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Licheń | Concert of the Licheń Basilica Choir

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, César Franck and Henryk Jan Botor are just some of the composers whose works will be performed by the Licheń Basilica Choir in its first concert of the season. The event entitled "Stabat Mater" will take place after 12.00 p.m. mass, on Sunday, 4 October 2020 in the Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń.

The "Stabat Mater" Choir conducted by Jacek Hyżny will perform together with the soloists: Anita Furgol-Kownacka (soprano) and Ewa Budzińska (soprano), as well as the organist Andrzej Chorosiński, professor of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

The programme will include Panis angelicus from Messe à troi voix, Op. 12 by César Franck, Ave verum corpus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as well as Stabat Mater – a title work by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály, composed to the words of the 13th-century Lenten sequence. Contemporary music will be represented by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu from Requiem, Henryk Jan Botor's Deus Caritas est and Norbert Blacha's Prayer for Peace.

The choir will be accompanied on the great organ of the Licheń Basilica by the creator of its sound concept, professor Andrzej Chorosiński. The former rector of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music will also present instrumental works: César Franck's Andantino in G minor and Théodore Dubois' Toccata in G major.

The concert will be broadcast on the Licheń Basilica website www.lichen.pl, its Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Wrocław | "Music of the Night"

The NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will inaugurate its artistic season with a concert entitled "Music of the Night" on 3 October 2020 at 6.00 p.m. We will hear works by three composers of different eras: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonín Dvořák and Krzysztof Penderecki.

The evening will begin with Mozart's Serenade in G major KV 525 "Eine kleine Nachtmusik", one of the most popular examples of music commonly referred to as "classical". Then we will listen to Penderecki's Sinfonietta per archi, dedicated to the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra in Warsaw. This five-movement piece is an expression of the idea of solo and collective music-making derived from concerti grossi of the 17th and 18th centuries. The finale will feature Dvořák's Serenade for Strings in E major, one of the most popular pieces of this Czech composer. The work has a light, carefree character, and is characterized by the unusual beauty of the melody.

More information at: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/

Katowice | 10th Transatlantyk Festival

The 10th anniversary edition of the Transatlantyk Festival will take place on 1-8 October 2020 in Katowice. Outstanding world cinema and music, legendary and young artists, representatives of all film and music professions, hundreds of screenings, as well as numerous music and discursive events await the audience during this year's edition.

The programme of the Transatlantyk Festival – a recognized international new generation festival – is based on three pillars: film, music and education. The music programme includes inauguration and closing galas and a composition competition.

The inaugural concert "The Best of Jan A.P. Kaczmarek" will be performed by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the renowned conductor Monika Wolińska and the world-famous soprano singer Iwona Sobotka. Music lovers and cinema fans will listen to the most popular compositions by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, including excerpts from such concert works as Emigra – The Neverending Symphony, Silesian Rhapsody, Universa – Open Opera, as well as works composed for the films Total Eclipse, Washington Square, Unfaithful, Hatchi, and finally Finding Neverland, which brought the composer an Oscar. During the Closing Gala, we will know the winners of the Transatlantyk Instant Composition Contest ™ – the world's only instant composition competition. Applications for this year's edition of the competition are accepted until 2 October.

Full programme is available at: https://www.transatlantyk.org/

Message on the International Day of Music

Every year the Institute of Music and Dance announces a special message for the International Music Day celebrated on 1 October. The author of this year's message is Mrs Irena Santor.

"I feel intimidated by the invitation to speak very intimately. What is music to me? So far I have not been able to define this feeling, because for me music is first, or maybe most of all, a feeling.

We bring feelings, sensations, and sensitivity to the world with us, when we are born, so we are born with music, with musicality (...)"

