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The project "Roman Maciejewski – pieces for two pianos" was created thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the "Culture on the Web" programme.

It is dedicated to the promotion of Polish music and compositions for piano duo, emphasizing the important role of Roman Maciejewski in Polish musical life.

The project includes audio-video recordings of such Roman Maciejewski's works as Mazurka, Lullaby, Tarantella, the Negro spirituals series, Deep River, Listen to the Lambs, Sometimes I feel like Motherless Child and I want to be ready. The pieces were performed by the Chopin Piano Duo composed of Anna Boczar and Bartłomiej Kominek.

The recordings were made in September 2020 in the Concert Hall of the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice. Sound director – Małgorzata Polańska (DUX), video director – Grzegorz Kućmierz ("Presto" Artistic Agency).

The material is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ocngeRpR2w

As part of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage programme "Culture on the Web", the Oskar Kolberg Świętokrzyska Philharmonic has made audiovisual recordings of works by Polish composers, commissioned or premiered by the Philharmonic in recent years. The materials are available on the Philharmonic's YouTube channel.

The following works were recorded in 2020 as part of the "New Polish music – concerts for soloists and orchestra" project: Aistheticos for saxophone, piano and orchestra by Hanna Kulenty, Wind's Anger for saxophone and orchestra by Bartosz Kowalski, Sinfonia Concertante for percussion and orchestra by Ignacy Zalewski, and Concerto for flute, piano and orchestra by Mikołaj Majkusiak.

The pieces were performed by renowned soloists: percussionist Leszek Lorent, saxophonists Paweł Gusnar and Bartosz Duś, flautist Anna Karpowicz and pianists Marek Bracha and Magdalena Duś. They were accompanied by the Świętokrzyska Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Jacek Rogala. The presentation of each composition is preceded by a short lecture that introduces the composer, his or her sound language and the ideas behind the selected piece. The concerts are hosted by Beata Młynarczyk, an animator and educator who focuses on popularizing music. The WDK Cultural Information Platform in Kielce – the media patron of the project – was responsible for the registration and post-production.

The announcement of concerts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apG9sOdqKo4&feature=emb_logo 

In the next episode of "House Party with Dwójka" flautist Ania Karpowicz and pianist Aleksandra Świgut will present a programme inspired by the sound of the human voice – "Death and the Maiden". The event will be broadcast on Saturday, 9 Januray 2021 at 7.00 p.m. on the Polish Radio Channel 2 (Dwójka), its website, Facebook and YouTube.

Ania Karpowicz is a graduate of flute solo studies at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Janos Balint (2011) and at the Bacewicz Musical Academy in Łódź in with Antoni Wierzbiński (2009). Prizewinner of national and international music competitions in Poland and Germany. She specialises in micro-projects in city spaces realized with local communities. In 2017, in cooperation with the pianist Marek Bracha, she initiated an urban space festival „WarszaMuzik” – a series of musical interventions in the courtyards of the surviving tenement houses of the Warsaw Ghetto. In 2013 she established the Hashtag Ensemble cooperative and leads its works: performing concerts of 20th- and 21st-century music, as well as engaging in improvisational and educational initiatives.

Aleksandra Świgut is a graduate and teacher of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, a prize-winner of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw (2018). Her wide experience with historical and modern instruments and different performance practices makes her interpretations unique. She studied with Piotr Paleczny at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Wojciech Świtała and Maria Szwajger-Kułakowska at Katowice Music Academy and David Dolan at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She holds a doctorate from Gdańsk Music Academy, where she studied with Waldemar Wojtal. She has won many prizes in piano competitions, including in Ettlingen, Enschede and New Orleans and at the Polish Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

Ania Karpowicz and Aleksandra Świgut will perform in one of Warsaw's tenement houses apartment during the next episode of "House Party with Dwójka". For the meeting with the listeners and internet users, the artists prepared a unique repertoire composed of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert and Mieczysław Weinberg. 

The recording of α¹ Cap – the latest piece by Gdańsk composer Piotr Jędrzejczyk, which had its world premiere on 31 December 2020, is now available on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/5AaqtZPmbpc. It is the world's first piece for amplified classical guitar, seaboard and electronics.

The piece was premiered by the composer himself together with guitarist Marcin Kozioł. Piotr Jędrzejrzyk explained the idea behind his piece: "The inspiration for the creation of "α¹ Cap" for seaboard, amplified guitar and electronics were the achievements of the Gdańsk astronomer Jan Heweliusz, or more precisely, the so-called double stars of which Hevelius was one of the first researchers. A double star is a system of two stars that visually appear to be close or physically located at a short distance from each other and gravitationally interact with each other. It was the interdependence and orbit around the common center of mass that inspired me to create a duo based on some kind of analogous relationship. Hence the title of the composition (α¹ Cap is an abbreviation of Alpha¹ Capricorni, the name of one of the stars in the Capricorn constellation that forms the binary Alpha Capricorni discovered in 1659 by Hevelius). Although the title star belongs to the group of stars that are not really close to each other in the case of which there are no gravitational dependencies it was the first double star I met and that is why I put it in the title of the composition. Apart from the reference to astronomy in the sphere of inspiration the work also contains other references to the laws of physics and mathematics which applies to many of my compositions from recent years - the material of "α¹ Cap" is based on the Pean curve and the fractal principle of self-similarity. The piece was written in 2020 thanks to the financial support of the City of Gdańsk as part of the Cultural Scholarship."

Sheet music available soon at: https://experimentalworkshop.eu

The Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera invites you to the New Year's Gala of the Polish National Ballet on 1-2 January 2021. A selection of balletic gems performed by a smaller lineup of dancers will be broadcast online for free on VOD platform as part of a two-part Polish National Ballet New Year’s Gala.

The gala’s lineup includes principal dancers and other artists of Polish National Ballet. As for the classical repertoire, Yuka Ebihara and Vladimir Yaroshenko will perform the spectacular grand pas of Kitri and Basilio from Don Quixote accompanied by Elisabetta Formento and Palina Rusetskaya. Together with Chinara Alizade Dawid Trzensimiech will recreate the sophisticated pas de deux of Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré from The Sleeping Beauty, then will be joined by Yurika Kitano in a cheerful, if little known in Poland, duet from Bournonville’s The Flower Festival in Genzano. Maksim Woitiul and Mai Kageyama will present a pas de deux from The Nutcracker, while Vladimir Yaroshenko and Chinara Alizade will return to the stage with the romantic pas de deux of Nikiya and Solor from La Bayadère. You will also see Pas d’Esclave from Le Corsaire danced by Mai Kageyama and Ryota Kitai as well as the Odalisque Pas de Trois (Aoi Choji, Palina Rusetskaya, Yume Okano). Last but not the least, Rinaldo Venuti and Melissa Abel will give you their rendition of the pas de deux of Bluebird and Princess Florine from The Sleeping Beauty. Marta Kluczyńska conducts the Orchestra of the Polish National Opera.

The gala will also give you a taste of the contemporary ballet repertoire choreographed by the PNB director: the unforgettable duet from Krzysztof Pastor’s Tristan and Isolde interpreted by Yuka Ebihara and Paweł Koncewoj, two ravishing fragments from Kurt Weill performed by Maksim Woitiul (Gebet), Rosa Pierro and Rinaldo Venuti (Wie lange noch?), Preludium and Toccata from a new ballet being developed by Mr Pastor’s to Wojciech Kilar’s Piano Concerto, and the impressive finale of his hit ballet Moving Rooms with music by Schnittke and Górecki.

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