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Extraordinary edition of the Week of Talents 2020!

This year's Talent Week Festival, organized by the Paderewski Centre in Kąśna Dolna, and master classes will be broadcast online straight from the Paderewski Manor House on 17-23 May 2020.

The Week of Talents is an event initiated in 1982 by the Tarnów Music Society, which legacy was taken over by the Paderewski Centre in 1990. In the face of the ongoing pandemic, the Paderewski Centre decided not to cancel this year's edition of the popular festival. Thanks to modern technologies, music lovers will be able to listen to excellent artists without leaving home.

The festival will be inaugurated on 17 May at 6.00 by a master recital of Janusz Olejniczak and Tomasz Strahl. The artists who perform on the most prestigious stages in the world will present works by Fryderyk Chopin in transcription for cello and piano (by Tomasz Strahl, Janusz Olejniczak, Kazimierz Michalik, and Maciej Paderewski), pieces by Georg Friedrich Handel, Franz Schubert, and Melody, Op. 8 No. 3 by Ignacy Jan Paderewski in Tomasz Strahl's transcription.

In the finale, on 23 May at 6 p.m., we will listen to a master recital of flautist Łukasz Długosz and pianist Andrzej Jungiewicz. Długosz is an active promoter of modern music, engaged in expanding and enriching Polish flute literature. The musicians will perform mainly compositions of Polish artists: Karol Szymanowski, Zygmunt Noskowski, Tadeusz Szeligowski, and Wojciech Kilar. The programme will also include works for flute and piano by Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Rachmaninov and Theobald Böhm.

World-renowned artist-pedagogues will also record a series of piano, cello and flute workshops addressed to students of first and second degree music schools, which will be published online on 18-22 May.

Events will be broadcast on the institution's website and on its social media profiles (Facebook, YouTube).

Warsaw Wind Ensemble Composition Contest 2020

The PWM Edition and Warsaw Wind Music Association announce the International Composition Contest for Wind Orchestra – Warsaw Wind Ensemble Composition Contest 2020.

The Contest is open to composers of all nationalities who are at least 18 years old before 30 September 2020. It will be organised in two categories: international and Polish. The Final Gala will take place on 28 November 2020 in Warsaw. The prize pool include publication of the winning composition in the PWM series 'Biblioteka Orkiestr Dętych' ('The Wind Orchestras Library'), first performance of the winning composition at the Final Gala and material prizes. The winner in the Polish category will receive an additional cash prize in the amount of PLN 4,000 funded by the PWM Edition.

Applications may be submitted by 30 September 2020 (23:59, UTC+2).

Compositions will be judged by a Jury composed of: Alicja Gronau – chairwoman of the jury, Chris David Westover, Ryan Latimer, Eunho Chang, Adam Czajkowski, Daniel Cichy, Jakub Nikiel, Mariusz Dziubek, Jarosław Praszczałek.

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

More information at: www.warsawwinds.pl.

28th Adam Didur Composition Competition

Office of the 30th Adam Didur Festival announces the 28th Adam Didur Composition Competition for composers who are under 30 years of age by 31 December 2020.

The subject of the competition is a song, an aria for solo voice with piano or string quartet accompaniment. Only unpublished, unperformed, non-recorded and non-awarded works will be eligible for the Competition.

The Competition Jury consists of: Eugeniusz Knapik, Wojciech Widłak and Wojciech Ziemowit Zych. The total pool of awards is PLN 6,000. The Jury will decide on the distribution of prizes.

Competition works with the emblem and the annotation "28th Adam Didur Composition Competition should be sent by post to Sanocki Dom Kultury (38-500 Sanok, 24 Mickiewicza St.) by 21 August 2020. The results will be annouonced by 31 August 2020.

The award ceremony and the first performance of the winning composition will take place during the 30th Adam Didur Festival.

