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The National Forum of Music presents the works by contemporary artists and those constituting the canon of the concert repertoire. A synthesis of these two trends will be the concert programme on 22 October 2021 at 7.00 p.m. during which we will listen to compositions from the Romantic era and a new work for cello and orchestra by a prominent Polish composer of today – Paweł Szymański.

Marzena Diakun and the NFM Choir will perform five pieces for a cappella choir by Anton Bruckner: Os justi WAB 30, Ave Maria WAB 6, Locus iste WAB 23, Christus factus est WAB 11, and Virga jesse floruit WAB 52. These are raw, ascetic, yet delicate pieces, and deeply spiritual too.

Next, the cellist Magdalena Bojanowicz-Koziak will perform Simple Music for cello and orchestra by Paweł Szymański, who is known as a composer of spiritual independence, often critical of present-day developments in music and able to integrate it in an interesting way with elements taken from the past, especially from the Baroque era. Szymański has described his artistic credo as follows: ‘The contemporary artist, including the composer, is in the chains of two extremes. On the one hand, he is in danger of talking gibberish if he completely rejects tradition, and on the other, he can become banal if he stares too much at it. This is the paradox of practicing art today. What is the way out of this situation? Since you cannot completely free yourself from the banality, you must play a game with this banality, treat it as a material that allows you to maintain certain elements of the convention, but at the same time, using quotation marks, metaphors, paradoxes, you have to distance yourself from it.’

The concert will be crowned with a performance of Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 in C minor.

The commissioning of work by Paweł Szymański was subsidised from the Culture Promotion Fund of the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport as part of the ‘Composing Commissions’ programme realised by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Read more: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/

The Symphony Orchestra of the Silesian Philharmonic under the baton of Michał Nesterowicz will perform with the outstanding violinist Jakub Jakowicz on 22 October 2021 at 7.00 p.m. The concert will be a part of the cycle announcing the 11th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors. The programme will include compositions by Grzegorz Fitelberg and Mieczysław Karłowicz.

The Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors is one of Poland's premier conducting competitions. Since 1982, it belongs to the World Federation of International Music Competitions based in Geneva. Each edition brings new discoveries, present numerous conducting talents and creates an opportunity for young adepts of this art to show their skills to the whole world. The eleventh edition of the Competition will be held in 2023, traditionally – at the Silesian Philharmonic. A concert announcing this music celebration, initiated by Karol Stryja, the last student of the Competition Patron, will be held in 2021.

The evening will begin with Grzegorz Fitelberg's Polish Rhapsody, Op. 25 for orchestra – one of the composer's last works which shows modernist features and inspirations from Fryderyk Chopin's Fantasy on Polish Airs. Mieczysław Karłowicz's Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 8 will delight the audience with beautiful cantilena and excellent use of the solo instrument. The violin part will be performed by an outstanding artist, Jakub Jakowicz.The concert will end with Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 7, considered one of the greatest and purest examples of the symphony form since Beethoven's time.

The concert is held under the patronage of PWM Edition as part of the TUTTI.pl project promoting the performance of Polish music. Co-financed by the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the "Music" programme implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Ticket Information: https://filharmonia-slaska.eu/ 

The National Forum of Music in Wrocław invites you on 21 October 2021 at 7.00 p.m. to a concert celebrating Pope John Paul II Day, entitled Fides et ratio – ‘faith and reason’. It includes works created especially for this occasion by three Wrocław composers, featuring accordion, harpsichord, boys’ choir and electronics.

Sero te amavi (Too late have I loved you) is the composition by Marcin Bortnowski, based on the quote from Confessions by Saint Augustine. The composer graduated from the Wrocław Academy of Music, where he studied composition under Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil. Apart from composing, he also teaches contemporary composition techniques and computer music.

Stanisław Krupowicz developed his musical interest simultaneously with his passion for science. Before he received a diploma from the Academy of Music in Warsaw, he graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics at the University of Warsaw. He received his doctorate at Stanford University in California. His music has been performed in numerous countries around Europe, Asia and both Americas. He was one of the initiators of the Musica Electronica Nova Festival and the first artistic director of this festival. His composition Te Deum (Thee, o God, we praise) uses an early Christian hymn dating from the 4th century.

