The world premiere of Elżbieta Sikora’s The Sixth Commandment will take place at the Szczecin Philharmonic on March 27. The piece will be performed together with Quando stanno morendo. Diario polacco No.2 by Luigi Nono. This will be the first presentation in Poland of the Sikora/Nono project, which, under the musical direction of Léo Warynski, involves the vocal ensemble Les MétabolesSWR Experimentalstudio from Freiburg and soloists: Erik Drescher (flutes), Bartosz Koziak (cello) and Dominik Dołęga (percussion).

In her new work, Elżbieta Sikora uses the words of witnesses of the crimes committed in the Nazi concentration camp ‘Majdanek’ near Lublin and juxtaposes them with the poetry of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski and Ekhmetjan Osman: an Uighur dissident and member of one of the most persecuted ethnic groups today.

Elżbieta Sikora’s piece was commissioned by the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. It will be published by PWM Edition. The Sikora/Nono project has been created on the initiative of SONORA Music, with the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, SACEM, the Polish Institute in Paris and the Centre National de la Musique.

[Sources: Sonora Music newsletter, filharmonia.szczecin.pl; Photo: Bartosz Barczyk / PWM]