Full text is available at: https://imit.org.pl/programy/departament-muzyki/4484

Warsaw | Opening of the 2020/21 artistic season of the Warsaw Philharmonic

The Warsaw Philharmonic will open the new artistic season on 2 October 2020 at 7.30 p.m. with a programme composed of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, and Miłosz Magin. The Orchestra and Choir of the Warsaw Philharmonic will be conducted by their artistic director Andrzej Boreyko, and the outstanding Lucas Debargue will perform as a soloist.

Most of the pieces included in the inaugural programme are works composed by artists associated with Vienna. The second group consists of interesting and rarely performed orchestral transcriptions of piano and chamber works. We will hear Erwin Schulhoff's orchestral arrangement of Ludwig van Betthoven's Rondo and Capriccio "Die Wut über den verlorenen Groschen”, Op. 129. The programme will also include Franz Schubert's immortal Symphony in B minor and Johannes Brahms' – one of the the great admirers of Schubert's work – Nänie, op. 82 for SATB chorus and orchestra.

The career of the Polish pianist and composer Miłosz Magin seemed to be over after a dramatic accident in which his arm was seriously injured – after several years of intensive rehabilitation, during which he focused on composing, he returned to touring and recording. The inaugural concert of the new season will recall his Concerto No. 3 (1970) for piano, string orchestra and timpani – a work of intense, post-romantic expression, echoing the "golden age" of great concertos written by virtuosos who knew the secrets of their instruments perfectly.

More information at: https://bit.ly/3n51wRe

Łomża | "Composing Commissions" – premiere of "Cascades" by Alicja Gronau

The world premiere of Alicja Gronau's Cascades will take place on 1 October 2020 at 6.30 p.m. at the Cultural Centre of Catholic Schools in Łomża.

Composer and music theorist Alicja Gronau (PhD, Habil.) is the head of the Department of Music Theory and the 20th and 21st Century Polish Music Studio at the Department of Composition at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. She is a member of the Polish Composers' Union and the Polish Society for Contemporary Music. Since 2002 she has been a chapter member of the "Fryderyk" Award of the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. She won a number of composition awards, and in 2011 she was awarded the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage's Medal for Merit to Culture "Gloria Artis". Her latest piece, Cascades for cello and string orchestra, was written as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme, carried out by the Institute of Music and Dance. The piece will be premiered by the Witold Lutosławski Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in Łomża conducted by Jan Miłosz Zarzycki with world-famous cellist Tomasz Strahl. The programme of the concert will also include Cello Concerto in C major Hob. VIIb: 1 by Joseph Haydn and Eine kleine Nachtmusik KV 525 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The concert will be preceded by a meeting with the composer (5.30 p.m., Cultural Centre of Catholic Schools).

Admission to the event is free. Live broadcast of the meeting at: www.facebook.com/filharmonialomza

More information at: http://www.filharmonia.lomza.pl/wydarzenia/najblizsze-koncerty/item/629-kaskady.html

Olsztyn | Inauguration of the 75th artistic season of the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic

The inauguration of the 75th artistic season of the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic will take place on 1 October 2020 at 7.00 p.m., featuring the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Piotr Sułkowski and the outstanding pianist Leszek Możdżer.

The concert will begin with the work of the Patron of the Philharmonic – Feliks Nowowiejski's Overture to the oratorio The Return of the Prodigal Son. The work captivates with its melodic richness, lush orchestration and late-romantic style, echoing the works of Berlioz and Wagner.

Leszek Możdżer, when asked about his interpretation of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's Concerto for Harpsichord (or Piano), Op. 40 admitted that piano performance is much more physically strenuous. It would seem that a work that is just nine minutes long cannot present such difficulties to the soloist, yet as soon as we get carried away by its crazy, motor energy, we will understand and hear that the driving force of the work is the piano (or harpsichord, easier for the performer in terms of articulation), treated like a percussion instrument. The piece, commissioned by Polish Radio on the initiative of Andrzej Chłopecki, was written in 1980 and is dedicated to the outstanding harpsichordist Elżbieta Chojnacka.

