Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Composers’ Union, I have the pleasure to invite you to the 37th edition of Warsaw Music Encounters. History will be particularly abundantly represented this year. The festival opens with a performance by the excellent ‘Vasa Consort’, an early music ensemble from Cracow. We will celebrate Adam Mickiewicz’s 225th birth anniversary with songs written to his poems, but also with premieres of four works ‘commenting’ on this event. The presentation of a new website, dedicated to Zygmunt Mycielski – a composer, writer, and journalist who refused to conform – will feature the artist’s previously unknown recordings and statements as well as an opportunity to talk to the website’s authors about their unusual project. Finally, in the context of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, we will explore the greatly varied (in this case, Jewish) roots of Polish music.
Naturally, our 37th Festival also features avant-garde art, new projects, first performances, and a concert for children. The latter apparently ask whether all the music composers are already dead, as they only learn at school about such figures. At Warsaw Music Encounters, we hope to provide a satisfying response to this question. Join us at the Festival!
Jarosław Siwiński
Artistic director
37. Warsaw Music Encounters
Entry to all the Festival events is free of charge
Saturday 13th of May @ 7 p.m.
VASA CONSORT
Music at the Vasa court
Scacchi, Merula, Pacelli, Valentini… let us encounter 17th-century Italian composers who served the Polish kings. We will focus on the Warsaw-born Franciszek Lilius, son of a talented Italian musician.
Though rather few scores of then composed works, and in many cases even very few images of composers, have survived the ravages of our tumultuous Polish history, we are aware of how much the Vasa kings loved Italian (or was it already Polish?) music. Music is the finest of all known time vehicles and never becomes outdated. We will therefore have the good fortune to relish those compositions at our Festival as well.
Sunday 14th of May @ 11 a.m., 1 p.m.
ISLAND OF COLOURS AND MYSTERIES
Participatory concert for children
Can music only be played from a music score? What if we performed it from colours, and invited those who have never played music before to become real musicians, at least for a while? Later trade the harp for a paintbrush, and the stage for some paper? And then…
Kasia Lewandowska – harpist, composer, poet, graphic artist, publisher of unique books and music records – invites children to this one-of-a-kind family concert, bearing the ‘learned’ label of a ‘participatory’ event. Curiosity and courage will be much welcome.
The number of participants is limited. You are therefore requested to register in advance via the online registration form or by e-mail sent to: promocja@wsm.art.pl.
Monday 15th of May @ 7 p.m.
THE ROMANTIC
Eternal Romanticism: here, now and before
Adam Mickiewicz, the epitome of Polish Romanticism, was born 225 years ago. This is not the only reason why we are going to recall the numerous song settings of his poetry. This will also be an opportunity to ask whether Romanticism still has a meaning in today’s Poland, and if it has, then what does ‘Romanticism’ mean nowadays? The first part of this concert may hopefully provide us with an answer.
One might actually think that the correct order is the chronological one: first music from the past, followed by contemporary works. By rejecting historical succession, we propose a different perspective: that of a person who, forever immersed in the present, can only catch glimpses of the past. This is how it works in our lives, there is no other way, so let us take the same approach at our concert.
Tuesday 16th of May @ 6 p.m.
MYCIELSKI ONLINE
Presentation of the website www.mycielski.polmic.pll
PWM Edition, Concert Hall, ul. Fredry 8
Zygmunt Mycielski – a composer, writer, and journalist who refused to conform – has for many years fascinated scholars researching postwar music life. At our festival, we present another new project in a series of websites dedicated to Polish composers, created by excellent musicologists.
Wednesday 17th of May @ 7 p.m.
VIRTUOSI OF IMAGINATION
Strings, electronics, and double concertos
The concert’s title naturally refers to composers’ creativity, but not only. It is also a homage to musicians who, rather than playing the ‘safe classics’ over and over again, undertake to interpret brand new works, frequently – in the presence of their composers. The score of Krzysztof Knittel’s Cimochowizna (which you are invited to access here) is only meant to inspire performers in their creative work. It presents an extreme challenge, but also offers a genuine feast – to the conductor, the musicians, and to our imagination.
Thursday 18th of May @ 7 p.m.
POLISH-JEWISH LANDSCAPES
Polish music at the meeting point of cultures
PROM Kultury Saska Kępa, ul. Brukselska 23
While listening to music we seldom care for its composers’ biographies. In the context of the eighty years that have passed since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, however, it will be worthwhile to remind our audience that works by composers with Jewish roots are inextricable from the history of Polish music. The programme of the closing concert of the 37th Warsaw Music Encounters features both famous names and now nearly forgotten artists, works from the 19th and 20th centuries, classical music and cabaret songs…
Composers 2023
Performers 2023
Authors of the www.mycielski.polmic.pl website
Organizator:
Związek Kompozytorów Polskich
Rynek Starego Miasta 27
00-272 Warszawa
www.zkp.org.pl
Dyrektor Organizacyjny:
Marta Skotnicka-Karska
tel. 22 831 17 41
kom. 883 333 623
e-mail: zkp@zkp.org.pl