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55th International Choral Music Festival in Międzyzdroje

The largest and oldest festival of choral music in Western Pomerania – the 55th International Festival of Choral Music in Międzyzdroje – will be held online on 17-19 December 2020. The Christmas Festival will be a competition for the best performance of Christmas carols, pastorals and Christmas choral pieces.

The festival has been held continuously since 1966. It is included in the calendar of permanent international events of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, on the register of the World Union of Choral Music in New York, and is also a member of the International Choral Network – the International Association of Competitions and Festivals in Europe. The organizers of the festival are: the Polish Association of Choirs and Orchestras – Szczecin Branch, the International Culture Centre in Międzyzdroje and the Association of Friends of the International Choral Music Festival in Międzyzdroje. Excellent ensembles were invited to participate in this year's festival concerts, including the Madrigal Choir of the Legnica Culture Centre, the Boys' Choir of the National Forum of Music, the Choir of the Maritime University in Szczecin, the Fermat Chamber Choir in Poznań and the Choir of the Medical University of Łódź.

The contest will be streamed on the Festival's Facebook page on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday, 19 December, the winners of the festival competition and the Musica Sacra competition will be announced.

The 55th edition of the Festival was co-financed under the "Music" programme carried out by the Institute of Music and Dance.

More information at: https://mfpch.eu/

The 80th birthday of Maciej Małecki

The Kraków Philharmonic invites you on 18 December 2020 at 6.00 p.m. for a concert of Christmas carols "Before the First Star", dedicated to the 80th birthday of Maciej Małecki. The online event will be broadcast on the Philharmonic's YouTube channel.

The Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Grzegorz Brajner will perform Maciej Małecki's Silent Night – a concert of Christmas carols for choir and string chamber orchestra.

The original arrangement of selected Christmas carols and pastorals was written in 2006 and enjoys great popularity to this day. In 2008 the concert was recorded by the Polish Chamber Choir "Schola Cantorum Gedanensis" and the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot conducted by Jan Łukaszewski and released by the Carus-Verlag publishing house in Germany. Until now, Silent Night has been performed many times by Polish choirs and orchestras. The fragments have also been performed in the USA and Germany.

Information on tickets at: http://www.filharmonia.krakow.pl/

NFM online | Negative

Negative is a joint multimedia project of sisters Małgorzata and Dorota Walentynowicz. One of the main themes is space, which will be used to present a video projection by the latter artist. Not only the walls and other surfaces in the National Forum of Music concert hall, but also the piano will become a screen on 17 Deceber 2020 at 7 p.m.

Negative means a contrast between black and white, visible on the piano keyboard, for example. That evening the audience will hear compositions by four artists, created for this concert. The common denominator of the works by Sławomir Wojciechowski, Monika Szpyrka, Cezary Duchnowski and Teonika Rożynek is the extensive use of electronics and video techniques.

Małgorzata Walentynowicz is a graduate of the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien in Hannover, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart and the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, where she works as an assistant professor. She performs solo, with orchestras and chamber ensembles. Dorota Walentynowicz is a visual artist. She works in the area of photography, video, new media art and performance. She is interested in the relations between technology and nature, theory and practice, logic and intuitive cognition.

Information on online streaming: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/en/component/nfmcalendar/event/7975

New Sounds of the Clarinet: Premiere of Krzysztof Wołek's "Open/Close"

The New Music Orchestra and the internationally renowned basset horn virtuoso Michele Marelli, professor of clarinet at Conservatorio Francesco Cilea in Reggio Calabria, will perform on 16 December 2020 at 7.30 p.m. in the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall in Katowice.

The programme will include Art of Metal I by Yanns Robin, B-low Up by Ondřej Adámek and "Open / Close" Concerto for bass clarinet and instrumental ensemble by Krzysztof Wołek.

Yann Robin's Art of Metal series was written especially for a metal double bass clarinet. According to the composer, the piece is supposed to capture the sound qualities associated with metal: "strength, power, massiveness, energy, shine, sheen". The endless wealth of possibilities for bass and double bass clarinets present the works by Ondřej Adámek and Krzysztof Wołek. Wołek's Concerto for bass clarinet, written as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme of the Institute of Music and Dance, reflects the composer's search for the new sounds of this instrument.

The concerts of the New Music Orchestra at the PNRSO in 2020 were co-financed under the "Music" programme of the Institute of Music and Dance.

More information at: https://nospr.org.pl/en/

Generations #ZKP

The Wrocław Branch of the Polish Composers' Union invites you to the second event in the series of concerts "I choose Contemporary Music", presenting a wide range of works by Wrocław composers. The concert will be held on Facebook on 15 December 2020 at 8.00 p.m.

The Generations #ZKP concert, planned in a unique space of the Op Enhaim tenement house at 4 Solny Square in Wrocław, is a presentation of the oldest generation of Wrocław composers and pedagogues, whose music is extremely valuable and still inspires new generations. Accordionist Rafał Łuc will perform with the Ensemble Kompopolex, specialising in new music.

We will hear compositions by Grażyna Pstrokońska-Nawratil, Ryszard Klisowski, Piotr Drożdżewski and Leszek Wisłocki, arranged especially for this occasion by the ensemble, and a new composition by Rafał Augustyn – Omaggio a MPK for three performers.

Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and by the Municipality of Wrocław.

JOIN: Facebook Event

"Stage for Polish Music": Ãtma Quartet

The Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic invites you on 15 December 2020 at 6.30 p.m. for an online concert as part of the "Stage for Polish Music" programme, implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance. Ãtma Quartet will present works by Stanisław Moniuszko, Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Panufnik and Karol Szymanowski.

