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New York City | 2nd Paderewski Days Festival

As part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the USA, on 16-24 November 2019, the second edition of the Paderewski Days Festival will be presented in New York City. The festival, through various activities addressed to the New York audience, presents, promotes and reminds Ignacy Jan Paderewski and his great merits in the field of music and Polish-American diplomatic cooperation for Polish independence.

The festival is supported by the Honorary Patronage of Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York Maciej Golubiewski, and co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland as part of the competition "Cooperation in the field of public diplomacy 2019”. The programme of Paderewski Days includes a series of cultural events: concerts, recitals, exhibitions, art-shows, lectures and meetings with artists from Poland.

During "Paderewski Days 2019" the music of Maestro Paderewski will be heard in various districts of New York City. On 16 November, during the concert "Keys to Freedom" in Lincoln Center internationally acclaimed pianist Radosław Sobczak will perform two epic, romantic sonatas by revolutionary Polish composers: Paderewski and Szymanowski. After that, on 24 November, during the concert "Paderewski & Chopin" at the Polish & Slavic Center, pianist Radosław Sobczak will perform together with soprano Anna Koźlakiewicz. Both concerts will be hosted by Adam Wibrowski – artistic director and originator of festival.

The Paderewski Days Festival is co-organized and supported by: RenesArt Foundation, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Polish & Slavic Center, Polish Museum of America. Participation in the events is free.

Full programme available at: http://www.polishslaviccenter.org/m,6759,a,8896,druga-edycja-festiwalu-dni-paderewskiego-w-centrum-polsko-slowianskim.html

Szwajcaria | 15. CULTURESCAPES: Poland 2019

CULTURESCAPES to, odbywający się w Szwajcarii, interdyscyplinarny festiwal poświęcony promowaniu dialogu międzykulturowego. Na jego tegoroczną edycję składa się 220 wydarzeń prezentujących szwajcarskiej publiczności polską kulturę i tożsamość. Wydarzenie potrwa od 5 października do 6 grudnia 2019.

W poprzednich odsłonach festiwalu szwajcarska publiczność miała okazję poznać kulturę Gruzji, Izraela, Ukrainy czy Japonii. W tym roku przyszła kolej na Polskę. 15. edycja CULTURESCAPES jest wyjątkowa, bo towarzyszy jej 100. rocznica nawiązania polsko-szwajcarskich relacji dyplomatycznych. Według kuratorów, Jurriaana Cooimana i Kateryny Botanovej, Polska kojarzona jest głównie z czołową rolą w transformacji demokratycznej i z ruchem Solidarności, który doprowadził do upadku muru berlińskiego. Dalej pozostaje ona jednak dla szwajcarskich uczestników kultury "terra incognita", co ma się zmienić za sprawą CULTURESCAPES.

Program CULTURESCAPES prezentuje szerokie spektrum polskiej muzyki, od średniowiecza aż po współczesność. Kluczowym muzycznym wydarzeniem festiwalu będzie premiera opery Król Roger w Konzert Theater Bern. Ważna jest również postać Fryderyka Chopina, którego twórczość odtworzą zarówno studenci i absolwenci szwajcarskich akademii muzycznych, jak i takie znakomitości jak Julianna Awdiejewa czy Ronald Brautigam. W programie znajdą się również polscy kompozytorzy i wykonawcy związani ze Szwajcarią, jak Karol Szymanowski i Witold Lutosławski. Najnowsza muzyka polska zostanie zaprezentowana w Gare du Nord Basel. Najważniejszym wydarzeniem będzie tu koncert symfoniczny Basel Sinfonietta, realizowany wspólnie z festiwalem Warszawska Jesień. Wśród polskich i zagranicznych solistów w koncertach festiwalowych wezmą udział Piotr Anderszewski, Ronald Brautigam, Krzysztof Chorzelski i Agata Zubel.

