising artistic collaborations. The stars of this year’s edition include Arabella Steinbacher, the Modigliani Quartet, Klangforum Wien, and the NOSPR conducted by Marin Alsop.

The Katowice Kultura Natura Association, the City of Katowice, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra invite you to eight concerts featuring an extraordinary program. "The festival’s motto is an invitation to explore the extreme states of the human spirit. Our guides on this journey will be creators who reached for the furthest limits of what music is capable of expressing", says Adam Balas, Director of NOSPR and the Katowice Culture Nature Festival.

It is worth emphasizing that Polish contemporary music, which carries exceptionally powerful emotional contrasts, will be featured in the program of two symphonic concerts.

The festival will be inaugurated by a concert featuring the NOSPR under the baton of the orchestra’s Artistic Director, Marin Alsop (May 14). The program will include symphonic music by Bogusław Szabelski and Robert Schumann, as well as Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1, with Dmytro Choni performing the solo part. The second concert by the Katowice-based orchestra will be conducted by Stefan Asbury. The program will reveal the emotional world of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara and British composer Thomas Adès – whose Violin Concerto "Concentric Paths", Op. 2 will feature Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene as the soloist. The second half of the evening will be dedicated to the works of 20th-century masters: Witold Lutosławski and Béla Bartók (May 22).

The Katowice Culture Nature Festival is renowned for its guest performances by the world's most esteemed ensembles. This year’s edition will feature Klangforum Wien in collaboration with the Belgian theatre group Needcompany (May 17), the Modigliani Quartet (May 20), the Italian ensemble La Venexiana (May 23), and the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern conducted by Josep Pons (May 24).

The line-up of soloists includes French pianist Alexandre Tharaud, who will perform previously unpublished works by Erik Satie. These recently discovered scores will receive their Polish premiere during the festival (May 15). Other featured soloists include German violinist Arabella Steinbacher (May 24).

The festival program will be complemented by a variety of accompanying events that explore this year’s theme in diverse ways. An interactive installation titled The Table with Scores (Stół z partyturami) will be featured in the NOSPR spaces, encouraging visitors to discover musical notation on their own and experiment creatively with sound. During melancholic and ecstatic yoga sessions with live music, the emotions associated with the main theme can be experienced beyond the concert hall. As part of the "Together Among Sounds" series, families with children will have the opportunity to participate in a surprise concert for fans of musical discovery, as well as sensory-friendly concerts inspired by the extreme shades of the festival motto: the fiery passion of flamenco and the reflective nature of fado.

According to the organizers, these additions will once again make the Katowice Culture Nature Festival a multi-dimensional event, inviting the audience not only to listen but also to experience music in a mindful and personal way.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC. 

Detailed program: https://nospr.org.pl/pl/program/festiwal-katowice-kultura-natura-2025-2026