Considered by many to be among the most promising young generation string quartets, the Ãtma Quartet first appeared publically as the New Music Quartet in 2016 and for the two years that followed performed under its former name. Four outstanding instrumentalists, graduates of Polish music academies, Katarzyna Gluza (violin), Paulina Marcisz (violin), Karalina Orsik-Sauter (viola) and Dominika Szczypka (cello), have been busy giving concerts at home and abroad, popularizing chamber music, particularly, works by Polish composers.

The December concert will be opened by Stanisław Moniuszko's Quartet No. 1 in D minor, dedicated to Józef Elsner, one of the first composers to weave elements of Polish folk music into his works. Supported by the scholarship programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Young Poland" (2018), Ãtma Quartet recorded an album with works by Polish composers Penderecki, Szymanowski, Panufnik – String Quartets (CD Accord, 2019). During the upcoming concert we will hear Penderecki's String Quartet No.3 "Pages of an Unwritten Diary", Panufnik's String Quartet No. 3 "Paper-cuts" and Szymanowski's String Quartet No.2.

More information at: http://filharmonia.kielce.pl/

76th Musica Moderna Session Online

The Department of Composition at the Academy of Music in Łódź and the Łódź Branch of the Polish Composers' Union invite you to two concerts of the 76th Musica Moderna 2020 Session: "Faces of Sound" (14 December, 6.15 p.m.) and "Young Composers, Young Performers" (16 December, 6.00 p.m.). Live broadcasts will be available for free on the Academy's YouTube channel.

The first concert will feature mainly works by composers associated with the Łódź Academy of Music: Olga Hans, Krzysztof Grzeszczak, Sławomir Kaczorowski, Bogdan Dowlasz, Maciej Kabza, Tomasz Szczepanik and Agnieszka Zdrojek-Suchodolska (AM Poznań). We will also hear the Łódź Suite for wind instruments, piano and tape, which is a series of pieces created as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme of the Institute of Music and Dance by three composers – Sławomir Kaczorowski, Tomasz Szczepanik and Krzysztof Grzeszczak. Each of them wrote one part of the suite: Łódź Impression, Phonetikus and Toccata per fiati e pianoforte.

The second concert will present works by students of composition and film music composition at the Academy of Music in Łódź: Syntia Chojnowska and Jakub Jung (studens of Olga Hans), Olga Pasek and Marcin Powalski (studens of Marcin Stańczyk), and Michał Spring (student of Zygmunt Krauze).

More information at: http://www.amuz.lodz.pl

Marcin Masecki and Mike Marshall in tribute to the Ger Mandolin Orchestra

One of the most interesting Polish pianists and composers, Marcin Masecki, and mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall, three times nominated for the Grammy award, will perform on 13 December 2020 at 8 p.m. a piece commissioned by the POLIN Museum – a tribute to the pre-war Jewish mandolin orchestra from Góra Kalwaria. The premiere of the piece, which was created as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme of the Institute of Music and Dance, will take place on the POLIN Museum Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The mandolin – today a niche instrument – has an extremely rich history and holds a special place in the history of Polish and Jewish musical culture. Mandolin orchestras played to the dance, they also accompanied the first workers' demonstrations. Learning to play the mandolin was often part of the curriculum in Yiddish schools. Mandolin was also one of the few means of musical expression available to women in pre-war Jewish communities. A hundred years ago, the mandolin was therefore a unifying, democratic and community-building instrument.

Thanks to a concert organized by the POLIN Museum, the mandolin will return to tell its forgotten story. The new mandolin music was composed by Marcin Masecki, accompanied by one of the greatest virtuosos of this instrument, Mike Marshall, leader of the Ger Mandolin Orchestra – an international mandolin orchestra, composed of the world's greatest virtuosos. The ensemble was created to commemorate the pre-war Jewish mandolin orchestra from Góra Kalwaria, whose name in Yiddish is Ger.

More information at: https://polin.pl/pl/wydarzenie/marcin-masecki-i-mike-marshall-w-holdzie-ger-mandolin-orchestra

"Mińsk Musical Meetings Without Barriers" – Final Concert

The final concert of the "Mińsk Musical Meetings Without Barriers", organised by the "Czas Sztuki" Foundation, will take place at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Mińsk Mazowiecki. Online broadcast will be held on 13 December 2020 at 7.00 p.m.

The "Czas Sztuki" Foundation focuses on organising free concerts in historical churches and cultural institutions in the Mińsk district in the Mrozy commune, where the Foundation is based. The members of the Foundation are musicians of The Time Quartet. The quartet is made up of graduates of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. During several years of artistic work, the ensemble has performed over 350 concerts in Poland and abroad, and has collaborated with many outstanding ensembles and artists, including Andrzej Jagodziński Trio, Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, Grzech Piotrowski World Orchestra, 'Mazowsze' Folk Song and Dance Ensemble and Trifonidis Downtown Sextet. The quartet's musicians are the founders of the Melanidis Orchestra studio orchestra, with which they recorded music for six Polish and foreign films.

The concert will be performed by an excellent duo composed of soprano Katarzyna Wiwer and organist Zuzanna Bator, who will present works by Stanisław Moniuszko and Zygmunt Noskowski.

Online broadcast will be held on the "Czas Sztuki" Foundation's YouTube channel and Facebook Page.

Financed by the PZU Foundation and co-financed from the budget of the City of Mińsk Mazowiecki.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.