The 1st International Tadeusz Baird Music Festival will take place from 20 to 22 September 2024 in Zielona Góra. The festival is organised by the Zielona Góra Philharmonic. The three-day event will feature concerts (a vocal recital, a chamber concert and a symphonic concert), an exhibition devoted to the composer and meetings with artists and composers.

The idea of the festival is to popularise the music of Tadeusz Baird (1928–1981) – an outstanding Polish composer and patron of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic, a rather neglected figure in the Polish concert and phonographic repertoire. The main axis of the event is formed by Baird’s music, set amid works by composers of different epochs and nationalities.

The programme of this first edition of the festival is integrated by its patron’s masterwork Four Love Sonnets to words by William Shakespeare. Hence the festival’s subtitle, ‘Baird vs Shakespeare’. Besides works by Baird and other composers inspired by the Stratford bard, we will also hear great works of the Polish and global music literature. Over the three days of the festival, we will be treated to three original versions of the Four Love Sonnets for voice: with piano, chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra. They will be interpreted by outstanding Polish vocalists: Tomasz Konieczny, Mariusz Godlewski and Michał Sławecki. The festival programme includes both familiar works and rarely performed compositions (e.g. Liszt’s symphonic poem Hamlet).

There will also be first performances: Tadeusz Baird’s Concerto grosso, Alek Nowak’s Leśmian Couplets in a version for baritone and symphony orchestra, and Tomasz Opałka’s Sonnet.

The first edition of the festival will be inaugurated by a vocal recital featuring excellent young Polish artists Joanna Freszel and Michał Sławecki, who will be accompanied on the piano by Dominika Peszko. Besides compositions by Tadeusz Baird, the programme will also include Shakespeare Sonnets by Paweł Mykietyn (one of the pre-eminent contemporary Polish composers) and Aleksander Tansman’s Quatre sonnets de Shakespeare, not familiar to wide audiences. The first concert will be completed by the first performance of Tomasz Opałka’s Sonnet for soprano and counter-tenor with piano accompaniment – a composition commissioned specially for the event.

Performing on the second day will be baritone Mariusz Godlewski with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra attached to the National Forum of Music. We will hear vocal works inspired by Shakespeare’s plays and compositions by Bach, as well as works by Baird in an archaic style performed for the first time on period instruments.

This year’s festival will end with a symphonic concert starring Tomasz Konieczny. A special item on the programme will be the first performance of Baird’s Concerto grosso – a work whose autograph is held in the National Library but has not previously attracted the interest of performers. Specially for this occasion. Alek Nowak has instrumented his Leśmian Couplets, previously heard solely in a version with piano.

For the duration of the festival and after its conclusion, an exhibition devoted to Tadeusz Baird will be held at the Zielona Góra Philharmonic. It will be curated by Zielona Góra University professor Dr hab. Barbara Literska, a leading musicologist, expert on Baird’s work. The exhibition design is the work of graphic artist Jacek Papala. Prof. Literska will also be chairing the festival’s programme committee.

The 1st Tadeusz Baird Festival will be accompanied by meetings with artists appearing on the stage of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic and with composers whose works will be heard at the festival: Paweł Mykietyn, Alek Nowak and Tomasz Opałka.

The director of the 1st International Tadeusz Baird Music Festival is Dr Rafał Kłoczko – a conductor, composer, music theorist and director of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Page of Festival: https://bairdfestival.pl/