The best ensembles specializing in contemporary music performance –Hashtag Ensemble and Spółdzielnia Muzyczna contemporary ensemble – will take part in the 29th edition of the "Portraits of composers" festival, which will take place on 10-11 December 2019 at 6 p.m. at the Masovian Institute of Culture (12 Elektoralna St., Warsaw).
The "Portraits of composers" festival have been organized by the Polish Composers' Union since 1988. Every year it presents chamber works by several contemporary composers. The programme is designed so that listeners can get acquainted with compositions characteristic for a given artist. During the upcoming concerts we will listen to the works by Marcel Chyrzyński and Eunha Chang.
Marcel Chyrzyński performs the function of the President of the Polish Composers' Union in Kraków. He is the director of the Institute of Composition, Conducting and Theory of Music at the Academy of Music in Kraków and the director of the International Festival of Kraków Composers. In 1994-98 he wrote a series of compositions Quasi Kwazi I, II and III for solo clarinet, which had its performances in Poland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, South Korea, Australia and the USA. and was broadcast in the Andrew Ford's The ABC Music Show programme by Australian Radio. The premiere of the composition Death in Venice, inspired by the Luchino Visconti's film of the same title, took place during the monographic concert of Chyrzyński in Los Angeles (2017). The next series of works by Chyrzyński entitled Reflection is an expression of thoughts related to the transience and fragility of existence. Reflection No. 1 was commissioned by the Amar Corde quartet and entered the ensemble's repertoire permanently. Reflection No. 4 was premiered during the 27th Takefu International Music Festival in Japan – the composition was commissioned by the organizers of the project. Reflection No. 7 was commissioned by Chang-min Park – the artistic director of Ensemble SoriYuhi and premiered at Daegu Concert House. The Polish premiere will take place at the concert on 10 December.
On 11 December we will listen to the music by a composer from South Korea, Eunho Chang. He is a graduate of Keimyung University and the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, where he also obtained a doctorate in musical arts under the supervision of Prof. Marcin Błażewicz. In the Sanjo cycle for solo instruments or voice, the composer presents his own view of traditional Korean music using contemporary compositional means and Western instruments, which are to imitate Korean instruments through the use of appropriate performance techniques. Eunho Chang himself will play on one of these instruments, called saenghwang. We will also listen to the Lyric Nocturne for a traditional Chinese bamboo flute called dizi. The final of the concert will be the premiere of Eunho Chang's Prism, which is based on the reflection of different colors of sounds coming from the "prism".
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.