To celebrate the end of the Kolberg Year, the Masovian Cultural Institute [Mazowiecki Instytut Kultury] published a CD, Z Kolbergiem po Afryce I Azji. Multi Culti Orkiestra Marii Pomianowskiej. Make music not war. This album contains materials gathered by the multi-instrumentalist Maria Pomianowska during her tours of Africa and Asia between 2011 and 2014. This…Continue Reading Polish, African And Asian Folk Music CD
Pianist Rafał Blechacz, now thirty years old, is a rare guest in Poland these days, and the public welcomed his recent appearance with Warsaw Philharmonic under Jacek Kaspszyk on February 24. He was the featured soloist in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, and the orchestra also programmed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 that evening. Writing for Rzeczpospolita,…Continue Reading Belchacz at Warsaw Philharmonic
The Grand Theatre-National Opera began 2015 with one-time performances of two rarely heard but groundbreaking operas, presented by the Poznań Opera Theatre. The first was Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Portrait, with a libretto by Alexander Medvedev based on Nikolai Gogol’s short story, presented at the Moniuszko Auditorium on January 16. The performers of Poznań Opera Theatre…Continue Reading Weinberg and Meyer in Warsaw
A new music series at the Kosciuszko Foundation in Washington, D.C., promoting Polish Jazz had its grand opening with a concert by Bogna Kicińska on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m. A jazz vocalist, violinist, composer and an educator now based in New York City, Kicińska was joined on stage by Kuba Cichocki, piano and…Continue Reading New Jazz Series at Kosciuszko FDN in D.C.
On January 23, 2015, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki hosted a concert of music by Polish composers performed by the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, one of the two most important orchestras in Greece. The choice of repertoire was not incidental. Conducted by Dariusz Mikulski, the program of the concert included two works of the “Młoda Polska”…Continue Reading Młoda Polska Celebrated In Greece
Professor Andrzej Koszewski died in Poznań on February 17. He was 92. A renowned composer of choral music and a musicologist, he was also a professor of composition at the Poznań Music Academy, whose students included Krzesimir Dębski and Lidia Zielińska. Prof. Koszewski received an honorary doctorate from the Poznań Music Academy in 2013 in…Continue Reading Andrzej Koszewski
Anniversary Year The theme of this year’s edition of the Tadeusz Ochlewski Composers’ Competition was an original composition for small, secondary level orchestra inspired by Polish folk music, related to the 2014 Year of Kolberg Sir Andrzej Panufnik was honored at the 10th Festival of Polish Music in July The Tippett Quartet recorded Andrzej Panufnik: String Quartets Nos. 1-3…Continue Reading 2014 Year in Review: July-December
January 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of the Polish Music Center at USC—a library and outreach center established for the promotion of Polish music and culture that has no equal anywhere in the world. The PMC was founded in January 1985 by retired music educator and a USC alumna Wanda Wilk (1921-2009), who had discovered that the USC…Continue Reading The Polish Music Center is 30!
On Tuesday February 24 at 7:30 p.m., Polish musical heritage will be celebrated on the USC campus. The Cracow Duo—a cello and piano ensemble of two young professors from the Kraków Music Academy—will present a recital featuring works by Aleksander Tansman, Krzysztof Meyer, Tomasz Opałka, and Frederic Chopin, among others. In their recording career, the…Continue Reading Cracow Duo at USC and Beyond
Pianist Marek Szlezer, currently visiting Los Angeles to research Zygmunt Stojowski’s manuscripts at USC’S Polish Music Center, has kindly donated to us two of his latest DUX CDs featuring solo piano music by Krzysztof Meyer. Arranged mostly chronologically, Volume 1 contains Meyer’s early piano compositions, including Aphorisms for Piano, Op. 3 (1961), First Piano Sonata, Op. 5 (1962), Second…Continue Reading New PMC Gift