Main Page EN 2021 – Warszawskie Spotkania Muzyczne

Warsaw Music Encounters is the only festival dedicated to composers mainly from the Warsaw area. The festival survived the difficult year of 2020 and we are looking forward to „normality”. For now, however, we are happy to invite you to this year’s concerts through the means of the internet, completely free of charge and from the safety of your own home.
In this year’s program, we will listen to, among others, Polish multi-percussion works performed by Hob-beats Percussion Group in a virtual 360 ° concert, compositions by Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (performed by La Tempesta accompanied by Leszek Lorent on drums), a mini-opera for children „Opera dizziness” (performed by Joanna Freszel, Artur Janda, The Polonika Quartet), a piano recital by Kuba Sokołowski with a guest appearance by Szábolcs Esztényi, an organ recital by Michał Markuszewski, as well as a concert by Sikora Piano Duo and the Chamber Philharmonic in Łomża conducted by Jan Miłosz Zarzycki.

We already know that due to the prolonged pandemic, all of the concerts will take place without the public. Because of this, we are going to broadcast them via the Internet.

On behalf of myself, the Program Board, and the entire Warsaw Branch of the Polish Composers’ Union, I cordially invite you.

Jarosław Siwiński
Director of Warsaw Music Encounters

We invite you to broadcasts and concerts

Friday 7th of May @ 7pm

MAGICAL CIRCLE

Hob-beats Percussion Group - immersive concert 360°

Broadcast from the Concert Hall of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (ul. Okólnik 2) exclusively on YouTube. No admissions.

This virtual concert will allow for a unique reception of five Polish multi-percussion pieces created over the last 50 years. Thanks to new sound and image techniques, it will be possible to „immerse” in music in an unusual way, using the 360° camera and ambisonic sound, when the movement of the mouse on the screen changes the direction of the camera, and the sound is correlated with this movement. Even greater „immersion” can be achieved by using headphones and VR goggles.
The event is possible thanks to the cooperation with the Department of Sound Engineering at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Both the performers and the organizers of the concert are educators, students, and doctoral students of this university.

Saturday 8th of May @ 7pm

THE MADRIGAL FACTORY

La Tempesta & Leszek Lorent - between XVI and XXI century

Broadcast from the Evangelical-Augsburg Church of the Holy Trinity (1 Małachowskiego Square) on YouTube and Facebook. No admissions.

The name „madrigal” suggests a funny and frivolous thing. However, not in the case of the works of Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, in which the word „death” and its derivatives will be heard during the concert 184 times. This peculiar music will be supplemented with entirely church pieces – the motets of Josquin Desprez and Mikołaj Zieleński, and the Gesualdo himself, whose life, as well as his work, was full of great contradictions. The most noticeable, however, will be different confrontation: we will contrast the old 5-voice vocal compositions with completely modern, improvised percussion interludes.
Five centuries of difference – and how beautiful it sounds together.

Sunday 9th of May @ 6pm

OPERA GIDDINESS

Mini opera for children

Broadcast from Służewski Dom Kultury (ul. J.S. Bacha15) on YouTube and Facebook. No admissions.

How to convince young and even younger ones to express themselves clearly and precisely? How to present the beauty of the language to them? How to convince them to classical music?
And how to convince them to the opera? The answer to all these questions is simple, by creating, as Maciej Małecki did, a beautiful miniature of operas, perfectly tailored for less than an hour, funny and understandable. Colorful, dynamic, and addictive, deliciously played and sung.
Making things beautiful makes the world so much better. Let’s check it out on Sunday evening, alone and with our kids.

Monday 10th of May @ 7pm

CREATED PIANO

Kuba Sokołowski: Esztényi, meditations and rural musicians.

Broadcast from PROM Kultury (ul. Brukselska 23) on Youtube and Facebook. No admissions.

Meditation and trance: Kuba Sokołowski, a pianist active in the areas of contemporary music and jazz, will take the audience to the magical world of today’s iconic composers: Tomasz Sikorski and Andrzej Bieżan. A specific medium in this journey is Szábolcs Esztényi, who settled both compositions, (instructions for an improviser) in the context of the music of his prematurely departed friends.
Traditional folk music is doing great, and one of its leading figures is Jan Gaca. The piano reinterpretations of his melodies are the aftermath of the Radical Songbook project from 2020, founded on the initiative of the „Crossroads” Center and the Automatophone Foundation. If anyone believes that the world of rural musicians
and academy-educated pianists are separated by an insurmountable distance, should rethink this as soon as possible …

Tuesday 11th of May @ 7pm

FREYER, BLOCH & OTHERS

The oldest Warsaw organs in full splendor

Broadcast from the Evangelical Reformed Church (al. Solidarności 76a) on YouTube and Facebook. No admissions.

Warsaw has a real pearl that too few people know about. The church with the best acoustics in the capital houses the oldest surviving Warsaw organ, built-in 1900. 120 years for the organ is only middle age, but let’s not forget the turbulent fate of our city. The organ has been carefully restored and today it sounds like it used to be – soft, powerful, and colorful, full of its romantic radiance.
The concert will be a journey through the ages. It starts with August Freyer, organ builder and composer of old Warsaw, teacher of Stanisław Moniuszko. Through the twentieth century, we will reach the climax – an improvisation by master Markuszewski, a virtuoso and instrument guardian at al. Solidarity.

Wednesday 12th of May @ 7pm

ENERGY & MELANCHOLY

Sikora Piano Duo and Chamber Philharmonic in Łomża - final concert

Broadcast from the Concert Studio of the Polish Radio Witold Lutosławski on Youtube and Facebook. No admissions.

It is hard to believe, but this is the first time we are hosting the piano duo at the Warsaw Music Encounters. That is why Sikora Piano Duo had a huge dilemma about which compositions to choose because so many excellent pieces for this line-up have already been created. The second part of the concert will be primarily covered by the Chamber Philharmonic in Łomża – a string orchestra, winner of the Fryderyk awards, a group that has been promoting contemporary Polish music for many years.
The final concert of the 35th Warsaw Music Encounters will once again show how variegated, diverse, full of energy but also reflection music created here and now can be.