From February 20 to March 1, the 9th US National Chopin Piano Competition was organized by the Chopin Foundation of the United States in Miami. Following eight days of grueling competition, the nine Competition Jury members—Agustin Anievas, Chair, Sergei Babayan, Ian Hobson, Krzysztof Jabłoński, Kevin Kenner, Dean Kramer, Jon Nakamatsu, Katarżyna Popowa-Zydroń and Margarita Shevchenko—announced…Continue Reading US Nat’l Chopin Competition Winners
An equivalent of the American Grammy Awards, the Fryderyk Awards are organized by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry to honor the year’s best recordings by Polish musicians and of Polish music. On March 4, the nominations for the 2015 Fryderyk Awards were announced. Highlights from the category of classical music include: PENDERECKI Chamber…Continue Reading 2015 Fryderyk Award Nominations
Szymański & Mykietyn: Music for string quartet Paweł Szymański (b. 1954): Five pieces for string quartet, Four pieces for string quartet, and Two pieces for string quartet; Paweł Mykietyn (b. 1971): String Quartet No. 2 Royal String Quartet: Izabella Szałaj-Zimak – violin I, Elwira Przybyłowska – violin II, Marek Czech – viola, Michał Pepol –…Continue Reading RSQ Perform Mykietyn & Szymański On Hyperion
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