The Gaude Mater International Festival of Sacred Music will be held from April 20 to May 8, 2015. This year, the Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary. Within a quarter of a century, the Festival has built upon its original formula, aimed at the promotion of sacred music and intercultural dialogue. This year’s edition will summarize and consolidate existing activities by showing different views of “sacred” music—from Gregorian chant and Palestrina motets the jazz-inspired Misterium Stabat Mater of Włodek Pawlik and Requiem by Paco Penii, based on elements of flamenco music. Festival concerts are held in Częstochowa and 6 other Polish cities, including in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Poznań, as well as Cologne, Germany.
The program of the Festival will consist of concerts of the best performers of previous editions. Music lovers will appreciate the re-appearance of German countertenor Andreas Scholl, Israeli soprano Talia Or, The King’s Singers and Vienna’s Morphing Chamber Orchestra, and flamenco guitar virtuoso Paco Penii. The festival will also host performers GRAMMY winning Polish composer Włodek Pawlik, the Polish Chamber Choir “Schola Cantorum Gedanensis,” the Katowice City Singers’ Ensemble “Camerata Silesia,” and the OH! Historical Orchestra, who will co-host the final concert of the Festival with the Orchestra and Choir of the Częstochowa Philharmonic.
The highlight of the festival will be the 25th concert to celebrate the 80th birthday of Arvo Pärt, opening the festival – with the composer. In addition, during the liturgical inauguration will take place the premiere of Missa pro Maria for soprano, bass, trombone, organ and mixed choir by Aldona Nawrocka, and at the end of the festival Polish audiences will hear for the first time the Third Symphony “Symphony of Angels” by Paweł Łukaszewski. There will also be a concert of 21st century music and awards ceremony for the 11th Composition Competition “Musica Sacra Nova” held on May 3 in Częstochowa.
[Sources: polmic.pl, gaudemater.com]