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On the 12th of January 2019, at the Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio in Warsaw, the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra under the baton of Antoni Wit will give a concert featuring the talented American violinist Angela Wee. Pieces by Stanisław Moniuszko, Pablo de Sarasate and Manuel de Falla will be included in the programme.

Young violinist Angela Wee from the US won many competitions, including the second place at the 12th Pablo de Sarasate International Violin Competition (Spain) in 2015. A particularly promising part of the concert is her interpretation of the brilliant virtuoso works by this Spanish violin master – his two fantasies on the motifs of Gounod’s Faust and Bizet’s Carmen, and the popular Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs). The hot Iberian sun will be also present in the music from Manuel de Falla’s ballet The Three-Cornered Hat, based on a humorous story about an insidious mayor and a cunning miller’s wife, set in the scenery of an Andalusian town. The programme will also include one of Moniuszko’s less known, but very interesting works, Overture to Pariah.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at:  http://sinfoniaiuventus.pl/new-years-concert-2/

On January 11, 2019 at 7.00 p.m., the I. J. Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz will host a concert "Brazilian ... not only in Paris".

Carnival is an exceptionally good time for the operetta, a genre of light opera – in terms both of music and subject matter. In the past, the word "operetta" simply meant a one-act opera. It was not until the success of Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach in Paris in 1858 that this genre was sanctioned as an art form. Pleasant, often humorous operetta subjects are eagerly undertaken by major baton masters, like maestro José Maria Florêncio.

The concert will begin with the Overture to the famous Orpheus in the Underground, followed by the work inspired by the Offenbach's operetta, written by the contemporary Polish composer Maciej Małecki. His music is strongly embedded in the twentieth-century tradition and can be described in terms of neoclassicism, constructivism, and colourism. The evening will end with fragments from the operetta Candide by Leonard Bernstein – outstanding conductor, pianist and American composer whose 100th birthday anniversary was celebrated last year. Ewelina Osowska (coloratura soprano) and Jacek Laszczkowski (tenor) will perform as soloists.

Full programme available at: http://www.filharmonia.bydgoszcz.pl/blog/wydarzenia/brazylijczyk-nie-tylko-w-paryzu/ 

In the new year, the second edition of the Sinfonia Varsovia Chamber Music cycle returns under the motto "From duet to octet". The first concert will take place on January 9, 2019 at 7.00 p.m. in the Orchestra's residence at 272 Grochowska Street.

The first edition of Sinfonia Varsovia Chamber Music was focused on Polish music of the last 100 years. This year's edition, however, leads listeners through gradually growing ensembles, starting from two and ending with eight performers. The programmes of seven individual concerts will feature Polish music, classical chamber repertoire, as well as many less known compositions and original arrangements.

The series will start with a concert of three duets formed from various combinations of bass clarinet, bassoon and piano. The programme will include Basson Sonata in G major, Op. 168 by Camille Saint-Saëns in transcription for bass clarinet and piano and Lied by François Rasse for the same set of instruments, as well as Sonata in B flat major for bassoon and cello KV 292 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arranged for bassoon and bass clarinet and Concertino by Marcel Bitsch for bassoon and piano. The musicians of Sinofnia Varsovia, Karol Sikora (bass clarinet) and Szymon Michalik (bassoon) will be joined by pianists Wioletta Fluda and Romana Orłowska.

All those who want to learn more about the performed works will be able to meet the musicians and talk about the music they have listened to after the concerts. Admission free!

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: www.sinfoniavarsovia.org 

On January 9, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. in the NOSPR Concert Hall in Katowice we will hear a recital of Slovenian violinist Maja Horvat, the third and special prize winner at the 1st International Karol Szymanowski Music Competition.

Maja Horvat graduated from the Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory in the class of Volodja Balžalorsky in 2015. Currently, she studies at the Royal College of Music in London in the class of prof. Daniel Rowland and prof. Leonid Kerbel. She worked with many esteemed pedagogues, such as Ivry Gitlis, Anton Martynow, Alina Ibragimowa, Saewon Suh, Vasilij Meljnikov, Tatiana Balashova, Igor Ozim, Wonji Kim Ozim. As soloist and chamber musician, she won a number of awards at national and international competitions. She has given concerts with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovenian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Music and Ballet Conservatory in Ljubljana, the Chamber Orchestra "Mladi ljubljanski solisti", the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra and others. In 2019, she plans to renew her cooperation with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and at the end of the year she will perform with the Royal College of Music Philharmonic Orchestra.

During the recital in Katowice, she will perform works by Johannes Brahms, Eugène Ysaÿe, Paul Hindemith as well as Nocturne and Tarantella, Op. 28 by Karol Szymanowski.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://www.nospr.org.pl/pl/koncerty/1354/sroda-modych-koncert-laureatow-i-miedzynarodowego-konkursu-muzycznego-im-karola-szymanowskiego-maja-horvat 

The Chair of Harpsichord and Early Music at the Academy of Music in Łódź invites you on 9-10 January 2019 to the Second Seminar of Contemporary Harpsichord Music "Harpsichord without borders", opening a jubilee year of two great harpsichordists of the 20th and 21st century.

The year 2019 marks the 140th birth anniversary and 60th death anniversary of Wanda Landowska as well as the 80th birth anniversary of Elżbieta Chojnacka. During the Seminar, papers on these outstanding artists and contemporary harpsichord music will be delivered. Apart from lectures by the invited guests (dr hab. Robert Stefański, dr hab. Artur Zagajewski, dr hab. Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, prof. FCUM), performance workshops will be led by dr Gośka Isphording from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam – Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten.

The Seminar will be accompanied by a concert on January 9 at 6.15 p.m., preceded by a lecture by dr. Aleksandra Gajecka-Antosiewicz. The programme will include works by Artur Zagajewski, Marcin Tadeusz Łukaszewski, Hug Morales Murguìi, Jukka Tiensuu, Marek Pasieczny, Andrzej Cwojdziński, Maurice Ohana and Grant McLachlan. The pieces will be performed on a copy of a historical instrument and a harpsichord modeled after Pleyel's instrument, built according to the idea of ​​Wanda Landowska. Two types of instruments, different sound, different technical possibilities: one grew out of the idea of modernization, the other – from the master's traditions of the eighteenth century.

Admission free.

More information at: http://www.amuz.lodz.pl/pl/koncerty-i-wydarzenia-zapowiedzi/styczen-2019/153324-koncert-z-cyklu-klawesyn-i-muzyka-dawna