Between 19 September and 1 November 2025, the chamber music festival "Droga Dō" will take place in Poland, Lithuania, Japan, and Israel. The festival is organized by the oto Foundation under the artistic direction of flautist Ania Karpowicz, laureate of the Polityka Passport award, and is co-created by fourteen partners in four countries.
In Japanese, “dō” means “the way”, and in many languages it is also associated with the first note of the musical scale. The Polish-Japanese wordplay “droga dō” thus reflects a “musical route”, and in this particular case, a wartime refugee path, leading through Poland and Lithuania all the way to Japan and Israel.
"Droga Dō" tells a moving story of cooperation beyond divisions, which saved several thousand European Jews from extermination. If not for the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk, the concept of transit visas to Curaçao might never have been created; if not for the Polish ambassador Tadeusz Romer, the ships carrying refugees might have been turned back from Japan to the USSR; and if not for the civil courage and dedication of consul Chiune Sugihara, all hope might have been lost at the door of his Lithuanian home on Vaižganto Street in Kaunas.
The festival follows the trail of these “crumbs of humanism”, organizing concerts in remarkable locations: the Sugihara House in Kaunas, the Port of Humanity in Tsuruga, as well as at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and Studio Annette in Tel Aviv.
The search for musical paths of memory, and the blending of Japanese, Dutch, Polish, and Lithuanian music into a unified narrative turned out to be a fascinating journey, joined by outstanding artists: Naruhiko Kawaguchi, Kristina Reiko-Cooper, the Tel Aviv Wind Quintet, and others. The project is curated by flautist Ania Karpowicz.
The program includes works by Lithuanian, Japanese, Jewish, and Polish composers, including Aleksander Tansman, Mieczysław Weinberg, Ania Karpowicz, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Nina Fukuoka, and Aleksandra Ołdak.
To better understand the story of “people on the move”, the festival concerts are accompanied by a poster exhibition realized in collaboration with the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, as well as author meetings with Zofia Hartman, author of the book The Sugihara List.
Partners: Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Jewish Historical Institute, History Meeting House, Sugihara House, Kaunas, The Sugihara Foundation “Diplomats for Life”, Kaunas, Port of Humanity, Tsuruga, Studio Annette, Tel Aviv, The Felicja Blumental Association, Tel Aviv, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, ZAiKS Authors’ Association, Polish Institute in Vilnius, Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, Polish Institute in Tokyo.
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
