The world premiere of Marta Ptaszyńska’s latest work, Crystallites Polyphony for string quartet and marimba, will take place on May 31 at the Polish Consulate of Chicago. The program will also include several other works by Ptaszyńska—Blue Line for marimba solo (2010) and Elegy in Memoriam of John Paul II for solo viola (2005), —as well as Krzysztof…Continue Reading Ptaszyńska’s World Premiere and Other News
The 36th Cracow International Composers’ Festival took place from April 20-28, 2024. It was held under the theme of “Mathematics in music,” which was also the topic of the musicological session held during the Festival. The special guest of this year’s edition was composer and cultural organizer Jerzy Kornowicz who, in the years 2003-2015, served…Continue Reading Premieres at the 2024 Cracow Int’l Composers’ Festival
Maestro Wojciech Milewski will close the 20th season of the Summerville Orchestra with Odwieczne pieśni [Eternal Songs], a symphonic triptych by Mieczysław Karłowicz, in concerts on May 17 and 18. Entitled “A Summerville Celebration” and performed just outside of Charleston, South Carolina, the concert program will also include Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute and…Continue Reading Karłowicz in Charleston
Operatic soprano Dominika Zamara will appear in her New York City debut solo recital, An Evening with Dominika Zamara, on May 22 at Mary Flagler Cary Hall. She will premiere eight new works by several of the New York Composers’ Circle members, including Galen Brown, Robert S. Cohen, Eric Heilner, Barrett Kalellis, Timothy L. Miller,…Continue Reading Dominika Zamara: Solo Recital Debut in NYC
The 30th Classical Music Gala was held this past weekend as part of the 2024 Fryderyk Awards Festival on April 28 headquarters of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) in Katowice. An equivalent to the Grammy Awards in the US, each year Poland’s ZPAV Association nominates recordings in eleven classical music categories. This year’s…Continue Reading Fryderyk 2024: Classical Music Winners
Beauty, sublimity and message: two masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, which have gone down in high musical culture as embodying these traits, will be performed on April 26 at the Kraków Philharmonic. This concert celebrates the 20th anniversary of Poland joining as a member of the European Union. Beatus Vir Op….Continue Reading Concert: 20th Anniversary of Poland Joining the EU
The concert concluding this year’s edition of the NFM Orchestra Academy will take place on April 27. It will be attended by NFM instrumentalists, participants of two orchestral academies—from the National Forum of Music in Wrocław and the Staatskapelle Berlin. The concert will be led by Chinese conductor Jong-Jie Yin, winner of the 11th Grzegorz…Continue Reading Henryk Wars at the 2024 NFM Orchestra Academy Final Concert
A Review by Marek Zebrowski Sunday afternoon, April 21, marked the end of the 2023/2024 concert season organized jointly by the Holocaust Museum LA and USC Polish Music Center. The performers for this occasion were a dynamic duo of violinist Karolina Mikołajczyk and classical accordionist Iwo Jedynecki. They performed in the Childrens’ Memorial, an evocative…Continue Reading Sounds of a Bygone Era
A Review by Marek Zebrowski The Verona Quartet (Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violins, Abigail Rojansky, viola, and Jonathan Dormand, cello) visited the USC campus for a master class on March 20 and a concert on March 23. Their sojourn at USC elicited great interest from string students and faculty, culminating in a packed auditorium…Continue Reading Heartfelt Musicmaking at PMC’s Spring Concert
A new album by pianist and composer Aleksander Dębicz will be released by Warner Classics on April 19. The artist admitted that the idea for an album preview clip, entitled “Illusion,” was quite spontaneous and was made together with Dębicz’s friend, professional filmmaker Adam Andrzejewski. Here’s a tantalizing peak at Dębicz’s upcoming album, Magnolia… [Sources:…Continue Reading New Release by Dębicz