During the 39th Warsaw Music Encounters, held from May 11 to 17, 2025, the capital’s audience will be able to take part not only in concerts, but also in the presentation of a spatial electroacoustic installation and a Music Theory Laboratory. Admission to all festival events is free.
The first day of the festival falls on a Sunday—a day off from work—and will be dedicated to free improvisation. A concert at the PROM Kultury venue—organized in cooperation with the Polish Society for Contemporary Music and the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw—will demonstrate that improvised music can not only be playful, but also profound, celebratory… and at times, touch the boundaries of metaphysics. The concert will also pay tribute to Szábolcs Esztényi, the late master of improvisation who passed away this year and who frequently participated in the “Photographic Scores” series.
The following concerts will fulfill our more "classical" expectations. On May 12, at the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio, we will hear outstanding compositions by Polish composers—works that are performed too rarely—performed by the excellent Kraków Wind Quintet and pianist Beata Bilińska.
The “World Premieres Concert” on May 13 will feature pieces commissioned by the Warsaw Music Encounters as part of the “Composers’ Commissions” program run by the National Institute of Music and Dance. These works, created by Polish composers often combining various musical genres, will be performed by the exceptional saxophone quartet The Whoop Group, expanded for this occasion with a jazz trio.
The concert on May 14 will feature compositions by Zbigniew Bagiński and Władysław Słowiński—both of whom passed away last year. Słowiński was the long-time director and founder of the Warsaw Music Encounters. The concert title, Wind Rose, is taken from one of the most well-known symphonic works by Włodzimierz Kotoński, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated this year. The Polish Radio Orchestra, conducted by Rafał Janiak and Klaudiusz Baran, will also perform works by young composers debuting at the festival: Magdalena Bobowik, honored at the 65th Tadeusz Baird Young Composers’ Competition, and Wojciech Chałupka, winner of numerous international awards.
The highly intriguing harpsichord recital by Anna Krzysztofik-Buczyńska (May 15 at the Palace on the Isle) will include recent compositions such as Double Variations on Themes by Purcell by Rafał Stradomski and works by Tomasz Kamieniak.
A special session of the Music Theory Laboratory on May 16 at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music will include, among other things, discussions with collaborators and students of Włodzimierz Kotoński, interwoven with theoretical reflections on his work and artistic performances.
The final concert will take place during the Night of Museums. The spatial electroacoustic installation Talkativeness of Trees by Anna Jędrzejewska will be presented in its natural environment—in the park under the Warsaw Citadel. The installation will create a musical environment in the Fosa Park area, allowing the audience to freely move through a sound field composed of a dozen or so loudspeakers of various sizes.
“The festival always offers you the crème de la crème, so we can expect many moving moments, many delights, and much that is new,” says Jarosław Siwiński, artistic director of the Warsaw Music Encounters.
Funded by the City of Warsaw. The festival is also funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage as part of the “Music” and “Composers’ Commissions” programs carried out by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
The Festival’s partner is the Society of Authors ZAiKS.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
Festival website: https://wsm.art.pl/
