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Ludwik Erhardt passed away...

We are very saddened to hear about Ludwik Erhardt’s, our Union friend, death. He passed away on the 12th of March 2022 at the age of 87 in his home in Lower Silesia.

Since 1965 he has been a Polish Composers’ Union member, in the years 1987–1989 as vice president.

In 1985 he was granted the Union’s annual award – the highest distinction, in 2007 Silver Medal Gloria Artis. He was an author of ’50 years of Polish Composers’ Union’ book gathering information on fundamental activities of the Union in the years 1945-1995.

He will be remembered formostly as the chief editor of the most important Polish classical music magazine ‘Ruch Muzyczny’. Associated with it for 50 years, 40 worked as its chief editor. By collecting columns from ‘Ruch Muzyczny’ he created unprecedented two volume publication encompassing music history titled Spacerem po historii muzyki (A walk through the history of music).

He was also an outstanding music writer, an author of great books among others about Brahms and Stravinsky. In 1975 he published a valuable ‘Encounters with Krzysztof Penderecki’. Publications Music in Poland (1974) and Art of Sound (1980) are also worth mentioning. He shared with his readers his vast musical knowledge and rich journalistic experience.

Recently, in his rural house in Lower Silesia,  he has been contemplating nature and surely listening to music about which he wrote with such great expertise.

Mieczysław Kominek

President of the Polish Composers' Union

 

National Institute of Music and Dance: Help for artists from Ukraine

National Institute of Music and Dance widens the range of the project ‘wspieraMY Ukrainę’. From the 11th of March 2022 at the website of the Institute special forms will be available enabling Ukrainian artists now staying in Poland to search for work in the culture sector.

There are two questionnaires available at the website:

  1. Ankieta dla artystów - questionnaire for artists looking for employment in Polish artistic groups
  2. Ankieta dla instytucji kultury – questionnaire for institutions interested in such co-operation

Collected information will help to create a platform enabling, through exchange of information, contact between Ukrainian artists and Polish culture institutions. The database will be updated continuously.

Press release

More: https://nimit.pl/

Kraków – Wieliczka – Kąśna Dolna | The 5th „Piano e Forte” Festival and Piano Competition 2022

Piano e forteThe aim of the 5th Piano e Forte Festival and Piano Competition, will be held between the 1. and 6. of March 2022, is to show the history of the evolution of the piano in the context of the development of the piano repertoire, as well as the multifaceted role of the pianist and the piano.

The fifth edition of the event takes place in the Year of Polish Romanticism. The festival program will include concerts presenting works by famous and forgotten composers of Polish Romanticism on historical and contemporary piano, devoted to the history of the polonaise and mazurka, the Master Chamber Recital at the Paderewski Manor House in Kąśna Dolna, and the Piano Competition. The Piano e Forte Academy will include lectures and workshops on: piano, clavichord and harpsichord construction, historical and contemporary piano performance practices and dealing with stage fright.

The festival is organized by the Sfogato Music and Arts Society in Krakow, together with the co-organizers and partners: the Music School Complex in Wieliczka, the Villa Decius Institute of Culture in Krakow, the National Museum in Krakow, the Paderewski Center in Kąśna Dolna, the B. Rutkowski Music School of the 1st and 2nd degree in Krakow and the Monastery of the Carmelite Fathers in Krakow.

The project was financed by the PZU Foundation. Admission to the events is free!

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information: www.pianoeforte.pl, www.facebook.com/pianoefortefestival 

Anna Sowa's stage work at the opening of an Italian opera festival

SowaExperimental music theater Silenzio / Silence with music of Polish composer Anna Sowa will open this year’s edition of the Opera Festival ‘Larger Than Life’ – event organized by Italian Fondazione Haydn Stiftung. First performances of the new production will take place on the 4th and 6th of March 2022 in theatres in Bolzano and Trento. Witty and surreal libretto was written by Martina Badiluzzi who together with Anna Sowa directed the performance.

Silenzio / Silence is a winner of the ‘Fringe Volume III’ competition for an avantgarde opera project. It’s a pocket-opera created for a small group of performers. Instrumental and electronic music combo joins different music styles together into a dynamic and shivering frenzy.

Anna Sowa presented her compositions at many internationally recognized festival among others at Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profeanum in Cracow or ECLAT Festival Neue Musik in Stuttgart.

Silenzio / Silence is a winner of the ‘Fringe Volume III’ competition for an avantgarde opera project. It’s a pocket-opera created for a small group of performers. Instrumental and electronic music combo joins different music styles together into a dynamic and shivering frenzy.

Associazione Culturale ANOMALIA ETS is the project’s host. It was supported financially by Polish Institute in Rome, Consulate General of Poland in Milan, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Martin Hugo Kunzi, Comune

Paweł Wołowicz

More information:

https://www.haydn.it/programmi/opera-festival-2022

https://www.haydn.it/eventi/silenzio-silenzio

Read more: Anna Sowa's stage work at the opening of an Italian opera festival

Wrocław - Concert of Solidarity with Ukraine

The National Forum of Music in Wrocław cannot be indifferent to the Russian invasion on Ukraine. On the 4th of March 2022 at 7 p.m. a ‘Concert of Solidarity with Ukraine” will take place in the main hall.

