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La traviata in a new staging by Michael Mayer and under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin opens a new era at The Metropolitan Opera. This extremely popular opera by Giuseppe Verdi will be broadcast live to theaters around the world on December 15, 2018. At the Warsaw Cinema "Praha", the broadcast will take place at 18:35 p.m.

Verdi's work will be the first premiere that Nézet-Séguin will lead as the new music director of the New York scene. Michael Mayer’s richly textured new production feature a dazzling 19th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Flórez returns to the Met for the first time since 2015 to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta’s hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo’s father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruciński, and Plácido Domingo.

The show lasts about 3 hours and 40 minutes (including 2 breaks). Presentation in the original language (Italian) with Polish subtitles.

The list of cinemas in Poland, where you can watch broadcasts from the Bolshoi Theater, is available here.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: Artur Ruciński

The next symphonic concert Vocal Masters in the cycle "Wednesday at Okólnik" will be held on December 12, 2018 at 7.00 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

The concert will begin with a Small Overture for symphony orchestra by Roman Palester. The composition was written in 1935, not long after the composer graduated from musical studies at the Warsaw Conservatory under the supervision of Kazimierz Sikorski. Next to the Children's Symphony, Dance from Osmołoda and the Song of the Earth ballet, which was awarded with a gold medal at the World Exposition in Paris in 1937, Small overture is one of the early works of the composer, which brought him considerable popularity and international recognition.

The programme of the concert will also include two pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich. A series of songs From Jewish folk poetry, Op. 79a for soprano, alt, tenor and piano was composed in 1948 as an act of opposition to anti-Semitism spreading in the Soviet countries. It consists of eleven songs: The Lament for the Dead Child, The Thoughtful Mother and Aunt, Lullaby, Before a Long Parting, A Warning, The Abandoned Father, The Song of Misery, Winter, A Good Life, The Young Girl's Song, Happiness. The work will be performed by Urszula Kryger (mezzo-soprano), Jadwiga Rappé (alt) and Stanislav Mostovoy (tenor, Bolshoi Theater, Moscow). The concert will end with the Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47, which was written in 1937, during the period of increasing Stalinist terror. The Symphony Orchestra of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music will be conducted by Michał Klauza.

Tickets available online (https://umfc.bilety24.pl) and at the Chopin University Press in the FCUM main hall.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: www.chopin.edu.pl

The 4th International Choir Festival of Advent and Christmas Music "Mundus Cantat Sopot" will take place on December 15-16, 2018. Christmas carols and advent songs will be performed at the Sopot Center, the Church of St. George and the Church of Christ. Admission to all concerts is free.

The festival is a contest of international renown, and the teams participating in it will fight for the title of the best performer. The choirs will be singing in many languages  in various places in Sopot. This year's edition of the festival will be attended by 8 groups: from Latvia, Lithuania and a strong representation from Poland – from Łaziska Górne, Pniewów, Kraków, Mogilno, Słupsk and Warsaw. There will also be a special concert dedicated to Sopot seniors during their Christmas Eve at the City Hall of Sopot.

On Saturday, December 15 at 10:30 p.m. the auditions will begin in the Church of Christ. The choirs will be judged by a professional jury composed of outstanding specialists in the field of choral music, lecturers at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk – prof. Marcin Tomczak, dr hab. Beata Wróblewska, prof. AM, and dr hab. Małgorzata Kuchtyk. Immediately after the auditions, at the Sopot Center, the Choir and String Orchestra Con Fuoco AGH from Krakow, the Camerton Vocal Group from Łaziska Górne and the Versme Children's Choir from Vilnius, as well as the PNA Choir Academia Musica from Słupsk will present themselves to a wider audience. On the same day, at 3:30 p.m., the Final Concert will be held in the Church of Christ with the announcement of the results.

The festival will be closed by the annual concert dedicated to the memory of Michael Ray David, which will take place in the Church of Christ on Sunday, December 16 at 5.00 p.m. We will hear the SSW Festival Choir Mundus Cantat under the direction of Beata Wróblewska, the Gdańsk Choir of Doctors under the direction of Michał Kozorys, the Choir of the Sopot Music School under the direction of Piotr Fredrich and the Sopot Piano Trio composed of: Krystyna Stojek, Anna Sawicka, Joanna Ciapka-Sangster. The artists will present Polish carols, American Christmas songs and pieces for piano by Astor Piazzolla and Ludomir Mikołaj Rogowski. During the concert, toys, sweets and clothes for children from the Kiev hospital in Ukraine will be collected..

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme available at: http://munduscantat.pl/

The programme will include violin pieces from the first 20 years of the 19th century written by such composers as: Emil Młynarski, Aleksander Zarzycki, Adam Andrzejowski, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Karol Szymanowski, Henryk Melcer czy Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Students of the The Chair of String Instruments will perform: Błażej Bębeńca, Daeun Choi, Kamila Fediuk, Maria Grajewska, Emilia Jarocka, Maria Kapsiak, Judyta Kluza, Milena Krupińska, Emilia Łapko, Jeehye Oh, Eryka Piotrowska, Lucyna Strzemecka, Iga Wasilewska, Julia Wrońska, Kinga Zlot. Piano accompaniment: Aleksandra Dallali, Janusz Grobelny, Andrzej Guz, Elżbieta Neumann, Ewa Skardowska, Grzegorz Skrobiński, Krzysztof Stanienda. Opiekę artystyczną nad koncertem objął prof. dr hab. Andrzej Gębski.

