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Zielona Góra | Inauguration of the 2019/2020 season

The inauguration concert of the 2019/2020 season of the Tadeusz Baird Zielona Góra Philharmonic will take place on 20 September 2019 at 7 p.m., featuring works by Franz Liszt, Sergey Rachmaninov and Mieczysław Weinberg.

In 2019, 100 years have passed since the birth of Mieczysław Weinberg – Polish composer whose music remained little known for many years. Today, his works are admiried in the musical world. While remaining in the neo-romantic aesthetics, he created his own characteristic musical language. Polish melodies, Op. 47 No. 2 for rochestra were composed in 1950 as an expression of longing for the homeland, which the composer left in 1939. They are written in a simple, folcloric style, with references to such dances as oberek, krakowiak, kujawiak, and polonaise. At the outbreak od WWII Weinberg moved to Minsk to continue his musical studies started in Poland, and since 1943 he lived in Moscow. The greatest popularity brought him the score written for the film The Cranes are Flying, awarded the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958.

During the inaugural concert, we will also listen to Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45. The Symphony Orchestra of the Zielona Góra Philharmonic will be conducted by Czesław Grabowski. Pianist Karol Radziwonowicz will perform as a soloist.

More information at: http://filharmoniazg.pl/

Jelenia Góra | Music of our times

On 20 September 2019 at 7 p.m., the Lower Silesian Philharmonic in Jelenia Góra invites you to a concert of proMODERN sextet.

The proMODERN vocal sextet specializes in contemporary music performance, and the ensemble's concerts are distinguished by passion, perfection and creativity. proMODERN has won four 'Fryderyk' awards of the Phonographic Academy: in 2015 in the categories 'The best recording of Polish music' and 'Album of the year: choral, oratorio and opera music' for their debut album Where are you. Pieces from Warsaw, and in 2018 in the categories 'Album of the year: contemporary music' and again 'The best recording of Polish music' for the second album – proMODERN shakespired. In 2018, the sextet was nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award in the category 'Discovery of the Year' for the performance of Stimmung by Karlheinz Stockhausen at he KODY festival in Lublin.

During the concert in Jelenia Góra, the ensemble will perform works by Polish composers of the 20th and 21st centuries: Krzysztof Penderecki, Rafał Ryterski, Piotr Tabakiernik, Jagoda Szmytka, Aleksander Kościów and Witold Lutosławski.

Full programme available at: http://filharmonia.jgora.pl/

Zabrze | 7th Krzysztof Penderecki International Festival – Level 320

Wold-class artists – Cameron Carpenter, Rafael Payare, Jerzy Stuhr – will take part in the 7th Krzysztof Penderecki International Festival – level 320 in Zabrze on September 14-19, 2019.

The Festival will be inaugurated by Maestro Penderecki himself. He will conduct his Adagio from the Symphony No.3 for string orchestra and Mazur from Moniuszko's opera The Haunted Manor, in the year of the celebrations of the composer's 200th birth anniversary. Rafael Payare, director of the famous San Diego Symphony Orchestra, together with Sinfonietta Cracovia – who celebrates 25th anniversary this year – will interpret Penderecki's Symphony No. 4 'Adagio' and Schuman's Symphony No. 4.

The concert on 15 September will feature Cameron Carpenter, whom the American press described as "one of the rare musicians who changes the game of his instrument". The artist will present his renditions of Bach, Poulenc and Penderecki, playing on specially constructed organs that he will bring to Zabrze. The Festival will end on 19 September with a famous interpretation of The double bass play by Patrick Süskind, directed and acted by Jerzy Stuhr. All events will take place 320 meters underground in the Guido Mine.

More information at: www.penderecki320.com

The nominees for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music 2019 award has been announced!

The laureates of the 9th edition of the Coryphaeus Polish Music Award will be announced during a gala ceremony at the Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw on 1 October 2019 – the International Music Day. The winners selected by the Polish music community will receive statuettes in the categories: 'Personality of the Year', 'Event of the Year', 'Honorary Award' and 'Discovery of the Year'.

On 13 September 2019, the Programme Board for Music of the Institute of Music and Dance selected nominees in all categories from 127 submitted nominations.

Nominees in the category 'Personality of the year':

Łukasz Długosz – flautist;
Jakub Józef Orliński – counter-tenor;
Martyna Pastuszka – violinist;
Maciej Prochaska – musicologist;
Aga Zaryan – jazz vocalist.

Nominees in the category 'Event of the Tear':

Prince Władysław Lubomirski Festival;
Kromer Biecz Festival;
10/40 Kwartet w Muzeach;
Moniuszko for the World;
Moniuszko. Halka.

Nominees in the category 'Discovery of the Year':

Zuzanna Budzyńska i Szymon Ogryzek – chamber musicians;
Janusz Olejniczak – radio music promoter;
Jakub Józef Orliński – counter-tenor;
Tomasz Ritter – pianist;
Sasha Strunin – jazz vocalist.

Due to the nature of the Honorary Award, the winner's name will not be announced until the awards gala, but the candidates will be voted by the Electoral College. From 16 to 19 September 16-19, the audience will vote in the 'Discovery of the Year' category at www.koryfeusz.org.pl. A secret ballot will be held by the Electoral College, which will select the winners in the other three categories.

The voting results will be announced during the gala concert on 1 October 2019 at the Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw. The winners will receive the Coryphaeus statuette designed by Prof. Adam Myjak. The financial awards are funded by the ZAiKS Association of Authors and the STOART Association of Performing Artists. The event is organized by the Institute of Music and Dance and Polish Radio Programme 2.

More information about the nominees at: www.koryfeusz.org.pl.

