The POLIN Music Festival, a festival celebrating Polish and Jewish music, has recently finished four exciting concert evenings. Held from February 22-25 in the POLIN Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw, this year’s festival explored questions such as ‘What is Jewish music today?’. Performers range from new artists to international stars such the Grammy Award-winning…Continue Reading 2024 POLIN Music Festival
On February 16, Polish composer Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa celebrated her 75th birthday with the premiere of her new piece: Seven Deadly Sins – Tragicomic Suite for Large Symphony Orchestra. The suite contains an ironic and sarcastic interpretation of the cardinal human vices, arranged in seven parts: Pride, Envy, Debauchery, Greed, Anger, Gluttony and Sloth. The piece…Continue Reading Wnuk-Nazarowa Premiere in Kielce
The next few days will bring two new exciting world premieres of works written by Polish composers. First, on December 15, 2023, we’ll have a chance to hear Aleksander Nowak’s Concerto per mezzo for piano and orchestra. The concert will be performed by pianist Piotr Sałajczyk and the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of…Continue Reading More December Premieres: Aleksander Nowak & Zygmunt Krauze
The 5th anniversary of the Christmas Festival “Art Mintaka” will be held on December 8-10, 2023 at the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz. This lesser-known Festival features works by Polish composers, including five world premieres. Concerts will be performed by excellent instrumentalists, including: percussionist Miłosz Pękała, pianist Piotr Nowicki, cellist Gustaw Bafeltowski,the Herbert Piano…Continue Reading Premieres at 2023 Christmas Festival “Art Mintaka”
We’ve received news from composer Marta Ptaszyńska about the premiere of her newest composition. Trzy Wizje Według Dantego [Three Visions According to Dante] is Ptaszyńska’s double concerto for saxophone, piano and orchestra and it will be premiered on November 30, 2023 at NOSPR Hall. The performers are Bartłomiej Duś, Magdalena Duś, and the NOSPR orchestra under the baton of Bas Wiegers….Continue Reading World Premiere: Ptaszyńska’s “Trzy Wizje Według Dantego”
On November 28, the International Festival of Contemporary Music “New Waves” begins its 9th iteration. Organized by the Gdańsk Branch of the Polish Composers’ Union, this festival focuses on finding ways to highlight the ideas coming from new composers and present contemporary creativity in bright new ways. The festival will be held in Gdańsk from…Continue Reading Premieres at the 2023 Int’l Festival of Contemporary Music “New Waves”
Earlier this month, long-time PMC collaborator pianist Seoyon MacDonald released the first digital recording of Krzysztof Meyer’s completion of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in C# minor. Based on his previous work writing a bestselling biography of Shostakovich and orchestrating several of his works, Meyer was given the Prelude and Fugue in C# minor in…Continue Reading The Forgotten Prelude and Fugue of Meyer-Shostakovich
The new Flute Concerto by Marta Ptaszyńska—well-known Polish composer who is Professor Emerita of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago and honoree of the PMC’s 2005 Paderewski Lecture-Recital, as well as a significant donor to our unique Manuscript Collection—was world premiered on Sunday, October 29. The premiere performance was given by flutist…Continue Reading Ptaszyńska World Premiere
Krzysztof Meyer, a distinguished Polish composer who celebrated his eightieth birthday earlier this year, was celebrated once again after the October 14 premiere of his latest opera, Ślepy tor [Dead-end Siding] at Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki—National Opera. The opera’s libretto, co-authored by the composer with Antoni Libera (a writer and expert on Samuel Beckett), touches on…Continue Reading World Premiere of Meyer’s New Opera
This year, the 46th edition of the Karol Szymanowski Music Festival takes place in Zakopane from July 21-30, 2023. The theme of the festival is “the past and present of emigration.” The inaugural concert will feature the New Music Orchestra, conducted by Anna Sułkowska-Migoń. They will premier the piece Kołomyjki by the Ukrainian composer Bogdan…Continue Reading 2023 Szymanowski Music Festival in Zakopane