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Music Teacher of the Year 2015

Polish Association for Music Education and Animation, Fryderyk Chopin Institute and Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry will anounce the results of the Music Teacher of the Year 2015 competition. The prize-giving gala will be held on March 19, 2016 at 5.00 pm in the Concert Hall of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw.

The competition was aimed at drawing public attention to the work done by Polish music teachers and activating all types of music circles. Any local community was allowed to submit applications of teachers who work in public and music schools, as well as those who concentrate on non-formal teaching practice.

The prize-giving gala will be broadcast live at the YouTube channel.

"Electrified Music" at the Academy of Music in Poznań

45th Poznań Music Spring and Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music encourage the audience to attend events of the Electrified Music series, held between March 18 and 21, 2016 in Poznań.

Programme:
March 18
12.00 - Ever-Changing Fragments - lecture/presentation by Chang Seok Choi (Korea/Great Britain)

March 20
5.00 pm - concert From Kolberg to Live Coding
Compositions by Jarosław Kordaczuk (premiere), Scott Wilson (premiere), Monika Dalach, Radosław Mateja, Anna Maria Huszcza, Wang Bingtang, Mu Yunze, Sun Yuming and Shan Ting.
Introduction: Lidia Zielińska

March 21
10.00 am - Super Collider and Live coding - lecture and workshops run by Scott Wilson (University of Birmingham, director of BEAST)
2.00 pm - Monoctone - Hiper-expressive Modular Systems’ Controller - lectrure/presentation by Jarosław Kordaczuk (Studio Ruchome Dźwięki)

Admission free.

More information: www.wiosnamuzyczna.pl, www.amuz.edu.pl

Premiere of "The Black Mask" by Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki's The Black Mask (libr. by Harry Kupfer) will be premiered on March 20, 2016 at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk and on March 31 at Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera in Warsaw.

‘The Black Mask is one of the greatest contemporary operatic masterpieces. The apocalyptic vision of the future of the European civilisation ominously corresponds with the recent developments on our continent. Considering that the work opened exactly 30 years ago in Salzburg, the story - inspired by Gerhard Hauptmann’s play of the same title - unfolding during a modest social function held by a provincial mayor strikes with its prophetic power as it foreshadows the downfall of the bourgeois civilization of ours brought about not by a whim of blind fate but being our own doing’ - says Marek Weiss, director of the production, general and artistic director of the Baltic Opera.
(source: www.teatrwielki.pl)

Opera in 1 act (German language version with Polish subtitles).

Performers: Sylwester Kostecki, Katarzyna Hołysz, Robert Gierlach, Piotr Nowacki, Ryszard Minkiewicz, Choir and Orchestra of the Baltic Opera under Szymon Morus.

Direction by Marek Weiss; music direction by Szymon Morus; set design by Hanna Szymczak; choreography by Izadora Weiss.

Next performances will be held on March 22-23, 2016 at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk.

More information and tickets available at: www.operabaltycka.pl, www.teatrwielki.pl

Students of the Academy of Music in Krakow in the "Music +" cycle

Another concert of the "Music +" cycle will be held on March 30, 2016 at 7.00 pm in the Youth Culture Centre in Krakow (“House of the Scouts”, 18 Reymonta St).

The programme, which includes works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Karol Szymanowski, Claude Debussy, Leonard Bernstein, Edvard Grieg and Samuel Barber, will be interpreted by students of the Academy of Music in Krakow, soprano Alicja Ciesielczuk and pianist Joachim Kołpanowicz.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

"Warsaw Camerata à la carte!" in 2016

First concert of the 5th edition of the cycle "Warsaw Camerata à la carte!" will be held on March 20, 2016 at 1.30 pm in the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian the Martyr in Warsaw (3 St. Florian's St).

The project, co-financed by the City of Warsaw and organized in the years 2014-2016, aims at connecting and activating the listeners and musicians. It is the audience that chooses the repertoire performed during the concerts regularly held in the Praga district in Warsaw.

Performers:
Justyna Stępień - soprano
Aneta Łukaszewicz - mezzosoprano
Warsaw Camerata
Paweł Kos-Nowicki - conductor

Programme:
Romuald Twardowski - Air in Old Style
Romuald Twardowski - Canzona
Joseph Haydn - Symphony in F minor "La Passione" Hob.I:49
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Stabat Mater

Admission free.

Organized by the New Chamber Orchestra Foundation, co-financed by the City of Warsaw.

Cooperation: Warsaw Camerata, Art Deco Group, Culture Centre Praga, Strategia Group, Marek Rychłowski Law Firm.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC, "Presto" Magazine, Music Film Art, In Your Pocket, Wawcity.pl, cameralmusic.pl

Premiere of "Missa Solemnis" by Marta Ptaszyńska

Marta Ptaszyńska's Missa Solemnis will be premiered at the concert commemorating 200 years of the University of Warsaw, which will be held on March 16, 2016 at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

Performers:
Marta Boberska - soprano
Anna Radziejewska - alto
Jarosław Bręk - bass-baritone
Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music
Ryszard Zimak - conductor

Programme:
Karol Szymanowski - Stabat Mater. Op. 53
Marta Ptaszyńska - Missa Solemnis ad honorem Sancti Joannis Pauli Secundi

Tickets available on-line at: www.umfc.bilety24.pl

Maria Machowska and Baltic Neopolis Orchestra in Szczecin

Baltic Neopolis Orchestra and Maria Machowska will perform a concert entitled The Rite of Spring on March 19, 2016 at Trafo Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin (2 Św. Ducha St).

Baltic Neopolis Orchestra celebrates spring concert, which - for the first time in the history of the cycle "Great Concertmasters" – will have a female lead. Maria Machowska is an excellent violinist who toured all over the world with the most difficult repertoire and is currently a concertmaster at the Warsaw Philharmonic.

The programme of the concert features slightly melancholic suite Ancient Airs and Dances by an Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, one of few violin pieces written by Franz Schubert Rondo for Violin and String Orchestra in A major, and perhaps the most personal music of Krzysztof Penderecki - String Quartet No. 3 "Leaves from an Unwritten Diary". The artists will complete the evening with the delightful, folklore-inspired Orawa by Wojciech Kilar.

Source: www.balticneopolis.pl

Premiere of "Stabat Mater" by Grzegorz Duchnowski

Grzegorz Duchnowski's Stabat Mater for mixed choir, soprano, string orchestra and percussion will be premiered at the Oratorio Concert "Music and Sacrum" on March 20, 2016 at the Five Martyr Brothers Church in Gorzów Wielkopolski.

The programme, which includes also Fratres by Arvo Pärt and choral songs a cappella by such composers as Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Michael McGlynn, Andrzej Koszewski, Marek Raczyński, Łukasz Urbaniak and György Deák-Bárdos, will be performed by soprano Dorota Szczepańska, Poznań Chamber Choir and Gorzów Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Monika Wolińska.

The concert is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage ("Composing Commissions" programme, implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance).

Jerzy Maksymiuk’s Birthday Concerts

Composer and conductor Jerzy Maksymiuk will celebrate his 80th birthday with concerts on March 18 and 19, 2016 held at the the Krakow Philharmonic.

Maestro Maksymiuk will conduct the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, while the soloist of the evening will be pianist Ewa Pobłocka – prize-winner of many piano competitions (Vercelli 1977, Bordeaux 1979, Warsaw 1980), acknowledged teacher and juror.

Programme:
Jerzy Maksymiuk - Vers per archi
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto in A major K. 488
Franz Schubert - Symphony in C major D. 944, "The Great"

Tickets available on-line at: www.filharmonia.krakow.pl