Fourteen concerts featuring leading figures of the Polish music scene will take place between 31 August and 28 September 2025 as part of the jubilee edition of a unique festival. The 20th G. G. Gorczycki International Festival, held under the theme "Great Anniversaries", will commemorate and highlight important milestones, including anniversaries of Baroque-era composers and the 1000th anniversary of the coronation of Bolesław the Brave.
The concert program will include works by all major Polish Baroque composers, presented in the context of global repertoire and paired with contemporary compositions.
Performing ensembles will include:
- Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra
- Katowice City Singers' Ensemble Camerata Silesia
- Polish Royal Opera
- Baltic Neopolis Orchestra
- Capella Cracoviensis
- Resonans con tutti
- Klaster Mixed Choir
Among the featured soloists are:
Łukasz Długosz,
Aleksandra Gajecka-Antosiewicz,
Beata Warykiewicz-Siwy,
Piotr Sałajczyk,
Krzysztof Lasoń,
Anna Radziejewska,
Aneta Łukaszewicz,
Emanuel Salvador,
Michał Francuz, and
Carlos Peña Montoya.
The festival will open at St. Joseph’s Church in Chorzów with a performance by Capella Cracoviensis, featuring, among others, works by Mikołaj Zieleński, whose 410th death anniversary is being commemorated this year, and Adam Jarzębski, born 435 years ago.
On 6 September, at the Silesian Cultural Center in Świętochłowice, Capella Regia Polona of the Polish Royal Opera will perform compositions by Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel, whose 340th birthday is celebrated this year.
On 12 September, at the Silesian Museum, Piotr Sałajczyk and Krzysztof Lasoń will give the world premiere of Aleksander Lasoń’s composition At Kilar’s Home (W domu Kilara).
On 14 September, at the Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Katowice-Podlesie, the Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble "Camerata Silesia" will perform works by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki and Johann Sebastian Bach, whose birth anniversaries fall this year. The concert will also feature the world premiere of Piotr Radko’s Vocalise.
On 20 September, at Rybna Palace, Aleksandra Gajecka-Antosiewicz and Beata Warykiewicz-Siwy will present the world premiere of Tomasz Kamieniak’s In the Fog (We mgle), composed for violin and harpsichord.
The final concert will take place at the Racibórz Cultural Centre, where the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by the Director of both the Philharmonic and the Festival, composer Adam Wesołowski. The program will include works by Gorczycki, Handel, and Mozart.
The Festival is supported by the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis.
The event is co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, under the “Music” program administered by the National Institute of Music and Dance. Additional funding is provided by the cities of Bytom, Chorzów, Tarnowskie Góry, and Świętochłowice, as well as the Silesian Voivodeship.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
Detailed programme: https://gorczycki.pl/
