Music of beauty and enormity… it is a perfect masterpiece… it is a hymn to humanity… to the international solidarity of those who, subjected to the most terrible evil, stood up against fascism. –Dmitri Shostakovich about The Passenger The Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the Chicago premiere of Polish-Jewish composer Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Passenger…Continue Reading Exploring Mieczyław Weinberg in Chicago
Award-winning Polish composer Marta Ptaszyńska will succeed Shulamit Ran as the artistic director of Contempo, the University of Chicago’s renowned contemporary music collective. Ran, the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor of Composition and a Pulitzer Prize winning composer, will retire in June after more than 40 years of service to the University and 12 years…Continue Reading Ptaszyńska to Lead Chicago’s Prestigious ‘Contempo’
The SYNTHETIS 2015 International Summer Course for Composers will take place in Radziejowice (near Warsaw) between July 13 – 25, 2015, organized by the Music Gardens Foundation. Young composers (up to 35 years old) from all over the world are invited to apply by April 30, 2015 for the opportunity to attend lectures and individual…Continue Reading Synthetis 2015
One of the newest installments in Google’s Cultural Institute initiative is the exhibit Witold Lutosławski 1913-1994, an interactive exploration of the life and works of the famous Polish composer, through images and text. This is the third Cultural Institute exhibit to be curated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute’s flagship website, Culture.pl. The images are culled from…Continue Reading Lutosławski on Google
The end of February usually brings annual Chopin celebrations, and this year is no exception. Since 2015 marks the 205th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, a truly special event on February 23—encompassing a film screening and Q&A session with the artists—is planned for all fans of Polish music in Southern California. A Steinway Concert Artist and…Continue Reading Grabsky & Felder Bring Chopin to L.A.
From February 4-5, 2015, the Copernicus Program in Polish Studies at the University of Michigan welcomes Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko to campus. The New Yorker has proclaimed Stańko as “one of the most original and creative jazz trumpet players in the world.” Inspired by early Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, he was 20 when he formed…Continue Reading Stańko to Give U-M’s Copernicus Lecture
A volume of new collaborations has been launched by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in tandem with OpenICE—a far-reaching initiative to build diverse new audiences internationally. During the next 18 months, ICE will commission and premiere a new body of repertoire from a diverse group of composers to be presented in free performances around the globe…Continue Reading Blecharz Comissioned By OpenICE
On January 19, London’s Barbican Centre announced its 2015-2016 classical music season and it includes three important Polish highlights. First, amongst the ‘Total Immersion’ days planned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra to highlight three towering figures of contemporary classical music, there will be a day devoted to composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Held on October 3,…Continue Reading Polish Highlights @ Barbican In 2015/2016
Written for orchestra, organ and piano, the Symphony No. 4 of the late Henryk Mikołaj Górecki will be given its US Premiere on January 16-18, 2015 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. As the composer was unable to finish the score in 2010 due to ill health, the final version was…Continue Reading Górecki’s 4th Symphony – US Premiere
Pianist, improviser and composer, Kuba Cichocki was already a highly acclaimed musician in Poland and Europe before he came to New York in 2010. He had played and recorded with some of the greatest musicians of Polish and international music scene, including Michael Urbaniak, Zbigniew Namyslowski, Urszula Dudziak, Aga Zaryan, Zbigniew Wegehaupt, Jerzy Małek, Jaromir Honzak, Grzegorz…Continue Reading Artist Update: Kuba Cichocki