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The Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk invites you to the concert "ODnowa" ("REnew") on the occasion of the 120th birth anniversary of Marian Hemar. The premiere performance of songs to the words of this outstanding poet and satirist will be accompanied by visualizations based on archival materials. The event will air on 11 April 2021 at 5.30 p.m. on social media of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and on TVP Historia.

Marian Hemar was a lyrical poet, an unequaled satirist, author of plays, brilliant sketches and monologues, the greatest pre-war songwriter with over 3,000 songs to his credit written for the best interwar cabarets. He entertained and educated, he did not shy away from cultural jokes and wise, satirical commentaries, and at the same time he was an uncompromising patriot, devoted to his homeland until the end of his life. The popular music of the last century, which was Hemar's domain, is nowadays more and more often presented in new, modern arrangements. Songs to the words of Hemar, sung before the war and, unfortunately, forgotten today, has prompted the Museum to take up an educational challenge and recall this rich repertoire to the contemporary audience.

New song arrangements were prepared by recognized artists as well as students, graduates and lecturers of the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańśk under the supervision of Kamil Cieślik. In addition, the concert will premiere songs to several poems by Hemar written by Agnieszka Zimna, Dawid Ludkiewicz and Piotr Pudełko. The pieces will be presented by soloists (Maria Malinowska, Jakub Kornacki, Karol Drozd, Marta Burdynowicz), the Art'n'Voices vocal octet and the Discantus Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sabrina Stachel.

Thanks to the cooperation with the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute and the National Digital Archives, the concert will be accompanied by specially prepared visualisations.

In April 2021, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk will release an album with songs by Marian Hemar.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://muzeum1939.pl/ 

Without the Polish Chamber Orchestra, and thus Jerzy Maksymiuk, the Sinfonia Varsovia would not have been founded. The album "Perfectionist" was created to celebrate the outstanding conductor's 85th birthday and the history of his long lasting friendship with the orchestra. It will premiere on 9 April 2021, on the artist's birthday. During a meeting in the Maksymiuk's salon, Maestro will talk about the album and how it was created. The event will be broadcast live on Sinfonia Varsovia's Facebook and YouTube channel.

The album includes pieces for string orchestra and soloists. In their interpretation, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Sinfonia Varsovia strive for not only performance perfection. They aim to reveal emotions which, thanks to the orchestra's precision and the performers' individual skills and sensitivity, become available to the listener.

The first two pieces are Claude Debussy's preludes arranged by Jerzy Maksymiuk: in this rendition we will hear the lightness and transparency that the conductor carefully brings out from the score. The next composition is Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Thanks to its rich texture, it is a perfect piece for a conductor who loves to delve into details and polish them, which Maksymiuk surely does. Andrzej Panufnik's Violin Concerto, another piece on the album, was written in 1972. With its very characteristic sound, it allows both the soloist (Jakub Haufa, concertmaster of Sinfonia Varsovia) and the orchestra to demonstrate different technical skills and slightly different sensitivity in each movement. Leaves Falling Here and Now, number 7 on the album, is a piece composed in 2011 for piano and chamber orchestra by Jerzy Maksymiuk himself, who also performed the piano part. Finally, Wojciech Kilar's Orawa. Despite its simplicity, it is not an easy piece to conduct. Maksymiuk has conducted it over a hundred times, and on the album Perfectionist we have the opportunity to listen to his last rehearsal.

The album will be available in Empik stores (also for preorder), on the website www.sinfoniavarsovia.org and on selected streaming services.

A symphonic concert of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Paweł Kowalski under the baton of Monika Wolińska will be held online on 9 April 2021 at 7.00 on the Philharmonic's YouTube channel.

Krzysztof Penderecki's Paradise Lost: Sacra Rappresentazione based on John Milton's poem was written to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the United States. The concert will begin with the lyrical Adagietto, which functions as an orchestral intermezzo. Mieczysław Tomaszewski described it as an example of 'retroversive' art: of music “looking back, but undoubtedly his own, personal and experienced, without the quotation marks that are associated with a stylisation".

