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3rd Polish Rising Music Stars Workshops Online

The 3rd Polish Rising Music Stars Workshops and Competition will be held online on 27 June – 4 July 2020. Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf's original project consists of one-to-one online workshops with prominent Polish and foreign professors directed to the most outstanding Polish pupils, students and graduates.

The annual event is a part of the "Save the Music" social campaign, of which Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf is an ambassador. The programme aims at promoting the most talented artists of the young generation and becoming a platform introducing rising stars of Polish classical music to music lovers and concert agents. Participants of the project present their skills during the competition and final concert.

The registration process is free and takes place online. Participants of the third edition of the programme will be selected on the basis of audio and video materials sent by their teachers in three specialties: violin, viola and cello. The deadline for applications is 25 June 2020.

The workshops will be conducted by Agata Szymczewska and Elena Denisova (violin), Krzysztof Komendarek-Tymendorf, Irena Albrecht and György Gulyás Nagy (viola), Tilmann Wick and Anna Wróbel (cello). In addition, there will be classes devoted to chamber music (Arnaud Śmigiel-Kaminski and Anna Wróbel), analysis and interpretation of musical notation (Marek Czerniewicz), physical and mental preparation for musical performance (Jadwiga Zabawchalska) and self-presentation in the media (Marlena Wieczorek).

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the funds of the National Centre for Culture as part of the "Culture on the Web" programme.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://www.polishrisingmusicstars.pl/

New Management Board of the Polish Composers' Union Youth Circle

A new board of the Polish Composers' Union Youth Circle for the years 2020-2022 was elected on 10 June 2020.

The Management Board, which is becoming more and more international, includes: Aleksandra Chmielewska – chairwoman, Jan Sanejko – deputy chairman, Krzysztof Tomasz Jurczak – secretary, Adam Diesner – treasurer, Andrei Yakushau – board member, Magdalena Pasternak – board member, Aleksander Jan Szopa – board member, Szymon Borys – board member.

The Youth Circle of the Polish Composers' Union was founded in 1949. It aims at training and preparing young composers, theoreticians and musicologists for membership in the organization and encouraging their active participation in musical life. The Youth Circle promotes young artists, among other during fringe events of the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music (since 1969). It also organises the annual Zygmunt Mycielski Composition Competition.

Congratulations to the new Management Board, we wish you a successful term of office!

Bydgoszcz Opera Nova productions available online and on TVP Kultura

Two productions of the Bydgoszcz Opera Nova – Stanisław Moniuszko' Halka and Ignacy Jan Paderewski's Manru – will be broadcast in June on TVP Kultura. Both titles from the catalog of the PWM Edition have also been available online for several weeks on the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera VOD service.

Moniuszko's Halka staged by Natalia Babińska under the musical direction of Piotr Wajrak in 2013 will be broadcast on TVP Kultura on 14 June at 3.00 p.m. Two weeks later, on 28 June, TVP Kultura will present Paderewski's Manru staged by Laco Adamik under the musical direction of Maciej Figas. The performance was recorded in 2011, 111 years since the work's creation. In 2013, the recording was awarded the "Orphée d'Or" award by the Parisian Academie du Disque Lyrique in the category "Best Audiovisual Initiative".

The materials will be available online by the end of 2020 at http://vod.teatrwielki.pl/.

Warsaw | "Scena: Inaczej" – Klaviduo

Świt Culture Centre in Warsaw invites you to an online concert on 14 June 2020 at 7.00 p.m. as part of the "Scena: Inaczej" [Stage: Differently] series, during which the Klaviduo ensemble will preset works by Polish composers.

"Scena: Inaczej" is a series of mini concerts that are available to watch on the Świt Culture Center fan page. The project is directed to independent artists who experiment and search for new means in their work. The audience of this virtual stage consists of listeners open to fresh, expressive sounds who are constantly expanding the spectrum of their musical interests. The programme of the series includes various genres and little-known compositions.

During the Sunday concert, the Klaviduo ensemble, composed of pianists and harpsichordists Magdalena Bąk and Jerzy Michał Wardęski, will present rarely performed works by Maria Szymanowska, Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, andFryderyk Chopin.

Admission to the event is free, but it is possible to support artists by buying a virtual ticket. The concert will be also available to watch on the Świt Culture Cetnre YouTube Channel.

More information at: https://www.facebook.com/events/2629248083982128/

Paweł Romańczuk, leader of Small Instruments in "House Party with Dwojka"

Paweł Romańczuk – multi-instrumentalist, arranger and composer, leader of the Small Instruments ensemble and popularizer of "toy music" in Poland will be the guest of the next "House Party with Dwójka". The concert broadcast straight from his home studio will begin at 7.00 p.m. on 13 June 2020.

Every weekend, Polish Radio Channel 2 (Dwójka) invites you to concerts taking place in the homes of artists who want to share their music with listeners and Internet users in these difficult times of isolation. This Saturday, the guest of the programme will be Paweł Romańczuk – an artist who creates great art by using small, often children's instruments.

