The 11th edition of the "Coryphaeus of Polish Music" award of the Polish music community has officially started. Nominations for candidates can be submitted until 29 September 2021 through the website www.koryfeusz.org.pl in the categories: "Personality of the Year", "Event of the Year" and "Honorary Award", as well as in the "Discovery of the Year" category for debuting artists. Nominations may be submitted by people associated with the Polish musical life.

The Programme Council of the National Institute of Music and Dance will select the nominees from the submitted nominations. The award in the "Discovery of the Year" category will be awarded by the audience in an open online voting, which will be held between 8 and 13 October at www.koryfeusz.org.pl. The winners in the three remaining categories will be selected by a secret ballot by the Electoral College, whose members are representatives of musical organisations and institutions in the country as well as all the past winners of the "Coryphaeus of Polish Music" award.

The winners will be announced during the gala awards ceremony, which will broadcast from the TVP Kultura studio on 14 November 2021. The winners will receive statuettes designed by professor Adam Myjak, rector of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Read more about the award at: www.koryfeusz.org.pl.

The Coryphaeus of Polish Music [Koryfeusz Muzyki Polskiej] award has been awarded by the Polish music community to its most outstanding representatives since 2011. The award is a distinction for individuals, groups of artists and institutions operating in the field of diverse – in terms of genres and chronology – Polish music. The Coryphaeus of Polish Music is awarded to authors, performers, musicologists, critics, journalists, humanists, researchers, animators, promoters and managers of culture, groups of artists, as well as institutions, artistic events and various creative, animation and educational projects. The award is granted for achievements in the past artistic season, with the exception of the Honorary Award for lifetime achievement. The organiser of the award is the National Institute of Music and Dance.

In the eleven-year history, the Coryphaeus of Polish Music in the category of "Personality of the Year" was awarded to: composers Agata Zubel, Zygmunt Krauze and Paweł Mykietyn, conductor Łukasz Borowicz, singers Piotr Beczała and Jan Jakub Orliński, saxophonist Maciej Obara and pianists Szymon Nehring, Włodek Pawlik, and Lutosławski Piano Duo – Emilia Sitarz and Bartek Wąsik.

The award in the "Discovery of the Year" category has been awarded to flautist Marianna Żołnacz, organist Karol Mossakowski, soprano sisters Joanna Zawartko and Aleksandra Olczyk, and the duo Zuzanna Budzyńska (violinist) and Szymon Ogryzek (pianist).

Musical "Events of the Year" were: the 16th edition of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, projects of the National Audiovisual Institute carried out as part of the European Culture Congress, the opening of the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice, the opening of the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra in Katowice and the National Music Forum in Wrocław, as well as Krystian Zimerman's concert at the "Warsaw Autumn", Grammy award for the album Penderecki conducts Penderecki vol. 1, a triple premiere of Agata Zubel Fireworks, awarded with the European Composer Award, the project "10/40 Quartet in Museums" on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the artistic activity of the Silesian Quartet and the premiere of the opera Drach by Aleksander Nowak at the festival AUKSODRONE.

The "Honorary Award" has been granted to: Jan Krenz, Wojciech Kilar, Jan Ekier, Mieczysław Tomaszewski, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa, Wiesław Ochman and Włodzimierz Nahorny.