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The next concert of the Emanacje Festival in Lusławice will take place on Sunday, 9 August 2020 at 7:00 p.m., presenting works by Beethoven and Penderecki – composers who were crossing the borders, paving new paths, and changing the face of music. In the year of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth and the death of Krzysztof Penderecki, their music takes on a special meaning. The Meccore String Quartet, one of the most outstanding string quartets in Europe, will perform chamber works by both composers.

Beethoven is a unique figure in the history of music, a rebellious artist, eulogist of the revolution, a man full of contradictions. He boldly expressed with sound what for other composers remained unimaginable for a long time. Krzysztof Penderecki expressed a similar attitude. He was constantly surprising and delighting with his music. As noticed by Mieczysław Tomaszewski, it was Penderecki who invented the formula of the necessity to "be rooted twice in the earth and in heaven", he used the labyrinth metaphor as a symbol of the creative path, he dared to say what others perhaps sensed: "We found ourselves at the point where the most creative way is to open the door behind you". Penderecki's phenomenon consisted in the fact that even when he "opened the door behind him", he was still in the avant-garde movement.

Beethoven began working on his first cycle of six quartets, Op. 18 being less than 30 years old. He remained faithful to ​​this genre throughout his life, subjecting it to revolutionary transformations and leading to an unprecedented flourish, the most striking example of which is the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. Penderecki, like Beethoven, reached for the quartet genre before his thirties. His String Quartet No. 1, which can be described as a small sonorist poem, was written in 1960. The composer introduced surprising and unusual sonic effects strictly according to the rules of the "magic square". String Quartet No. 2 was written 8 years later, also being an expression of innovative explorations in terms of sound. While the aesthetics of the post-war avant-garde believed that the work accepted by the general public was not art, Penderecki was sure that the artist's mission was to create works that would find social resonance and connect people.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme is available at: www.emanacje.pl 

During the next concert of the series "Hear us at the Silesian Museum", on 8 August 2020 at 7.00 p.m., musicians of the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will take us to various nooks and crannies of the musical world.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Silesian Philharmonic with the Silesian Museum and their joint mission of spreading culture, both institutions invite you to musical meetings on every Saturday until 22 August. The next concert at the Fajrant Square of the Silesian Museum will feature two ensembles. Harpist Agnieszka Kaczmarek-Bialic in a duet with oboist Adam Stachula will perform works by Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns, Witold Lutosławski and Agnieszka Kaczmarek-Bialic herself. The second part of the evening will feature a trombone quartet composed of Grzegorz Kurowski, Mateusz Konopka, Marek Przegendza and Piotr Misiak. The soft and warm sound of the trombones will be a fantastic continuation of the first part of the concert. The quartet will perform diverse arrangements of compositions by Jerry Bock, Irvin L. Wagner and many others.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://filharmonia-slaska.eu/production/sezon-letni-0808/

During the upcoming weekend, on 7, 8 and 9 August 2020 at 11:00 a.m., the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic in Olsztyn invites you to chamber concerts for children entitled "In the Land of Fairy Tales".

The series of educational concerts is addressed to preschool and early school children. Musicians associated with the Philharmonic will present well-known songs from films for children – from "Mr Kleks' Academy" with music by Andrzej Korzyński to Walt Disney productions. During the concerts, children will learn about instruments and their sound, musical forms, dances, names of great composers, their biographies and works, as well as the music of many cultures. The concerts will be combined with various activities and games that are a source of joy and positive emotions for children.

Among the performers: Aleksander Miśnikiewicz – trombone, host, Rafał Górczyński – accordion, Grzegorz Dybała – tuba, Wojciech Haza – saxophone, Magdalena Tokajuk – vocal, host.

The events will be held in groups of up to 50 people in the Warmian-Masurian Philharmonic Chamber Hall. Duration – 45 minutes. Tickets at the price of PLN 10 / person are available at the Philharmonic website: www.bilety.filharmonia.olsztyn.pl.

Przemysław Scheller is the winner of the 9th International Composers Competition New Note 2020 in Samobor (Croatia).

His composition The Little Match Girl for string orchestra was selected as the best of the 30 submitted works from around the world. This is the only prize awarded. The winning composition will be performed by the Esperanza Ensemble chamber orchestra during the Samobor Music Festival 2021. The Little Match Girl was composed in 2019 and premiered by the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy conducted by Marek Moś during the Festival of Premieres organised by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

Przemysław Scheller is a composer from Gliwice, a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon in France. In 2018 he received the Doctor of Arts degree. Currently he works as an assistant professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice and teaches electronic music at his alma mater.

The New Town Summer Festival is a periodic event devoted to Polish music, presenting works from various historical periods, in different styles and various performances. This year's edition will be held on 7-23 August  2020.

The inaugural concert will feature rediscovered pieces for violin and piano by Piotr Maszyński, Feliks Nowowiejski, Adam Wieniawski, Irène Poldowski and Mieczysław Weinberg, arranged by violinist Joanna Okoń and pianist Katarzyna Glensk. The first concert on Sunday will be performed by the host of the Festival – the Warsaw Camerata orchestra conducted by Paweł Kos-Nowicki. The programme will include Romuald Twardowski's Marian Triptych, Stanisław Moniuszko's The Fairy Tale Overture arranged for strings by Maciej Żółtowski and the premiere of Iwona Kisiel's Concerto for violin and string orchestra, performed by Agnieszka Marucha, for whom this concert was written.

The next festival weekend will feature a concert of Polish choral music entitled "Gaude Mater Polonia", performed by the University of Warsaw Collegium Musicum Chamber Choir under the direction of Andrzej Borzym. On Sunday we will hear a piano recital by Anna Ciborowska, a pianist based in Belgium who promotoes Maria Szymanowska's compositions. The last festival weekend on Friday will be a concert dedicated to Karol Lipiński, whose 230th birth anniversary falls this year. The final concert will be a tribute to last year's celebration of the Moniuszko Year. Jakub Burzyński's La Tempesta ensemble will present their own arrangements of Religious Songs on historical instruments. The soloists of the concert will be Julita Mirosławska (soprano) and Joanna Motulewicz (mezzo-soprano).

Admission to all concerts is free!

Participants are obliged to follow safety rules issued by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage..

Full programme is available at: https://www.facebook.com/LetniFestiwalNowegoMiasta/