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor No. 20 KV 466 will be a dialogue with the past. The captivating dramaturgy of the score, the impeccable form and the beauty of the themes made it one of the audience favourites all over the world. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 "Scottish" reflectes composer's impressions from his trip to Scotland in 1829. We will hear a reminiscence of a visit to the ruined chapel of the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, echoes of lively folk melodies in a joyful scherzo and a moving "prayer of Queen Maria Stuart" in a quote from Mendelssohn's own arrangement of Ave Maria. Te composer dedicated the symphony to Princess Victoria, the future queen of the United Kingdom.

More information at: https://www.oifp.eu/repertuar/koncert-symfoniczny-8/ 

The International Conference "Trombone in the 20th and 21st Century Polish Music – Inspirations and Perspectives" will take place at the Academy of Music in Łódź on 9-10 April 2021. All lectures, concerts and master classes with foreign guests will be held online; the recordings will be made available on the Academy's YouTube channel.

The conference was initiated by two teachers from the Academy of Music in Łódź: Robert Żelazko and Dariusz Sprawka. The guests of the conference will be world-class trombonists from Sweden, Germany and Poland: Hakan Björkman (Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Yamaha Artist), Tomer Maschkowski (Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Yamaha Artist), Maciej Łakomy (I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań), Tomasz Hajda (K. Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, NOSPR in Katowice), Dariusz Sprawka (G. and K. Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź) and Robert Żelazko (the G. and K. Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź ).

The conference programme includes workshops, lectures, concerts and online master classes, which are currently very popular among students who are not able to attend foreign courses. The event is devoted to the 20th and 21st century Polish music for trombone. The topic will be widely discussed during panel discussions and lectures and the 20th- and 21st-century trombone pieces will be performed during a conference concert. The programme will include compositions for both solo trombone and trombone ensembles. Each teacher, apart from the lecture, will give open master classes, during which one will learn more about the performance technique, ways of self-improvement, psychological aspects of playing an instrument and dealing with stress.

More information at: http://www.amuz.lodz.pl/pl/wydarzenia/puzon-w-muzyce-polskiej-xx-i-xxi-wieku 

Professor Marcin Błażewicz, composer, lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, member of the Polish Composers' Union died on 5 April 2021 in Podkowa Leśna at the age of 68.

He studied philosophy at the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw (now the Cardinal Wyszyński University), and later composition with Marian Borkowski at the Academy of Music in Warsaw (now Fryderyk Chopin University of Music), from which he graduated with honours. In 1999-2002 and 2005-2008, he was vice-dean of the FCUM Department of Composition, Conducting and Theory of Music, and in 2008-2012 dean of this department. In 2012-2016, he was head of the Department of Composition. He supervised doctoral dissertations of Dariusz Przybylski, Eunho Chang, Krzesimir Dębski and Ignacy Zalewski.

For many years he was engaged in the promotion of musical culture. In 1983-87 he was organiser and artistic director of the International New Music Forum in Warsaw. In 1990-92 he was president of the Jeunesses Musicales de Pologne, and in 1990-94 – vice-president of Percussive Arts Society Poland. Simultaneously, in 1986-98 he was music director of the Polish Radio Theatre and an editor in the Polish Radio "BIS" Programme. In 2000 he founded a periodical about music and related arts – "Muzyka21" – of which he was editor-in-chief until 2001. He was also chairman of the classical music section of ZAiKS Association of Authors (2006-2013) and its treasurer (since 2006).

Marcin Błażewicz received the Stanisław Wyspiański Award for lifetime achievement as a composer (1988) and – twice – the Prix Italia (1989, 1990). In 2018, he received the 100th Anniversary Award of the ZAiKS Association of Authors.

Marcin Błażewicz's works are performed in many countries around the world: from China through Europe to the United States – his music will stay with us forever.