Więcej informacji na stronie: https://culture.pl/pl/wydarzenie/15-edycja-festiwalu-culturescapes

Szczegółowy program Festiwalu: https://www.culturescapes.ch/polen

San Francisco | The World of Grażyna Bacewicz

The festival dedicated to Grażyna Bacewicz – "The World of Grażyna Bacewicz" – will take place on 18-19 October 2019 in Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco.

The story of Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) will be presented in three emceed shows interweaving music and narrative: from her brilliant early works from the days as a young virtuoso violinist, through the horrors of World War II and the repressive Polish communist regime that isolated Poland’s artists from the Western world, to the most groundbreaking works created at the end of her life. The audience will have the opportunity to listen to the works of artists who inspired the composer and those for whom her work is now a reference point. The list includes such names as Ignacy Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski, Tadeusz Baird, Andrzej Panufnik, Witold Lutosławski, Marta Ptaszyńska, Hanna Kulenty, Lidia Zielińska and Agata Zubel.

There will also be a screening of the documentary The World Only Sees My Cheerful Face (1999) directed by Dariusz Pawelec. The film will be shown for the first time with English subtitles.

More information at: http://www.bardmusicwest.org/the-world-of-grazyna-bacewicz

Paso Robles, CA | Paderewski Festival 2019

Paderewski

The Paderewski Festival is a four-day music festival celebrating Paso Robles' rich heritage and its most famous resident Ignacy Jan Paderewski – virtuoso pianist, composer, international politician, local landowner, grower, and winemaker. This year's edition will be held between 31 October and 3 November 2019.

The festival will be inaugurated with a Halloween-themed film music programme entitled "Dracula Rising: Ghosts of Hollywood Past", presented by the San Francisco-based Ensemble 4 These Times with music by Bronislaw Kaper, Erich Korngold, Miklos Rozsa, and Henry Vars. Programme selections will be accompanied by projected visuals, featuring stills from various iconic films. The next day, the USC Thornton Baroque Sinfonia will present "Polish Baroque Treasures" programme of instrumental and vocal-instrumental works from 14th-17th centuries.

The winners of the 2019 Paderewski Festival Youth Piano Competition representing top talent from the Central Coast counties will be heard at the Historic Paso Robles Inn Grand Ballroom on 2 November. Later that day, Takeshi Nagayasu, a brilliant young pianist and the 2019 First Prize winner of the Kosciuszko Foundation's Chopin Competition in New York City will present music by Chopin, Paderewski, Szymanowski, and Scrabin. The Festival will and with a lecture by Marek Żebrowski, devoted to Poland's Independence Day (11 November), 100 years of Paderewski's year in office as Poland's president, as well as the centenary of Polish-American diplomatic relations that are observed throughout this year.

Concerts featuring world renown talent, exhibits, and masterclasses are accompanied by special events at historical vineyards. A youth piano competition, recital and student cultural exchange with Poland additionally honor Paderewski's legacy.

Full programme available at: http://www.paderewskifest.com/

Donaueschingen | Premiere of the new work by Lidia Zielińska

Zielińska

The world premiere Lidia Zielińska's Klangor for orchestra will take place on Sunday, 20 October 2019, during the final concert of the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival.

The new work by Lidia Zielińska was commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival and the SWR2 radio in cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The world premiere will be made by SWR Symphonieorchester under the direction of Tito Ceccherini. The programme of the final concert of the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival will also include three other world premieres: Melancholy for chromatic harmonica and orchestra by Saed Haddad, Elemental Realities for orchestra by Jürg Frey, and WÄCHTER for bass flute and pipes orchestra by Eva Reiter.

New music can be a place of retreat and contemplation. The world premieres of the final concert each seek and assert their own place, be it melancholy as an expression of woefulness in the new work by the Jordanian composer Saed Haddad, be it in Eva Reiter’s sound experiment, in which the musicians dispose of their instruments, in search of a pover music. With Lidia Zielińska, the orchestra becomes a gloomy echo chamber that picks up and unfolds a sound of nature.

The concert will be broadcast live at: https://www.swr.de/swrclassic/.

More information at https://www.swr.de/