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New Year's Eve Concert at the Warsaw Philharmonic

FNThe Warsaw Philharmonic invites you on 31 December 2020 at 8.00 p.m. to the New Year's Eve Concert, which will be broadcast online.

Fans of the Warsaw Philharmonic surely need no persuading that this is one of the best venues to spend a pleasant and memorable evening on New Year’s Eve. Let us bid farewell to 2020, which has been a truly traumatic and tragic year in so many ways, and let beautiful music fill us with hope and optimism for the coming twelve months.

The programme will feature lighter but unfailingly ambitious music, many surprises and amazing arrangements. Alongside works by Antonin Dvořák and Johannes Brahms we will hear music be a number of Polish composers, including Stanisław Moniuszko, Henryk Pachulski and Władysław Szpilman. Of special interest will be the first ever contemporary performance of Roman Statkowski’s Polonaise in B flat Major, Op. 20, dedicated to Emil Młynarski and his wife. In this way the Warsaw Philharmonic will pay tribute to one of its founders and its first director, the 150th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated in 2020.

Piotr Maculewicz

Full programme is available at: http://www.filharmonia.pl/ 

8. AŻ Festival Online

AZThe Academy of Music in Łódź invites you to the 8th AŻ Festival, which will be held online for the first time in history! The free broadcast will be available on the Academy's YouTube channel daily from 27 December 2020 to 1 January 2021 at 6.00 p.m. The programme will satisfy every audience: there will be a symphonic celebration of the Beethoven Year, a concert with baroque music, some opera music and themes from Hollywood, jazz and swing, as well as contemporary music.

The Baroque Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Łódź will present the music of the "giants of the Baroque" on 27 December. On 28 December, the PRIMUZ String Orchestra under the baton of Łukasz Błaszczyk and Stanisław Słowiński Septet will perform Słowiński's Violin Concerto No. 1 "Visions".

The programme of the Festival will include a concert of contemporary percussion music performed by Ewelina Hajda, Małgorzata Kolasa and The Bacewicz Percussion Ensemble. On New Year's Eve, students and graduates of the Faculty of Performing Arts will present fragments of operas and movie songs in the concert "From opera to Hollywood". We will hear film music by American and Polish composers, including Roman Palester, Henryk Wars, Jerzy Petersburski, Zygmunt Wiehler and Władysław Daniłowski. The final concert, dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, will be performed by the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Łódź and a soloist – pianist Jacek Wendler, who qualified for the upcoming Chopin Competition in Warsaw. 

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://www.amuz.lodz.pl/pl/wydarzenia/8-az-festiwal-online 

Photo Scores – online broadcast

PTMWOn 29 and 30 December 2020 at 7.00 p.m. the Polish Society for Contemporary Music invites you to watch the concerts from the "Photo Scores" series online.

On Tuesday, 29 December, there will be a broadcast of the "Trace" concert performed by Szabolcs Esztenyi (piano), Uliana Horbaczewska (vocal, synthesizer), Hubert Zemler (percussion instruments) and Ryszard Latecki (trumpet, harmonium, analog synthesizer). The concert will be accompanied by a show of archival photographs by Stepan Wenhrynowicz.

On 30 December, we will watch the "WAWA'60" concert, featuring Tadeusz Rolke's photographs of Warsaw from the 1950s and 1960s. The Backspace ensemble, composed of Zbyszek Chojnacki (accordion, electronics) and Łukasz Czekała (violin, electronics), will perform.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport as part of the "Music" programme implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance and ZAiKS.

More information athttps://ptmw.art.pl/

Christmas 2020

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8th Krzysztof Penderecki International Festival – Level 320

Poziom320The 8th edition of the Krzysztof Penderecki International Festival – Level 320 will be held online on 28-30 December 2020 on the Festival website and Facebook page.