Rules of the competition are available at: www.sdksanok.pl

Bacewicz and Shostakovich chamber music with Karłowicz Quartet

Karłowicz Quartet will present chamber works of two great Polish composer during an online concert on 24 May 2020 at 7:00 p.m. The broadcast will be available on the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Karłowicz Quartet was founded in 2017. The ensemble consists of graduates of the best music academies in Poland. They developed their skills under the direction of outstanding chamber musicians from such ensembles as the Royal String Quartet, Scharoun Ensemble, Apollon Musagete Quartett, Silesian Quartet, Wilanów Quartet, Alban Berg Quartet, and Altenberg Trio. As members of the orchestra, they actively participate in the events organised by the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic in Szczecin. During the next concert they will present works by Grażyna Bacewicz and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Grażyna Bacewicz paid special attention to music for violin and other string instruments. Her String Quartet No.4 was written in 1950 and received the first prize at the International Composers Competition in Liege, the place of its first performance, a year later. The work consists of three parts, each of them permeated with folk music influences. Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet in C minor, Op. 110 (1960) has an extremely personal, almost autobiographical character. The work was written in just three days and is filled with quotations from the composer's earlier compositions. Shostakowicz's musical signature, the D-S-C-H motif, is used in every movement of the quartet. In one of the letters Szostakowicz wrote: "One could even write on the cover: Dedicated to the memory of the author of this quartet."

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Gdańsk | 13th Gdańsk Music Festival

Due to the prevailing pandemic and out of concern for the safety of artists and listeners, the 13th Gdańsk Music Festival was divided into two parts. The first part will take place between 9 and 20 May 2020 and will be broadcast on Radio Gdańsk. The concerts of the second part will take place between 29 September and 31 October 2020.

The 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition will be held in Warsaw next year. The winners of the Competition from previous years and this year's candidates will take part in the Gdańsk Music Festival. Adam Kałduński, the winner of the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk (2019) and the 2nd Beijing International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists (2019), will perform on 18 May at 7.05 p.m. at the Gdańsk Radio Concert Studio. In 2020 he won the second prize ex aequo at the 50th National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and thus qualified for the Chopin Competition 2021. Already qualified for the next year Chopin Competition is also Piotr Pawlak, who will perform on 20 May at 7.05 p.m. The day before, at the same time, we will hear the broadcast of Adam Makowicz's jazz recital from the Polish Baltic Philharmonic.

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Paul II. On this occasion, in the second part of the festival, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's monumental work Beatus Vir will be performed by the Polish Chamber Choir Schola Cantorum Gedanensis, Kraków Philharmonic Choir and Polish Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jan Łukaszewski. The work was commissioned by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, and the premiere took place after his election as Pope. The Beethoven Year will be celebrated by the performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56 by artists cooperating with Deutsche Grammophon: pianist Jan Lisiecki, violinist Bomsori Kim and cellist Camille Thomas

Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC.

Full programme available at: https://www.gdanskifestiwal.pl/ and www.radiogdansk.pl

Call for applications for the "Conductor-in-residence" programme – extended deadline!

The Institute of Music and Dance announces the call for applications for the "Conductor-in-residence" programme for the 2020/2021 season. The programme aims to develop performance skills and promote young Polish conductors as well as to increase the number of performances of Polish music.

The programme is addressed to Polish music institutions and to young Polish conductors – graduates of symphony and opera conducting for up to two years from receiving the master's or bachelor's degree. The programme is implemented through conducting residences in professional orchestras and opera and music theaters.

Scanned application, signed by an authorized person, should be sent with attachments by 1 June 2020 inclusive to the address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. It is not required to send a paper version of application form. Audio-video recordings might be sent via online tranfer e.g. WeTransfer (MP4 or AVI) or online video-sharing platform that allows you to play the material without registering and logging in (e.g. YouTube).

The deadline for the selection of applications by the evaluation committee is 15 June 2020. After this date, the list of projects approved by the commission will be announced on the Institute's website, and applicants of these projects will be informed of the positive decision in an official letter. If the pool of funds allocated to the programme edition in the 2020/2021 season is not exhausted, the Institute Director may further announce the second round of calls for proposals.

