The main theme of the 33rd Krakow International Festival of Composers, which will be held on 10-18 April 2021, are ancient civilizations — mainly the ancient culture of Greece and Rome, but there will also be other references, including the South American culture of Nazca.
The concerts will feature works by composers from Poland, England, China, Greece, Japan, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, and the USA. You will hear 23 world premieres and one Polish premiere, including Michael Gatonski’s Ecotopia 4 for chamber orchestra, and Ryszard Osada's Concerto for flute and chamber orchestra, both written as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme operated by the Institute of Music and Dance. The 33rd Festival will feature outstanding musicians: Ensemble OMN conducted by Szymon Bywalec, Alicja Molitorys, Iwona Glinka, Athanasios Trikoupis, Łukasz Długosz, Agata Kielar-Długosz, AdAstra Piano Trio and many others. Traditionally, we will also hear an Electronic Cocktail, a presentation of the Electroacoustic Music Studio at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow.
Two scientific sessions will be held during the festival: Antiquity in Music and Music and Nature (at first planned for last year), during which outstanding music theorists and musicologists will present their papers (Teresa Malecka, Jerzy Stankiewicz, Magdalena Dziadek, Agnieszka Draus, Kinga Kiwała, Iwona Sowińska-Fruhtrunk, Dominika Micał and Jan Topolski). The entire event will be complemented by two lectures referring to antiquity in the works of contemporary composers: by Iwona Glinka and Athanasios Trikoupis from the University of Ioannina in Greece.
An important part of the festival program is the 4th Krzysztof Penderecki International Competition for Young Composers. This year’s jury awarded the main prize to A Horny Faun’s Rampage for chamber orchestra by South Korean composer Jongsung Oh (b. 1987). The award-winning piece will be premiered at the festival’s opening concert at the Krakow Philharmonic on 10 April 2021.
For epidemiological reasons, all events will be held without the participation of the audience; they will be streamed online on the Krakow International Festival of Composers YouTube channel, and one of the concerts will be broadcast from Patras, Greece.
Marcel Chyrzyński, General and artistic director
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.
Full programme: http://festiwal.zkp.krakow.pl
