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The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra invites you on 31 December 2019 at 6:00 p.m. for the New Year's concert. On this special evening, the NOSPR will be conducted by Maestro Lawrence Foster!

The concert programme will consist primarily of well-known works by outstanding American composers: Agnegram by Michael Tilson Thomas, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and orchestra by Samuel Barber, Episodes from the ballet Rodeo by Aaron Copland, Three dance episodes from the musical On the Town by Leonard Bernstein, An American in Paris by George Gershwin. There will be also a Polish accent – Oscar-awarded music from the film Lili by Bronisław Kaper, Polish composer of film and theater music, who made a career In Hollywood.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://nospr.org.pl 

Polish Christmas carols will be performed on 27 December 2019 at 7 p.m. at the National Forum of Music by the artists of the NFM Choir and West Side Sinfonietta conducted by Agnieszka Franków-Żelazny, Marcin Danilewski and Paweł Maślanka.

The Christmas period is primarily a time when carols are sung. Cicha noc, Gdy śliczna Panna, Z narodzenia Pana, Lulajże, Jezuniu, Mizerna, cicha and Oj maluśki, maluśki are carols that will be heard this evening at the NFM. Some songs, although belonging to classical music, are so popular and recognizable that they are also well known to people who are not connected with the world of music. Antonio Vivaldi's violin concertos are a case in point, brought together under the joint title Four Seasons. A few years ago, they received an extremely interesting arrangement.

The author of Four Seasons Recomposed is Max Richter, a British composer of German origin. The first performance of the work took place in 2012 in London. The work immediately gained enormous popularity, and its recording hit the top of the charts in the United States, Germany and England. Richter elaborated Vivaldi's composition in an ingenious way, boldly and inventively playing with the expectations of the listeners. In perfectly recognizable places, he subtly changed the rhythm, dynamics and line-up and introduced an element of surprise to music. We hear something that we assume we know perfectly well, but actually it is something completely new. Richter often refers to the aesthetics of minimalism, repeating short motifs or creating static, motionless sounds. The whole is intriguing, and thanks to its being easy on the ears is an excellent proposition for both connoisseurs of the classics and people listening to such music occasionally.

More information at: https://www.nfm.wroclaw.pl/component/nfmcalendar/event/7291 

Ena Maria Aldecoa wrote history by being the first Filipino soprano featured in an art song recital during the Bayreuther Richard-Wagner-Festival in 2018. On 21 December 2019 at 7 p.m. she will perform at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic – European Art Center in Bialystok.

Ena Maria Aldecoa studied under Prof. Mitsuko Shirai and Prof. Hartmut Höll, two of the most outstanding Lied-Duos and pedagogues in the history of Art Song in the second half of the twentieth century. Enthralled by her range of voice, phenomenal breath control, precision of pitch, depth of interpretation and tremendous charisma on stage, living composer icons Wolfgang Rihm and Heinz Holliger embraced her singing on several occasions. But the artist also can fascinate with classics as in Bellini’s Ah, non credea mirarti (Amina in La Sonnambula) that left many in the audience in tears at the venerable Teatro Verdi in Florence. Between 2008–2018 she gave countless art song recitals in Germany, France, Italy, and the Philippines. She is the Chair of the Keyboard Department at the University of the Philippines College of Music since August 2015 and Artistic Director of the Art Song Academy Manila since November 2015.

For the audience in Białystok she has prepared a special programme including the works of Polish, Hungarian, Czech composers close to our hearts, as well as a revue of the most renowned Philippino composers, such as Nicanor Abelardo, Felipe Padilla De León, Manuel Velez, John August Pamintuan, or Ryan Cayabyab.

More information at: https://www.oifp.eu/repertuar/gdy-mowi-muzyka/ 

The winners of the International Stanisław Moniuszko Composers’ Competition for a micro-opera entitled “12 Minutes for Moniuszko”, organized by the Polish Composers' Union and Grand Theatre – Polish National Opera, were announced during the Evening of Premieres, which was held on 18 December 2019 at 7 p.m. in the Emil Młynarski Chamber Hall of the Grand Theater – Polish National Opera.

The competition aimed to revive, in present-day conditions, the specific idea of Moniuszko’s operas as musical dramas based on social topics. After the auditions of the 2nd stage of the Competition, the Jury composed of: Zygmunt Krauze – composer, chairman of the Jury, Waldemar Dąbrowski – director of the Grand Theater – National Opera, Ryszard Daniel Golianek – musicologist, Jerzy Kornowicz – composer, Hanna Kulenty – composer, Janusz Wiśniewski – opera director, Jerzy Wołosiuk – conductor, awarded the main prize of PLN 40,000 to Tomasz Szczepanik, PhD, for the work The Immigrant. The winner of the Competition is a lecturer at the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź.

Other finalists – Ignacy Zalewski, Patricia Elizabeth Martínez, Otto Wanke, Paweł Siek and Estera Wityńska – received prizes in the amount of PLN 20,000 and titles of the laureates of the Competition. The Audience Award in the amount of PLN 10,000 was awarded to Ignacy Zalewski, PhD, assistant professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music.

We warmly congratulate all the winners!