Free admission cards available at the Chopin University Press in the FCUM main hall, tel. 22 2789 275, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., from Monday to Wednesday and on Fridays between 4.00 and 7.00 p.m., and half an hour before the concert.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: www.chopin.edu.pl

Conductor Michał Rajewski will celebrate 20 years of artistic work with a jubilee concert on December 16, 2018 at 1.00 p.m. in the St. Agnes Church in Goniądz.

Michał Rajewski graduated from the Diocesan Organ Studies in Pelplin, the University of Casimir the Great in Bydgoszcz, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts in Kalisz. He expanded his knowledge and passion at Postgraduate Choirmaster Studies at the Feliks Nowowiejsk Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. Currently, he is a student of two majors at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Michał Rajewski was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit by the President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski for his artistic contribution for to the promotion of culture. As a soloist, he collaborates with many choirs performing during vocal and instrumental concerts. He is a founder and conductor of many choirs and ensembles, he also performs the function of artistic director of choir festivals.

The jubilee concert will feature Vocal Ensemble Omnis Mea and Chamber Choir Endorfina from Warsaw, choirs of the parish of St. Agnes in Goniądz, and the Ad Hoc Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michał Rajewski. The soloists will be Wioleta Sędzik (soprano) and Julia Janiak (mezzo-soprano). The musicians will present works by Wacław of Szamotuły, Mikołaj Gomółka, Henryk Jan Botor, Łukasz Urbaniak, Józef Świder, Ola Gjeilo, Edvard Grieg, Anton Bruckner, Charles Gounod, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Live HD broadcast of the Christmas ballet The Nutcracker from the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow will take place on December 23, 2018 in Polish cinemas. In Warsaw's Kino Praha, the broadcast will take place at 4.00 p.m.

On Christmas Eve, Marie’s Nutcracker doll magically transforms into a prince and their wonderful adventure begins. The holiday classic returns to the majestic Bolshoi stage for a live broadcast of a timeless story, The Nutcracker, taking audiences of all ages on a magical journey through a world of enchantment complete with dancing snowflakes and dolls that have come to life, accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s beloved score.

Libretto by Yuri Grigorovich after the fairy-tale of the same name by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann,
ideas from the scenario by Marius Petipa used. Choreographer: Yuri Grigorovich. Designer: Simon Virsaladze.
Music Director: Gennadi Rozhdestvensky. The performance has 1 intermission. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

The list of cinemas in Poland, where you can watch broadcasts from the Bolshoi Theater, is available here.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://www.kinopraha.pl

After the New Year's Eve fireworks, on January 5, 2018 at the ICE Kraków Congress Center (17 Marii Konopnickiej St.) at 7:00 p.m., Sinfonietta Cracovia will perform in the company of world-renowned virtuosos from Janoska Ensemble.

The classics of New Year's concerts flavored with an eclectic gypsy jazz will ignite even the coldest January evening. Janoska Ensemble gives concerts all over the world, and we can hear their recordings thanks to, among others, Deutsche Grammophon. An unusual combination of gypsy jazz, classics and world music creates a unique style, known as Janoska Style. This time, we will hear their bravura interpretations of the works of the Strauss, Paganini and Mozart.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Information on tickets at: http://sinfonietta.pl/ 

In Memory of Grażyna Bacewicz – a concert of violin students of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music on the composer’s 110th birthday and 50th death anniversaries will take place on January 14, 2019 at 7.00 p.m.

Grażyna Bacewicz studied violin at the Warsaw Conservatory with Józef Jarzębski and in Paris with André Touret and Karl Flesch. As a concerting virtuoso, until the mid-1950s, she was performing in Poland, France, Spain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Romania and Hungary. In her enormous compositional output, works for string instruments constitute the main part. The programme of the concert will include Oberek, Polish Caprice, Mazovian Dance, Violin Sonata, Sonata for solo violin and Quartet for four violins dedicated to "students of the Warsaw Conservatory".

Free admission cards for Monday concerts are available at least one week before the concert at the Chopin University Press in the FCUM main hall, from Monday to Friday between 4.00 and 7.00 p.m.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

"Paderewski to Chopin" exhibition finissage will be held on January 8, 2019 at 6.00 p.m. at the Fryderyk Chopin Museum.

Ignacy Jan Paderewski – a pianist, composer and politician, without whom it is impossible to think about Polish independence. What is his contribution to Chopin? This question was answered by the exhibition of memorabilia belonging to the collections of the Fryderyk Chopin Museum and the Library of the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute: valuable musical manuscripts, concert programmes and preserved iconography. The exhibition was a unique opportunity to look at Paderewski as a performer, editor and promoter of Chopin's legacy, which was a source of inspiration throughout his life. The character of the exhibition was special: some of the artist's souvenirs were presented for the first time.

The finissage of the exhibition will feature a special tour guided by Marta Tabakiernik and Michał Szymanowski's concert on January 8, 2019 at 6.00 p.m., featuring works of Fryderyk Chopin and Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

The exhibition was carried out as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of regaining independence by Poland and the "Polish Music Heritage" programme.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Admission free, a seat reservation is required: www.bilety.nifc.pl