Professor Krzysztof Penderecki, the Patron of the Festival that has been held continuously since 2013, has left us — but surely he will never be forgotten. At the heart of this year’s online edition of the Festival will be the premiere broadcast of the performance of the monumental Symphony No. 7, The Seven Gates of Jerusalem, conducted by the Master himself, recorded on 29 September 2017, during the jubilee edition of the Festival. This spectacular event, held in the beautifully illuminated, post-industrial scenery of the Queen Louise Adit basin, gathered on the Festival stage over 200 performers.

The second event of this year’s edition of the Festival will be the broadcast of the special music film Agnus Dei / Lamb of God, recorded 170 and 320 meters below the ground, in the atmospheric spaces of the Guido Mine, with the participation of the Sinfonietta Cracovia, under the baton of the Festival Director, Jurek Dybał, with music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Krzysztof Penderecki. The premiere of Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa’s piece Quintetto per archi ‘For Krzysztof Penderecki’, dedicated to the memory of the Festival’s Patron, was also presented in the film, which includes the footage of its first performance in the intimately illuminated interior of the Compressors Hall.

"Let's gather around the Professor and live through his music once again,  during the 8th edition of the Krzysztof Penderecki International Music Festival – level 320 in Zabrze;  just as we do every year" – says Jurek Dybał.

More information at: https://www.penderecki320.com/ 

New Music Orchestra / Tomasz Skweres – online concert

OMNThe Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra invites you on 29 December 2020 at 7.30 p.m. to an online premiere of a concert by Tomasz Skweres and New Music Orchestra conducted by Szymon Bywalec. The programme includes works by composers associated with Wrocław.

New Music Orchestra will present Marcin Rupociński's Sensitivity for chamber orchestra and video and Mateusz Ryczek's Cello Concerto 'Apparitions', inspired by the phenomenon of emergence and dedicated to Tomasz Skweres. These will be online premieres of works created as part of the "Composing Commissions" programme carried out by the Institute of Music and Dance.

Founded in 1996, New Music Orchestra is the oldest Polish ensemble specialising in contemporary music performance, with intense activity now spanning over 20 years. Working first under the direction of the ensemble’s founder Aleksander Lasoń, and since 2006 under Artistic Director Szymon Bywalec, the OMN has gradually morphed from a group of enthusiastic students into a professional ensemble able to tackle the most complex scores. The orchestra premiered over 150 works at Polish and international festivals. Since 2014, the OMN runs its own concert cycle at the NOSPR orchestra home venue in Katowice. 

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: https://nospr.org.pl/pl/kalendarz/orkiestra-muzyki-nowej-2 

Special gala of Christmas carols to close the Year of John Paul 2nd

Teatr OtwartyThe Open Theater (Teatr Otwarty) celebrates the 100th birth anniversary of Karol Wojtyła with a "Special gala of Christmas carols to close the Year of John Paul 2nd". The concert recorded in the Artus Court in Gdańsk will be broadcast online on 27 December 2020 at 6.00 p.m. on YouTube channel (Dariusz Wojcik – Teatr Otwarty).

Christmas atmosphere, very unique climate and traditions are the beauty that keeps us together. Polish Christmas carols are filled with spirituality, sarmatian temper, slavic pensiveness and longing, tenderness, feeling, merriness and melancholy. These elements can be found in activities and writings of St. John Paul 2nd. His merits for Poland and the world are not to be missed. Family life as a part of tradition was also of a great importance for John Paul 2nd. Festivities such as sharing wafer and singing Christmas carols are are the best example of family traditions that integrate all members in one place at the same time. Polish national poet – Adam Mickiewicz – said during one of his lectures at the Sorbone University in Paris: "Polish Christmas carols are so unique and one of the kind. I haven’t heard of any country that would have such a treasure as Poland has".