The initiator and leader of the Small Instruments ensemble, as well as the designer of his own instruments and mechanical sound installations, prepared a series of completely new works, including compositions for musical constructions that are difficult to transport and assemble in concert halls. Since he currently creates alone in his studio, it will be an unusual concert – with the help of a looper and automatic playing mechanisms built in the Small Instruments studio in Wrocław, the composer and musician will play dozens of instruments by himself.

Broadcasts of concerts in the "House Party with Dwójka" series are available on Polish Radio Channel 2, its website and Facebook page.

Białystok | Online Concert "From Mountains and Fields"

The Court Quartet with Małgorzata Trojanowska (soprano) and Joanna Motulewicz (mezzo-soprano) will present works by Fryderyk Chopin, Stanisław Moniuszko and Mieczysław Karłowicz during a special online concert on 13 June 2020 at 7:00 p.m.

Mieczysław Karłowicz, prematurely deceased in an avalanche in the Tatra Mountains, introduced Polish music into the mainstream of late Romantic art, but the style of his youthful songs is sometimes described as standing on the threshold of modernism. Stanisław Moniuszko's String Quartet No. 1 was written during his studies in Berlin and is characterised by simplicity and tunefulness. Fryderyk Chopin wrote all of his songs before his departure from Poland. Composed to the words of Polish poets, like songs of Moniuszko, they refer to Polish folklore and move with the power of expression and lyricism.

Full programme is available at: https://www.oifp.eu/

Penderecki's and Williams' film music

Next online concert of the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic Orchestra will feature Krzysztof Penderecki's Polymorphia and John Williams' film music. The broadcast will be held on 14 June 2020 at 7:00 p.m. on Facebook and YouTube.

The concert under the baton of Rune Bergmann will take us to the world of film music. Krzysztof Penderecki's Polymorphia for 48 string instruments was used in such famous films as The Exorcist and The Shining. Ewa Szczecińska, radio journalist, has compared Penderecki's early work to Hieronim Bosch's painting: "This music molds a variety of states and emotions, leaving the listener with the impression of having touched something unnameable, some secret metaphysics. The piece as a whole has an effect not unlike that of a Bosch painting: it becomes a heart-rending fresco whose sounds convey a whole range of fears, anxieties, pains, and anguish".

The orchestra will also present themes from the films Jurassic Park and Hook by John Williams – one of the greatest film music composers who has received 50 Oscar nominations and won five golden statuettes.

More information at: https://filharmonia.szczecin.pl/pl

Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera announces 2020/2021 season repertoire

Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera will begin its next artistic season on 12 September 2020. French conductor Patrick Fournillier will held the position of TW–ON's musical director.

In the upcoming season, the theater plans to present six premieres, 25 opera and ballet titles, a number of concerts and recitals. Over 300 hours of music. Over 200 events on the stages of the theatre performed by outstanding opera and ballet artists, including the internationally renowned Aleksandra Kurzak, Tomasz Konieczny and Piotr Beczała. Patrick Fournillier will conduct seven productions: operas Fidelio, Bohemia, Werther, Tosca, Carmen, Traviata and ballet Mayerling. Traditionally, the premieres will be preceded by chamber concerts (series of "Premiere Preludes").

The proposals for September 2020 include an evening with charismatic Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński and a concert "Voices of the mountains", featuring music of outstanding Polish composers – Fryderyk Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Wojciech Kilar – performed by Atom String Quartet, Quartet of the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra, Sebastian Karpiel Bułecka Highland Quartet, Janusz Olejniczak and Jan Smoczyński under the direction of Jerzy Maksymiuk and Marek Moś. The concert "Krzysztof Penderecki in memoriam" will take place on 23 November.

Ticket sales for performances held until 31 December 2020 will start on 15 June 2020.

More information at: https://teatrwielki.pl/

Before Romuald Twardowski's anniversary

After a long break caused by the pandemic, we will hear the first recital from the Vienna State Opera. Tomasz Konieczny's performance on 12 June 2020 at 7.30 p.m. will be broadcast on Polish Radio Channel 2, its social media and website.

After successes at the Vienna State Opera, incuding as Alberich, Jochanaan and Wotan, bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny is expected to return to the Viennese stage in the coming season in Richard Strauss' Salome planned for October. Although the 2020/2021 season is still in question, in June the artist will give an extraordinary recital. Accompanied on the piano by Lech Napierała, Konieczny will present late romantic songs by Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninov.

The programme will also include three songs from the cycle Above the Villa by Romuald Twardowski, who will be celebrating his 90th birthday on 17 June. On this occasion, Anaklasis Records plans to release a special album Songs & Sonnets with Twardowski's chamber vocal and instrumental works. The album will include, among others, his Sonnets of Michelangelo for baritone and piano, dedicated to Tomasz Konieczny. In addition, PWM Edition is preparing a new printed edition of Romuald Twardowski's songs. The premiere of these materials will take place in the fall.