The 2025 season finale of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic on May 30 will mark a significant artistic moment with the world premiere of the Non-Academic Overture by Agata Zubel. Born in Wrocław, composer Agata Zubel returns to her hometown with a new composition commissioned by the National Forum of Music as part of the “Composers’ Commissions” program.
Non-Academic Overture is conceived as a response to Johannes Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80. Composed in 1880 as a tribute to the University of Wrocław for granting him an honorary doctorate, Brahms’s work incorporates various quotes from student songs and the academic anthem Gaudeamus igitur. Zubel’s Non-Academic Overture reinterprets the spirit of Brahms’s original from a modern perspective, offering a fresh reflection on the cultural and intellectual life of the city.
The premiere was co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund — a state special-purpose fund — under the “Composers’ Commissions” program, which is administered by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
[Sources: polmic.pl, nfm.wroclaw.pl | photo credit: Jakub Pajewski]