Professor Maria Przychodzińska has passed away

Maria Przychodzińska, outstanding professor in the field of music education, passed away on 14 September 2019. Funeral ceremonies will take place on Friday, 20 September, at 1 p.n. at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.

Professor Maria Pokrzywińska for many years was an employee of the Institute of Music at the Faculty of Arts of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. In the years 1991–2005, she was the head of the Department of Music Teaching. She was an outstanding teacher, educator of many generations of students, doctoral students and music teachers, the most distinguished person in music education field in Poland, a co-creator of the Polish concept of musical education, author of numerous textbooks for students and teachers, monographs, several hundred articles as well as methodological and scientific studies.

Warsaw | Sinfonia Varsovia & guests: Azrieli Music Prizes

Works by the 2018 Azrieli Music Prize-Winners – Avner Dorman and Kelly-Marie Murphy – will be given their European premiere by the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra at POLIN Museum on 15 September 2019 at 7 p.m.

Established in 2014 by the Azrieli Foundation, the biennial Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance and celebration of excellence in music composition. The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music is awarded to a composer who has written the best new major work of Jewish music in the past ten years. In 2018, this Prize was awarded to Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman for his composition Nigunim for violin and orchestra.

The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music is awarded to encourage composers to engage with the question “What is Jewish music?” This prize is given to the composer who proposes a response to this question in the shape of a musical work that displays the utmost creativity, artistry and musical excellence. In 2018, The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music was awarded to Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy to create the work En el escuro es todo uno (In the Darkness All is One) – a double concerto for cello, harp and orchestra.

On 15 September, the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra will perform the European premiere of the 2018 Prize-winning works on the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews stage. Maestro Yoav Talmi will conduct the concert which will also feature outstanding Canadian soloists: COULOIR (cellist Ariel Barnes and harpist Heidi Krutzen), violinist Lara St. John and soprano Sharon Azrieli. The program of the concert will also include compositions by Yoav Talmi, Srul Irving Glick and Mieczysław Weinberg.

More information at: https://www.polin.pl/azrieli-music-prizes

Warsaw | Inauguration of the 2019/2020 artistic season of the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra

Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra will inaugurate the 2019/2020 artistic season with a concert on 14 September 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio. The honorary patronage over the event was taken by the Embassy of Switzerland and the Polish UNESCO Committee.

Inauguration of the new season will begin with lively, dazzling and insterstingly instrumentated Overture by Antoni Szałowski – one of the Polish students of Nadia Boulanger, who used to appreciate neoclassic style present as well in this piece.

The Leningrad audience rewarded the premiere of Symphony No. 5 by Dmitri Shostakovich, directed by Mrawiński in 1937, with 30 minutes of applause. Despite accusations of a certain eclecticism, the scale of Shostakovich’s talent determined the lasting success of this symphony, and its neo-Mahlerian power and expression still moves listeners today.

One generation after Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke also struggled against the many obstacles faced by an ambitious artist in the USSR. Today, he is acknowledged as an important precursor and representative of post-modernism in music and his Concerto Grosso No. 1 of 1977 was one of the flagship pieces in this trend, representing a humorous (but not mocking) combination of neo- and post-Baroque, and modern elements.

The inauguration of the new season of the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra will feature this piece, played by solo performers Marcin Markowicz and Jakub Jakowicz and conducted by Nicolae Moldoveanu, a valuable Romanian conductor who is active as opera and philharmonic performer around the world.

Piotr Maculewicz

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

Szczecin | II MUSIC.DESIGN.FORM Festival 2019

'Audioluminescence' became the slogan of the second edition of the MUSIC.DESIGN.FORM Festival which retuns to the Szczecin Philharmonic on 13-15 September 2019.

Sound and light will be treated literally as an artistic material, and metaphorically as a direction of the festival activities. To address this topic, the organisers invited artists, activists and animators to use music, image and architecture in a non-standard way. Once again, the MDF Festival will create a unique opportunity to experience art with different senses. Being led by sound and light, the participants will get to to unexpected corners of the building and will be surprised by the unusual visualizations in the white Lobby. The facade of the Philharmonic will also shine again.

We can expect concerts by Polish and foreign stars, premiere performances prepared for the festival, as well as exhibitions, workshops and educational meetings. The first day of the Festival will feature a presentation of several projects of the group of Polish composers and performers 'panGenerator', which combines bits and photons in the context of new media art. On 14 September, composer and conductor Michał Janocha will present his multimedia spectacle I hear you are watching. The performance is an artistic and scientific expedition, thanks to which the youngest listeners will discover that modern technologies can "change" the sound of instruments into light. Later that day at the Philharmonic white hall, there will be a Szczecin premiere of the full performance of the latest project of the Kwadrofonik ensemble Urlicht – variations based on the chorale and its counterpoint, which resound separately or enter into a dialogue with each other.

Full programme available at: https://mdf.filharmonia.szczecin.pl

Gdańsk | 1st National Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition

The Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk announces the 1st National Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition for students and graduates of second-degree music schools and art colleges, which will be held on 21-24 November 2019.

The competition aims to promote the work of Stanisław Moniuszko, support talented vocalists of the young generation and their practical preparation for artistic activities. The competition is organized by the Music Academy of Stanisław Moniuszko in Gdańsk under the auspices of the Grand Theater – National Opera.

The competition takes place in two categories: 1) students and graduates of vocal classes of the second degree music schools, who are not students of art universities in the field of "Vocal Studies" and who are under 23 years old by the date of the Competition; 2) students and graduates of art universities in the field of "Vocal studies" who are under 30 years old by the beginning of the Competition.

On-line registration is available until 7 October 2019 at: http://konkurswokalny.amuz.gda.pl/.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Rules and regulations of the competiton are available at: http://konkurswokalny.amuz.gda.pl/