Alongside classical masterpieces by renowned masters, the concert of the Cracow Branch of the Polish Composers’ Union on November 4, 2025, at 7:00 PM at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music will feature as many as thirteen brand-new works composed especially for the PCU Centennial Festival! We will witness world premieres of pieces by Cracow-based composers, performed by distinguished professors of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music: Piotr Lato, Marek Szlezer, Oriana Masternak, and Jan Kalinowski. Admission is free.
The composers gathered around what was once the State Higher School of Music – now the Academy of Music – have educated generations of successors, associated with the movement known as the Cracow School of Composition. As Teresa Malecka writes:
“It was built on the foundations of their predecessors’ traditions – Stanisław Wiechowicz and Artur Malawski – by outstanding professors.”
In the first part of the concert, we will hear the masterpieces of this lineage: works by Krzysztof Penderecki, Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, Bogusław Schaeffer, Zbigniew Bujarski, Marek Stachowski, and Roman Berger.
The work of this group continues in the music of their students – the middle and youngest generations. What is most characteristic of this circle – the fusion of tradition and modernity – will find its most recent expression in the second part of the concert, through the premiere performances of works by Marcel Chyrzyński, Paweł Malinowski, Maciej Jabłoński, Wojciech Ziemowit Zych, Jakub Polaczyk, Jarosław Płonka, Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz, Krzysztof Kostrzewa, Olgierd Juzala-Deprati, Monika Szpyrka, Zofia Dowgiałło, and Wojciech Widłak!
Festival program available at: https://100latzkp.org.pl/wydarzenia.php
The event is co-organized by the National Institute of Music and Dance, and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the City of Warsaw, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Co-organizer: Polish Radio Channel 2
Partners: ZAiKS Authors’ Association, National Philharmonic, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, Polish Music Publishers (PWM Edition)
Media Patronage: Polish Radio Channel 2, Presto Publishing, Waw4Free, Wolna Sobota, NaM! naszemiasto.pl
Editorial Collaboration: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
Programme:
Krzysztof Penderecki – Per Slava for solo cello (1985–86)
Roman Berger – Sonáta 1960 for piano (1960)
Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar – Constellations for piano (1972)
Bogusław Schaeffer – Two Elegies for violin and piano (1999)
Zbigniew Bujarski – KalSzlez for cello and piano (2010)
Marek Stachowski – Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (1999), Mov. I: Andante sostenuto
// intermission
Marcel Chyrzyński – Mindscape no. 2 for violin *
Paweł Malinowski – untitled [trio] *
Maciej Jabłoński – Bukiecik *
Wojciech Ziemowit Zych – Zwiewne formanty *
Jakub Polaczyk – Reszczyptan *
Jarosław Płonka – shadowed *
Anna Zawadzka-Gołosz – In the Beginning Was the String *
Krzysztof Kostrzewa – Quartet in memoriam Anton Webern *
Olgierd Juzala-Deprati – Oblivion *
Monika Szpyrka – Memory Shape Effect *
Zofia Dowgiałło – Quam brevis?
Wojciech Widłak – Stones
*prawykonanie