This evening Leszek Możdżer will also perform the most famous (next to the Summertime lullaby from the opera Porgy & Bess) George Gershwin's piece – Rhapsody in Blue.

More information at: https://filharmonia.olsztyn.pl/koncert/inauguracja-75-sezonu-artystycznego-filharmonii-warminsko-mazurskiej/

Czechowice-Dziedzice | 25th "Alkagran” Autumn Music Festival

The 25th "Alkagran" Autumn Music Festival will be held in Czechowice-Dziedzice between 29 September and 2 October 2020.

The "Alkagran" festival has been held in Czechowice-Dziedzice since 1991 and is associated with the person of Andrzej Krzanowski, the author of Alkagran or a Place on the Right Bank of the Vistula for accordion quintet. The magic word contained in the title of the composition has already become a musical symbol of Czechowice. The main event of this year's Festival will be the 11th Andrzej Krzanowski Accordion Competition, which repertoire is based on contemporary accordion literature. The Competition Jury will consist of respected teachers and artists: Klaudiusz Baran, Marcin Bortnowski, Bogdan Dowlasz, Geir Draugsvoll, Grażyna Krzanowska (honorary member), Raimondas Sviackievicius and Janusz Pater (secretary). The competition will be streamed on YouTube.

Festival concerts will feature music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including works by Andrzej Krzanowski, Marcin Bortnowski, Bogdan Dowlasz or Jagna Krzanowska performed by such outstanding artists as Joanna Freszel, the New Music Orchestra under the direction of Szymon Bywalc and accordionists: Adam Maksymienka, Aleksander Stachowski and Marcin Waszczyk – the winners of the award for the best performance of Andrzej Krzanowski's work at the 10th Accordion Competition. The Festival will also include an evening of "Anniversary Reflections" with a screening of Jan Sosiński's Interrupted Journey, a documentary about Andrzej Krzanowski, and a seminar on Alkagran.

The unveiling of a commemorative plaque dedicated to Andrzej Krzanowski will take place on 1 October.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme of the festival is available at: https://alkagran.pl/

Premiere of Katarzyna Brochocka's opera "To Heaven"

O.to.ja Foundation invites you to the premiere of Katarzyna Brochocka's opera Do nieba [To Heaven]. Thanks to the support of Radio dla Ciebie, the concert premiere will take place on 30 September 2020 at 9.00 p.m. at the Agnieszka Osiecka Music Studio of Polish Radio and will be broadcast live on the Internet so that everyone will be able to participate in the event.

To Heaven is a chamber opera based on a play by Robert Lewandowski entitled Noe. There are five soloists (soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass), two pianists and two percussionists. The group of performers will include excellent singers and instrumentalists, as well as the composer herself. Although the opera was written in 2016, the current situation in the world paralyzed by COVID-19 seems to be analogous to that in which the characters of the drama are found. Sudden isolation, confusion, an unpredictable future and the collapse of the current system of values force a redefinition of the present paradigm, perception of oneself and reality. The drama is set in a department store, and the characters represent contemporary social types: a corporate employee, owner of a small business, a pensioner looking for promotions, a 30-year-old man addicted to computer games and a teenager preoccupied with her beauty. How to survive and remain calm and human in the new world? Katarzyna Brochocka's opera serves as a koan here, a story that provokes "great doubt" ...

The premiere will be performed by: Aleksandra Klimczak (soprano), Małgorzata Bartkowska (mezzo-soprano), Zbigniew Malak (tenor), Tomasz Rak (baritone), Tomasz Raff (bass-baritone), Katarzyna Brochocka and Mischa Kozłowski (piano), Michał Niedziałek and Olga He arrived (percussion instruments).

The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the "Culture on the Web" grant programme.

Live broadcast from the Agnieszka Osiecka Music Studio of Polish Radio at:

o.to.ja Foundation YouTube channel http://bit.ly/doniebani
o.to.ja Foundation Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/o.to.jaFundacja/