News
37th Krakow International Festival of Composers, 10-18 May, 2025 under honorary auspices of Aleksander Miszalski, Mayor of Krakow
2025-05-06
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.
Composers approach this issue in various ways. Some explicitly quote music of past eras or contemporary artists in their works, while others prefer pastiches or stylizations. This year’s musicological session of the festival will be devoted to the phenomenon of “music in music.” Music theorists affiliated with the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow will deliver their papers: Teresa Malecka, Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz, Natalia Szwab, and Marcin Strzelecki.
A special festival event will be the decoration ceremony of Prof. Volodymyr Hrabowski, a musicologist from Drohobych (Ukraine), with the Honorary Badge “Meritorious to Polish Culture”, awarded to him by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in recognition of his contribution to Polish culture and the promotion of the Krakow International Festival of Composers in Ukraine. The laudation will be delivered by the vice-president of the Polish Composers’ Union, Krakow Branch, Dr. h.c. Jerzy Stankiewicz. The ceremony will take place during the inauguration of the 37th Festival at the Krakow Philharmonic.
Acclaimed composer Aleksander Nowak will also be a special guest at the festival. He will give a lecture on his work and conduct master classes with composition students of the K. Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow. His works will be performed by the New Music Orchestra under the baton of Szymon Bywalec and the Silesian Quartet.
An extremely interesting concert will be a performance of Duo Mastruzzo-Núñez from Argentina, consisting of Ana Liga Mastruzzo (flute) and Federico Núñez (guitar). The duo will present works by composers from Argentina, Mexico, and Portugal, most of them written for the festival. The musicians will also premiere a composition by Krakow-based composer Leszek Wojtal.
The Warsaw Trio, composed of: Piotr Thieu-Quang (clarinet), Maria Leszczyńska-Thieu (cello), and Paweł Popko (piano), will give a concert featuring, among others, a composition by young composer Andrea Mastropasqua from Italy, who received the 2025 Grand Prize at the 8th Krzysztof Penderecki International Competition for Young Composers.
For lovers of electroacoustic music, there will traditionally be a presentation of the AMKP Electroacoustic Music Studio “Electronic Cocktail”.
The festival will conclude with a performance by the excellent flutist Ania Karpowicz, who normally plays with the Hashtag Ensemble. She will present compositions by Japanese artists, including Tōru Takemitsu. The visuals for them were created by Karol Tomoki Yamazaki.
The 9 festival concerts will feature works by composers from Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Argentina, Mexico, Portugal, Ukraine, Italy, China, South Korea, and Japan. The audience will hear 33 world premieres and 2 Polish premieres, among others.
Admission to all events is free!
Detailed program: festival.zkp.krakow.pl
Most popular:
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.
The theme of Krzysztof Knittel’s work is refuge and the uncertainty and anxiety about the unknown associated with it, as well as the other side of this topic, i.e. the need to provide help and shelter. The text of the oratorio is based on a poem by Tadeusz Sławek. The piece features singing, recitations, choral parts and improvisations based on the traditions of the Middle East. The album was premiered on 15 March during the 11th Festival of Premieres in Katowice.
Musicologists commonly call it “Kras 52” – after the former reference number it was given in the Krasiński Library. It is the most valuable Polish source of medieval polyphonic music, which shaped the soundscape of the court of the first Jagiellons and Kraków at that time. The manuscript is gaining new life now, thanks to a performance edition by Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett and Marc Lewon. “Krasiński Codex” has just been published by PWM Edition with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Frequent guest of the world’s most famous music venues (New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus), in February 2021 Bomsori signed an exclusive contract with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. As of this year, she also bears the honourable title of ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music, which she performs worldwide, promoting the legacy of Poland’s most important woman composer.
The 4CD album featuring songs and instrumental works by the Silesian master goes on sale as of 8 November. Released by the ANAKLASIS music label, it will be premiered on 3 December during a special PWM Edition concert held as part of the 12th International Days of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.
The esteemed American-Canadian jazz musician Michael Bates, his Acrobat Ensemble and the Lutosławski Quartet will perform three concerts in Poland in November. The repertoire will include material recorded by the musicians on the album METAMORPHOSES: VARIATIONS ON LUTOSŁAWSKI, released by ANAKLASIS in the REVISIONS series.
The artists have already successfully presented it at Lincoln Center and Barbès Jazz Club in New York. In autumn 2024 we will have the opportunity to hear them live for the first time in Poland: 14.11 - Krakow, 15.11 - Lublin, 17.11 - Wroclaw.
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw invites to the inaugural session of the biennial International Digital Musicology Conference, which will be held 23–25 October 2024, at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. The conference focuses on the integration of digital technologies into musicological research, with a special emphasis on introducing digital tools and methods to the Polish academic community, where digital musicology has not yet been widely adopted.
Although Ludomir Różycki - one of the most important representatives of Young Poland - enjoyed spectacular success as a composer during his lifetime, his works are rarely included in concert programmes today. It is therefore worth remembering his exceptional art.
Aleksander Nowak continues his original cycle of compositions that enter into a dialogue with most recent Polish literary works. The album premiere of his opera based on Marcin Wicha’s Nike-awarded book Things I Didn’t Throw Out will take place during the AUKSODRONE festival in Tychy.