The budget of the programme edition in the 2020/2021 season is PLN 120,000.

Rules and regulations are available at: https://bit.ly/2XfZRO5

Results of the "Culture Online" grant programme

The National Centre for Culture has announced the results of the "Culture Online" grant programme, financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. PLN 60,000,000 will go to 1,188 beneficiaries throughout the country to support local cultural initiatives and to continue cultural and artistic activities online during the coronavirus epidemic. The winning projects will be implemented until 30 October 2020 and their effects will be available on the Internet with free access.

"Culture online" is a new grant programme of the National Centre for Culture worth PLN 60 million, launched on the initiative of the deputy prime minister, prof. Piotr Gliński, from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage funds as part of the so-called "Anti-crisis shield". Its purpose is to support cultural institutions, non-governmental organizations and other entities operating in the cultural sector and to increase universal access to cultural goods via the Internet.

The projects that received min. 75 points out of 100 possible received the financing. The number of nearly 1,200 beneficiaries on a scale of 6,000 applications submitted to the NCK is adequate to the budgetary capabilities of the programme.

Due to the great interest in the programme, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage prof. Piotr Gliński, in agreement with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, decided to increase the initial budget of the programme fourfold, from PLN 15 million to PLN 60 million. Another PLN 20 million will be granted to individuals as part of the scholarship component of the "Culture online" programme, managed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The results of the scholarship programme for artists will be announced next week. Due to a huge number of applicants it was decided to award more three-month scholarships instead of six-month ones, thus increasing the number of individuals who receive support.

Results of the grant programme are avilable at the National Centre for Culture website.

Łódź | The 100th anniversary of the birth of John Paul II

Artists of the Grand Theatre in Łódź will take part in the offical celebrations the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope John Paul II organised by the Archdiocese of Łódź in the Archcathedral Basilica of St. Stanisław Kostka on 18 May 2020.

After a solemn mass celebrated at 6 p.m. by Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś, there will be a concert performed by artists of the Grand Theatre in Łódź: Vocal Ensemble of Łódź Chamber Musicians (Magdalena Cierzniewska, Aleksandra Borkiewicz, Ewelina Dachowska, Olga Maroszek, Przemek Cierzniewski, Adam Józef Węgliński, Adam Suwald, Michał Jan Barański), organist Jakub Garbacz and soloists: Aleksandra Borkiewicz (soprano), Hanna Okońska (soprano), Olga Maroszek (mezzo-soprano) and Dominik Sutowicz (tenor).

The programme will include Ave Maria by Charles Gounod, Ave Maria by Giulio Caccini, Ave Maria by Franz Schubert and three choral works by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki: Mother of the Heavenly Lord, Hail Mary! and We shall Praise You Forever.

The proceedings of the anniversary will be broadcast online on the YouTube channels of the Archidiocese of Łódź and Grand Theatre in Łódź.

The Night of Museums online with Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic

The Night of Museums has always been an opportunity to meet audience members, talk to artists and discover operatic secrets. On 16 May 2020 Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic invites you to a virtual event.

Everyone who wants to visit the opera bulding at 1 Odeska street and learn its unique history can join an online guided tour, which will start at 6:00 p.m. An hour later on the OiFP YouTube channel, you will find a premiere broadcast of Wojciech Kilar's Missa pro pace (DUX) performed by the Choir and Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic conducted by Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk and soloists: Joanna Woś (soprano), Małgorzata Walewska (mezzo-soprano), Paweł Brożek (tenor) and Rafał Siwek (bass).

Missa pro pace (Mass for peace) was commissioned by Kazimierz Kord – then director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, to celebrate the centenary of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. Wojciech Kilar said in an interview in April 2001: “I tried to write the Mass as modest as possible, frugal in compositional devices, not a display of compositional virtuosity but an attempt to present my interpretation of the sacred text. In my view it is not a great pontifical mass, clad in opulent liturgical vestments but a mass celebrated in modest monastic habits, in a remote medieval monastery.”