The last piece in the concert programme is Eulogētos (meaning ‘blessed’ in Greek), a composition by Marcin Rupociński. The composer studied at the Wrocław Academy of Music, first under Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil and later under Stanisław Krupowicz. In addition to music, he is also fascinated with photography – he studied it in the Pho-Bos studio and at the European Academy of Photography. He creates art at the intersection of three media, programming multimedia installations and creating electroacoustic music alongside an interest in computer-assisted composing.

The commissionings of works by Marcin Bortnowski, Stanisław Krupowicz and Marcin Rupociński as part of the project Fides et ratio were subsidised from the Culture Promotion Fund of the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport as part of the ‘Composing Commissions’ programme realised by the National Institute of Music and Dance.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Read more: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/

An open-air premiere of Anna Jędrzejewska's mini-opera Umbra will take place on 22 October 2021 at 6.00 p.m. in the Warsaw Moat Park.

The one-act multimedia mini-opera for soprano and piano with electronics is an internal dialogue of ego and superego in the metaphor of reflections and projections of the mind, a process of being aware of oneself, defining "me". The eponymous umbra is a total shadow; a term usually used in reference to an eclipse. It is a metaphor for the concept of a Jungian shadow. The libretto was written by Wojciech Skowronek and the visualization project was created by Kamil Kowalski. The story unfolds as a reflection on man in today's world, in the decline of civilization, in the threat of a global and pandemic conflict. To what extent does the consciousness of today's man correspond to the challenges of our times? Are we really aware of ourselves, or, like in a Platonic cave, do we talk about the images we create based on reflections, projections and images distorted by the culture of "posing"? The main character stands on the stage surrounded by three screens which are supposed to be "holograms" themselves. She is surrounded by her id, ego and superego talking to each other, as in meditation.

The piece will be performed by the opera singer Aleksandra Klimczak, who will process her voice live electronically, and the composer herself, who plays the piano.

The mini opera was created as part of the "Mobile in Clture" programme.

The first performance will be broadcast online from the PanDymińska club on 21 October at 8.00 p.m.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

21 October: https://www.facebook.com/events/616549393089184 

22 October: https://www.facebook.com/events/1036795130480961 

Polish ethnomusicologist Prof. Anna Czekanowska-Kuklińska, honorary member of the Polish Composers' Union, died on 18 October 2021 in Warsaw. As the main representative of Slavic music studies in Poland, she devoted the majority of her research to the origin of the Slavs in the musical and ethnographic perspective.

She studied musicology at the University in Poznań, the Freie Universität in Berlin and the University in Cologne. In 1968 she defended her habilitation thesis entitled Narrow range melodies in the Slavic countries at the University of Warsaw. In 1975 she obtained the title of associate professor, and in 1983 – the title of full professor of musicology.

From 1953 to 1999 she was working at the University of Warsaw. In 1958 she co-founded with Marian Sobieski the first Department of Folk Music (Ethnomusicology) in Poland, at the University of Warsaw. In 1969-1999 she was the head of the Ethnomusicology Department, and in 1975-1991 the head of the Institute of Musicology. She conducted many lectures at the Universities in Europe, USA and Russia. From 1999 to 2004 she was the head of Ethnomusicology Department at the Catholic University in Lublin. From 2004 she lectured at Collecium Civitas – a non-state university based in Warsaw, entitled to award doctoral degrees.

Anna Czekanowska was a member of the Polish Composers' Union (from 1967), Polish Cection of the Societe Internationale de Musique Contemporaine (from 1983), International Folk Music Council / International Council for Traditional Music (from 1957), European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (from 1982), Society for Ethnomusicology (from 1975), British Forum for Ethnomusicology (from 1998), Warsaw Scientific Society (from 1990), Scientific Society of the Catholic University of Lublin (from 2003). She sat on the IFMC / ICTM Board (1976-1983) and ESEM Board (1990-1996), she was the vice-president of the Polish Section of SIMC, an honorary member of ESEM (from 2002) and the Polish Section of SIMC.

The funeral will take place on 25 October at 12.00 p.m. in the St. Charles Borromeo Church at the Powązki Cemetery (Old Powązki) in Warsaw.

Hail to Her Memory!