News
Sławomir Kupczak – the April Composer of the Month
2019-04-01
In our gallery of COMPOSERS OF THE MONTH, we present today the figure of Sławomir Kupczak, our April Composer of the Month.
His ‘composer’s alphabet’ is simple in form but rich in content and contexts:
A for abstraction, angling, ‘ah!’, Anaphora VI, the Academy of Music in Wrocław, AUKSO, Andy Warhol, accentato e tenuto, acquaforte, armchair, ‘apple’, Analogya 2, Azelia Banks
B for being close to each other, Bach, Buena Vista Social Club, Barbara Skarga, bureau (that is, writing desk), beauty, Bółt Records, Bandito the Cat, Beckett Samuel, bum for computer, bed, Bulgakov Mikhail, Bareja Stanisław, Beverly Hills, 90210
C for tender care, countertenor, cooperation, cheesecake, chess, changeability, Cioran Emil, chinkali, camp, Cetirizini dihydrochloridum, Chopin, Chłopecki Andrzej, casual, conductor, coffee, cello, computer, Creation I, Cikada String Quartet, Studio of Computer Composition at the Wrocław Academy of Music
D for Daft Punk, determination, ‘dear me!’, I don’t know, I don’t want, Dynasty, disco, Dossier A.Z., document, David Lynch, Diva, De profundis, Danny Trejo, A Dream Caused by a Bee’s Flight Around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking Up, 13 Dobrowolskiego Street
E for Eve, Edges, emotion, empathy, education, eroticism, the eight notes, études by Kreutzer R.
F for flirting, film, freedom, fear, friends, Fullness, Francis Ford Coppola, Ford Gran Torino, Figliki, Frank Miller
G for Gliwice, the Grotowski Centre, garden plot, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen Pelle
H for humour, hypertension, heat wave, ‘holy mother!’, Hummingbirds, house, heets, Halny, Hopper Edward
I for initiative, independence, image, audio interface
J for Joanna, Jukka Tiensuu, jokes, Jelenia Góra, James Bond
K for Kołakowski Leszek, Kojak, Kleiber Carlos, kitsch, Kraków, Kondratiuk Andrzej
L for love, lake, laughter, laziness, lightness, Lofty, Lutosławski Witold, Lalique, ‘Livka dear, get me a beer’, Leonard Bernstein, la la laaaaaa.....
Ł for “Łowiecka”
M for Mozart, M.I.A., mini lottery, “Musica Polonica Nova”, Mark Rothko, Miami Vice, Mahler, Marian Paździoch
N for Naira, night, Novella, Nikifor, nanny Leonia, the (Polish) NHS, nominated teacher
O for otherness, One in Ten, Oratorio, Olga Lipińska’s Cabaret, The Olsen Gang, contemporary opera
P for passion, pure cotton, Polish Radio Channel Two, Podlasie, Penultima, PWM, PKP railways, PSMs (my music schools in Jelenia Góra), performance, pierogi, “Polityka” weekly, Partita III by Paweł Szymański
R for repetitions, Report, Różewicz Tadeusz, Rucola (Rocket Salad), Rambo, Rysa, Res facta, Radiohead
S for Sine amore nihil est vita, Sinhá Moça, scales and passages, stubborn, submissive, skis, songs, smell, seafood, silence, Stasiuk Andrzej, Sorrentino Paolo, structure, surconventionalism,
T for theatre, Tarantino Quentin, tachycardia, TVP Kultura, table tennis, steak tartare, Tomasz Sikorski, Tsmindao Ghmerto, tulips, Tadeusz Konwicki
U for ‘uh-huh’
W for wood, work, wine, winter, white over red, Wrocław, Webern Anton, Widziałem Cię [I Saw You], the “Warsaw Autumn”
V for vintage, vinyl, voice, Venice, violence, violin, Voyager
Z for Z listopada 2010 [From November 2010] for computer
Another piece by Sławomir Kupczak will soon be added to the PWM publisher’s catalogue: Diva for soprano and string quartet, premiered on 30th March this year during the 8th Festival of Premieres, which was recently held in Katowice. Before the premiere we recorded the composer’s and the performers’ comments on this piece, which can be heard and viewed on our YouTube profile:
Sławomir Kupczak – www.youtube.com/watch?v=j253US4CZps
Agata Zubel – www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrVzJ7E5_6M
Arkadiusz Kubica (The Silesian Quartet) – www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdNqojTfNIg
We encourage you to add works by Sławomir Kupczak to your library. Throughout this month they can be purchased at a 50% discount!
Most popular:
The short documentary “Bacewicz x Bomsori”, directed by Jakub Piątek, is reaching an ever-wider international audience. The film, which explores South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim’s encounter with the music of Grażyna Bacewicz, will be screened at upcoming film festivals in Warsaw, Reykjavik and Barcelona.
Contact. Sonoromanza is an opera by Alek Nowak and Paweł Sołtys’s literary debut in the world of classical music. A contemporary tale of longing, the desire for conversation and the need for closeness, performed by Joanna Freszel, Karol Kozłowski and the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, conducted by Marek Mos. The debut album, ANAKLASIS, is now available to buy and on streaming services.
October will bring a series of world premieres of the latest compositions by artists represented byPWM Edition. New works by Zygmunt Krauze, Alek Nowak, Joanna Woźny, Ewa Fabiańska-Jelińska, Agata Zubel, Paweł Malinowski, Andrzej Kwieciński and Aleksander Lasoń will be performed in Poland, as well as in Japan, Germany and Austria.
On September 14, the prestigious Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari will host the Italian premiere of Zygmunt Krauze's two-act opera, which tells the poignant story of Bona Sforza d’Aragona. Staging this work in Bari carries deep symbolic meaning – it is the very city where the title heroine spent her final years and was laid to rest.
This autumn, with the September premieres of the latest Polish music, we are stepping forward neither boldly nor timidly – in keeping with Gdańsk’s motto. It is in this city that the first world premieres will take place. In September, we will be listening to new works by Polish composers in Gdańsk, Warsaw and Valencia. For the first time, we will hear works by Tadeusz Wielecki, Lidia Zielińska, Krzysztof Knittel and Agata Zubel.
Karol Augustyniak and Artur Szczepkowski have been selected as winners of the composer.pl programme – an artistic residency in Iceland for young Polish composers. The invited participants’ creative residency in the ‘Land of Ice and Fire’ will last two weeks, from 8 to 25 September.
Today, 2 December, marks the start of the 18th edition of one of Europe's most prestigious conducting competitions: the Donatella Flick – London Symphony Orchestra Conducting Competition. Grażyna Bacewicz's Concerto for String Orchestra is among the repertoire as an obligatory piece.
This timeless encounter with the music of ‘Poland’s last Romantic’ Tadeusz Baird and with the interpretative feats of NOSPR Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra features three symphonies and four outstanding conductors in both rediscovered historical and new recordings, released together on a 2CD album from ANAKLASIS.
Iconic songs by Zygmunt Konieczny that audiences of Ewa Demarczyk loved decades ago in a new arrangement by Cezary Duchnowski. The latest ANAKLASIS album with Agata Zubel, Andrzej Bauer, Bartek Wąsik and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Humala is now available for purchase.
The theme of the 37th Krakow International Festival of Composers is music in music. Already in the 1970s, this issue was studied by the outstanding founder of the Krakow Theoretical School, Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski. He reflected on the subject in an article entitled “At the Opening: why ‘music in music’”, which was published before one of the famous Music Meetings in Baranów.
