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Sharpen your ears for an opera about a cosmic radio romance
2026-10-02
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.
All roads lead to Auksodrone festival in Tychy, where each year brings the première of a new opera by Alek Nowak. Once unveiled on stage, the work duly finds its way into the ANAKLASIS catalogue. On 4 October 2025, we thus heard Contact. Sonoromanza, scored for soprano, tenor, harmonised voice, broadband radio, and strings. After Arctic Fever (ANAKLASIS, 2025, ANA041), another work by Nowak and Marcin Wicha had been planned. Sadly, the writer died in January 2025. The seed had been sown, but it fell to Paweł Sołtys—the musician and writer better known as Pablopavo, an artist from a rather different orbit—to bring the idea to fruition. It was his first venture into classical music—and he made quite an entrance.
What is the story about? The composer traces it back to an early encounter with amateur radio:
‘At primary school I had a friend who was an amateur radio operator. After school, he would go home, sit down at his radio set and make contact with the furthest-flung places on Earth. Then QSL cards would arrive from those places, confirming the contact. Everything about it fascinated me.’
The radio, however, is merely the medium. The opera’s true subject is human relationships: the longing that pervades our lives, the need to talk, to be close, to make contact.
Paweł Sołtys joined Nowak’s established line-up: Joanna Freszel, Karol Kozłowski, AUKSO – Chamber Orchestra of the City of Tychy, and Marek Moś. Sparks flew, the chemistry was palpable, and the album captures this brilliantly conceived story to superb effect. In his vision of Contact Nowak has reserved a special place for Sołtys – not only as a writer, but also as a singer. The writer, acting as a chorus, speaks to us through a vocoder harmonised with the guitar.
‘I enjoy theatre, and I still haven’t had my fill of it,’ the composer said recently. Clearly, then, we need have no fears for his operatic future. The album Contact. Sonoromanza will be launched at Auksodrone in Tychy in early October. At the same festival, Dzwony (Bell). Ailinos, a new work by Nowak and Sołtys, will receive its first performance at the Mediateka. We can hardly wait.
Media partners: TVP Kultura, Program 2 Polskiego Radia, Culture.pl
Partners: Ruch Muzyczny
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