The upcoming concert will be performed by Joanna Nawrot (soprano), Jacek Szymański (tenor), Dariusz S. Wójcik (bass), Andrzej Wojciechowski (clarinet) and Rafał Lewandowski (piano). The artists will present music related to John Paul 2nd, such as Nocturne in E flat major and Scherzo in B minor by Frederic Chopin, Moje Miasto Wadowice with music by Adam Dec and Paweł Jarosz, an old Polish song Góralu czy ci nie żal, arias by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Benedictus from Christmas Oratorium by Camille Saint-Saëns. We will also hear Polish Christmas carols and pastorals such as Witaj gwiazdko złota by Zygmunt Noskowski, Nad stajenką gwiazda płonie by Jan Maklakiewicz, W nocy narodzony by Tadeusz Trojanowski, Oj maluśki maluśki and Jezusa naorodzonego, as well as carols of other nations.

The Honorary Patronate: Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage – Jarosław Sellin; the Voivod of Pomorze Dariusz Drelich.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: www.teatrotwarty.pl 

Mirecki, Stolpe, Żeleński – forgotten masterpieces of Polish chamber music

ApeironThe aim of the project "Mirecki, Stolpe, Żeleński – forgotten masterpieces of Polish chamber music" is to present to the widest possible audience the forgotten Polish chamber music of the 19th century, in particular the piano trio genre. The project will be premiered on 27 December 2020 at 6:00 p.m. on Tadeusz Szeligowski Society page.

Program of the concert includes 3 forgotten piano trios: Trio in F-dur, op. 22 by Franciszek Mirecki (1823), Romance. Duettino for violin, cello and piano by Antoni Stolpe (1866) and Trio in E-dur pp. 22 by Władysław Żeleński (1870). These works are of significant aesthetic, compositional and artistic value, which deserve to be permanently included in the repertoire of musicians all over the world. The choice of the repertoire is not accidental – the composers lived and wrote in the 19th century, and all the trios were written over the course of around 50 years; so they show the history of the development of the piano trio genre, which significantly evolved in the Romantic era. Moreover, young Władysław Żeleński completed his first composition studies with Franciszek Mirecki. For years, the works of Mirecki, Stolpe and Żeleński were only available in libraries in the form of manuscripts, some of them were lost or never found. There are also very few published works by these composers.

The concert will be performed by Apeiron Trio – a titled ensemble composed of young and passionate musicians, one of the most important areas of artistic activity is promoting the work of Polish composers.

The project is implemented as part of a creative scholarship and a scholarship in the field of promoting culture awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: http://towarzystwo-szeligowskiego.pl/ 

Chaim Nachman Bialik's "Radiance" – premiere of performative concert

BlaskThe premiere of a performative concert based on selected poems by Chaim Nachman Bialik – an outstanding Israeli poet of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the creator of the modern Hebrew language, called Israel's "prophet" – will be held on 27 December 2020 at 7.00 p.m. on the Hashtag Ensamble YouTube channel and at 8.00 p.m. on the POLIN Radio. Wojciech Błażejczyk's music will be performed by the Hashtag Ensemble and a children's choir.

The main idea of ​​the concert, organized by the 'Sfera Harmonii' Foundation, is to tell the poetic vision of Chaim Nachman Bialik through a combination of words and music. The poem Blask (Radiance) is a story about the main character's journey into childhood. He experienced the mystery of transcendence and he is recalling this memory, returning to it, describing it and indicating the presence of God in the world – the delightful beauty of nature. The title of this poem refers to the Jewish mystical Book of Radiance.

The authors of the performance refer to the original connection of music with the word, here acting as an additional instrument in a musical ensemble. Music is an integral part of the performance, responsible for the development of drama by creating and resolving tensions. During the concert, we will hear: string trio, ethnic instruments (duduk, cymbals) and guitars (classical prepared, electric and bass), as well as the electronics and the children's choir of the Oskar Kolberg State Primary Music School No. 1 in Warsaw. Actor Adam Woronowicz will also take part in the concert.

More information at: https://polin.pl/pl/wydarzenie/chaim-nachman-bialik-blask-premiera-koncertu-performatywnego