The 17th edition of the “Music on the Heights” Festival will take place from 6 to 13 September 2025 in Zakopane, once again gathering music lovers at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. This year’s festival will serve as a special prelude to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mieczysław Karłowicz – the patron of the Association organizing the event. His life, work, and artistic spirit will form the core of this year’s concerts, conference, and meetings of renowned masters and young artists.
The festival will open with a concert titled "Breath of Nature", bringing together works by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis and Mieczysław Karłowicz, both born 150 years ago. The concert will feature violinist Sunjae Ok, acclaimed Polish mezzo-soprano Urszula Kryger, and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra conducted by Maciej Koczur, performing Karłowicz’s Violin Concerto in A major, symphonic poems In the Forest and Eternal Songs, as well as a song cycle to the poetry of Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer.
On the following day, the concert “Music Then, Music Now – The Magic of Premieres” will feature world and Polish premieres of octets by Paweł Klecki and Andrzej Czajkowski, alongside Beethoven’s classic Septet.
On 8 September, the Kino Miejsce cinema will host a screening of Jakub Piątek’s documentary Pianoforte – an emotional portrait of young pianists preparing for the International Chopin Piano Competition.
Soprano Justyna Khil and pianist Rozalia Kierc will present "The Age of Anxiety" (9 September), a three-part program inspired by the poem by W.H. Auden, blending music by Poulenc, Britten, Laks, Weinberg, and Kierc’s original compositions.
The concert "Youthful Time" on 10 September will showcase a colorful program ranging from Handel and Chopin to Karłowicz and contemporary works, performed by students from secondary music schools in Kraków, Katowice, Bochnia, and Nowy Targ.
On 11 September, the Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble will present works by young and established composers such as Zagajewski, Neuwirth, and Ryterski, where nature-inspired themes and sonic experimentation open new musical dimensions.
Ignacy Lisiecki will perform "A Quarter-Century Anthology" on 12 September – a piano recital exploring the diverse musical languages of recent decades through works by Hans Abrahamsen, Jörg Widmann, and Valentin Silvestrov.
The festival finale on 13 September will celebrate Romanticism. Janusz Wawrowski, playing a historical Stradivarius violin, and Aleksandra Świgut on an Érard piano, will perform works by Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Fryderyk Chopin, and Henryk Wieniawski.
The program will also include an art exhibition titled "Creators of Podhale", showcasing the work of artists and artisans from the region.
Festival visitors will have the opportunity to attend the interdisciplinary conference:
"Remembering Karłowicz. At the Intersection of Sound and Vision – The Works of Čiurlionis and Karłowicz in the Context of a Cultural Turning Point",
and explore the branch of the Tatra Museum in Zakopane.
As tradition dictates, artists and audiences will come together for the “Conversations on the Heights Club”, a space for dialogue and reflection.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
Detailed programme: https://en.muzykanaszczytach.com/pl/2025-2/