The Ukrainian artists Olga Pasiecznik (soprano) and Natalia Piasiecznik (piano) will perform songs of Ukrainian composers.

The honorary patron of the event will be Jarosław Obremski - Lower Silesian Voivode, Jacek Sutryk - President of the City of Wrocław and Cezary Przybylski - Lower Silesian Marshal.

The concert ‘Apoteoza tańca’ was postponed to the 20th of May 2022.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Opole | Forgotten Polish Music

Opole Philharmonic Orchestra together with pianist Piotr Sałajczyk and conductor Sebastian Perłowski will perform on the 4th of March 2022 at 7 p.m. Władysław Żeleński is the main figure of the concert ‘Forgotten Polish Music’.

Żeleński - instrumentalist and composer took classes from Franciszek Mirecki among others. While Władysław Żeleński belongs to the established group of recognized Polish composers Mirecki apart from being Żeleński’s teacher as a composer became rather forgotten. At the concert we will be able to hear compositions of them both.

The programme includes Piano Concerto in E flat major of Żeleński, Mirecki’s Symphony in C minor and ouverture to the Halka opera of Stanisław Moniuszko.

Press release

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information: https://filharmonia.opole.pl/wydarzenia/polska-muzyka-zapomniana-5/ 

Katowice | NOSPR, Gilbert Varga and Marcin Markowicz

Music of Paweł Mykietyn and Anton Bruckner will be performed on the 3rd of March 2022 at 7.30 p.m. by the National Orchestra of the Polish Radio and violinist Marcin Markowicz. The Orchestra will be conducted by Gilbert Varga, the Principal Conductor of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra.

Varga began began his music career studying violin with his father, Tibor Varga, a famous Hungarian violinist and conductor. He enjoys great authority, and with his interpretations he captivates musicians and the audience. Maestro, especially appreciated for his elegant and exceptionally clear technique, has collaborated with many important orchestras around the world, incl. The Philadelphia Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonie-orchester Berlin, Orchester de Paris and Oslo Philharmonic; he has recorded for such labels as ASV, Koch International and Claves. He is the chairman of the jury of the Internationaler Violinwettbewerb Henri Marteau in Germany.

Next to the Violin Concerto of Mykietyn we will be able to hear Symphony No. 4 in E flat major WAB 104, one of the most popular of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies called by the composer himself ‘Romantic”.

Łucja Siedlik

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Ticket information: https://nospr.org.pl/pl/kalendarz/nospr-thierry-fischer-marcin-markowicz 

Warsaw | Sinfonia Iuventus: Wesołowski, Strobel and Shostakovich

The Polish jazz scene is alive and well, with significant contributions from both creative members of the young generation, as well as well-established artists creating timeless horizons in trends and styles. The latter group includes guitarist Janusz Strobel, who has been an active performer for 50 years! On the 26th of February 2022 at 7 p.m. in the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio Aniello Desiderio together with Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra and conductor Marek Wroniszewski will perform Strobel’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra for the first time.

Strobel has founded and led many ensembles, starting with the legendary Alber–Strobel duo. He is also a recognised composer, the author of many well-known songs, film scores and concert pieces.

Adam Wesołowski, a composer, conductor, pianist, musical theoretician and culture manager, is the Director of the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, as well as Director of the Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki International Festival. His piece Angels and Demons, to be performed at the concert, is dedicated to his children. It features an innovative sound in the form of ‘angelic singing’ that is performed mormorando (in a murmured fashion) by the orchestra musicians.

Dmitri Shostakovich finished his First Symphony in 1925, a composition he created intermittently over a rather long period of time using the work as his graduation piece. To this day, Symphony No. 1 fascinates listeners thanks to the richness of invention and unusual mastery, given the author’s youth, of the compositional technique. The Symphony will be performed at the concert as well.

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

Piotr Maculewicz

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More: www.sinfoniaiuventus.pl 

Wałbrzych | 'Conductor-Resident': Agata Zając in Sudeten Philharmonic

On the 25th of February 2022 at 7 p.m. the Sudeten Philharmonic Orchestra in Wałbrzych conducted by Agata Zając will perform works of  Feliks Nowowiejski, Jacques Ibert and Johannes Brahms. The concert is co-organized by the National Institute of Music and Dance as part of the programme ‘Conductor-Resident’ financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Anna Zając completed her Master Studies at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in the class of Prof. Marcin Sompoliński in 2020. She continues her studies at a Doctoral School at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow. She worked with orchestras in Poland and abroad. In the 2020/21 she was a conductor-resident at the Toruń Symphony Orchestra. In the 2021/22 season she is the conductor-resident at the Sudeten Philharmonic.

The programme of the concert will comprise Nowowiejski’s Legenda Bałtyku, Symphony No.4 in E minor by Brahms and Flute Concerto by Ibert.

The soloist will be Hungarian flautist Ildiko Juhasz.

Ticket information: http://www.filharmonia-sudecka.pl/