During the first week of January 2023, the USC Polish Music Center and Holocaust Museum of L.A. will host the Czarakcziew/Kowal Duo—an ensemble from Kraków, Poland, that specializes in seeking out outstanding but unknown music of the 20th and 21st century. In these concerts, pianist Piotr Kowal and cellist Paweł Czarakcziew will weave together strands of jazz and contemporary classical music present in the works of Polish composer Joanna Bruzdowicz and American-Jewish composer Frederick Katz. Their programs will feature several premieres as well as special guests.
Both child prodigies of classical music, Bruzdowicz and Katz each explored jazz, improvisation and music for film, always returning to classical composition but carrying the influence of where their journeys had taken them. Their music shares a poetic, often mystical quality that deeply connects the listener to the subject matter. Los Angeles was also an important place on the map for both composers. Katz was based here as a member of the influential Chico Hamilton Quintet, and Bruzdowicz not only appeared in many L.A. concerts and premieres—including the PMC’s flagship Paderewski Lecture-Recital series in 2003—but is now memorialized in the PMC Archives through recent gift of manuscripts and other papers donated by her family, creating the PMC’s newest ‘Joanna Bruzdowicz Collection.’
Concerts will be held on Friday, January 6 at 3:00 p.m. at the University of Southern California and Sunday, January 8 at 4:30 p.m. at the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles. Please save the dates, and visit polishmusic.usc.edu or www.holocaustmuseumla.org for more information!
See full program notes and biographies: here.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6 | 3:00 P.M.
Czarakcziew/Kowal Duo Concert
Ramo Recital Hall at USC (see campus map)
820 W 34th St, BMH 100, Los Angeles, CA
Parking: $4/hr in McCarthy Parking Structure (USC parking prices here)
FREE ADMISSION
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8 | 4:30 P.M.
Czarakcziew/Kowal Duo Concert
Holocaust Museum LA
100 The Grove Dr, Los Angeles, CA
FREE ADMISSION – RSVP Here
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