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11th edition of Gdansk Art's Interpretation of Accordion Music will be held on 21 December 2020 at 7.00 p.m. on the Baltic Sea Cultural Centre YouTube channel. The programme will include premieres of the latest works by Polish composers.

This project has an over 10-year-old tradition and accordion plays the main role in it. Avant-garde works by contemporary composers, classic compositions and transcriptions are presented during the concerts. Each year a great number of premieres take place, which are very important for accordion music development. There were many composers who created their compositions especially for Gdansk Art's Interpretations of Accordion Music. Marek Czerniewicz, Krzesimir Dębski, Anna Maria Huszcza, Paweł Kwapiński, Mikołaj Majkusiak, Krzysztof Olczak, Cezary Paciorek, Gerhard Steäbler, Edward Sielicki, Paweł Sławiński czy Maciej Zimka are among them. The concerts take place in December in unique places like Old-Town Town Hall, St. John's Church or City Culture Institute's Hall.

This year the audience will have a chance to hear works by: Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk, Mikołaj Majkusiak, Krzysztof Olczak, Cezary Paciorek, Paweł Ratajek, Paweł Zagańczyk. Those compositions will be performed by Elżbieta Rosińska – accordion, Anna Wandtke – violin, Paweł Ratajek – accordion, Paweł Zagańczyk – accordion.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

An online premiere of Paweł Malinowski's Imaginarium Polkolor, created as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme of the Institute of Music and Dance, will be held on 21 December 2020 at 8 p.m. during the 7th edition of the Musica Privata Festival.

The Musica Privata Festival has been organised in Łódź since 2012. It aims at creating environment for new, creative, and – above all – honest and private artisitc process. The organisers invite musicians who strive to find their own language, regardless if they are interested more in free improv, classical, experimental or traditional music.

During the upcoming concert, the Kompopolex new music ensemble will premiere the latest piece by Paweł Malinowski commissioned by the Festival – Imaginarium Polkolor. Paweł Malinowski graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków, where he studied composition with Wojciech Widłak and music theory with Agnieszka Draus. He was also a student of Niels Rønsholdt and Simon Steen-Andersen at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. In 2016 he won the first prize at the 58th Tadeusz Baird Competition for Young Composers, organised by the Polish Composers' Union.

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"Penderecki. Sinfonia Varsovia in Tribute to the Master" – three concerts devoted to the work of Krzysztof Penderecki will be available on the Sinfonia Varsovia YouTube channel and Facebook page on 19-21 December 2020.

The year 2020 proved to be one of the most difficult times in the history of Sinfonia Varsovia. Krzysztof Penderecki – a great composer, longtime artistic director of the orchestra, the closest friend – passed away in March. To honour his memory, Sinfonia Varsovia organises an online festival in collaboration with the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice. On 19-21 December, the orchestra together with invited guests will perform pieces from various periods in Penderecki's work. The programme will include, among others, Sinfonietta per archi; Sextet for clarinet, horn, string trio and piano; Cello Concerto No. 1; Symphony No. 6 "Chinese Songs" and Symphony No. 2 "Christmas Eve".

The orchestra will be conducted by Maciej Tworek, but the musicians of Sinfonia Varsovia will also perform in chamber ensembles. Special guests of the festival will be Mariusz Wilczyński and Tomasz Konieczny.

More information at: www.sinfoniavarsovia.org 

Composer, pianist and theoretician of music Roman Berger, honorary member of the Polish Composers' Union, died on 22 December 2020 in Bratislava.

From 1949 he studied theory with Jan Gawlas and piano with Marta Gabryś-Furmanik at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice. In 1952 Stalinist repression forced him to move to Bratislava with his family. He continued his education at the Vysoka Škola Muzickich Umeni, where he studied piano with Frico Kafenda, and, after the latter's death, with Štefan Németh-Šamorinski (degree in 1956), as well as composition with Dezider Kardoš (honours degree in 1965).

From 1956 he worked as a piano professor at the Conservatory in Bratislava. He also started lecturing at his alma mater: in 1965-71 he taught classes in modern music, introduction to composition and electronic music at the Department of Theory. In 1980-91 he worked at the Art History Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. From 1989 he was a member of the team preparing a new conception of artistic education at the Ministry of Education as well as a member of an Advisory Body to the Minister of Culture (until March 1991).

He was also involved in the activity of the Union of Slovak Composers, of which he was secretary from 1966. Expelled from the Union in 1968 for his participation in the "Prague Spring", he regained his membership only in 1977, but twelve years later - in 1989 - he resigned it himself. With Mark Kopelent and Alois Piňos, he reactivated the Czechoslovak Section of the ISCM/SIMC. He has also been associated with the Czech section of the Club of Rome and with the "Atelier" group.

Roman Berger has written several hundred theoretical works, philosophical essays and other publications. He has received a number of prizes for his compositions. In 1988 the Vienna University honored him with the J.G. v. Herder Prize for all his achievements in composition and theory. In 1999, the General Assembly of the Polish Composers' Union granted Berger an honorary membership.

Let us honor his memory!

An online premiere of the double concerto for cello, piano and orchestra Sombres Lumières by Piotr Moss will take place on 20 December 2020 at 2.15 p.m. on the Kalisz Philharmonic website, Facebook and YouTube channel during a concert entitled "From the splendor of Vienna to the lights of Paris".

The piece was commissioned by the Kalisz Philharmonic as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme carried out by the Institute of Music and Dance. As the composer himself points out, "Jan Kalinowski and Marek Szlezer, who have been playing the cello / piano duo for years, have asked me to write this concerto. Known under the name Cracow Duo, they performed my chamber works many times and finally the time has come for 'something bigger', for a composition with orchestra. [...] The very title of the piece, Sombres lumières (Dark Lights), says a lot about this music. There are a lot of gloomy instrumental colours, darkness, mystery, anxiety... The form of the concerto is a result of contrasting short musical sections, very different in character. The music is very expressive, saturated. Although it is an instrumental concerto and the soloists have a lot to play here, the part of the orchestra is not only an ordinary accompaniment, the orchestra is a full partner of the duo. It is worth paying attention to the omnipresent percussion part, which gives the piece a special instrumental colour. The harp part is also quite extensive".

The programme of the upcoming concert will also include Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C major to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.

More information at: http://filharmoniakaliska.pl/