News
Sztorm Roku 2011 for Elżbieta Sikora and Anna Mikołajczyk-Niewiedział
2012-02-27
Elżbieta Sikora and Anna Mikołajczyk-Niewiedział were awarded the Sztorm Roku 2011 prize of the Year 2011 for the opera "Madame Curie". In support of the nomination for the award we read: for fascinating and thoroughly modern music by Elżbieta Sikora, and Anna Mikołajczyk’s phenomenal creation of the character of Maria Sklodowska-Curie from flesh and blood.Anna Mikołajczyk collected the award and said: „I am extremely proud that my name is mentioned beside the name of Elżbieta Sikora”. The words of thanks included praise for the director of the show, Marek Weiss.
The success of the new opera is confirmed by the opinion of the critics. Concerning the musical side, Dorota Szwarcman writes that, “it is superb. It is a kind of traditional opera, not with numbers but sung normally, with no multimedia games, but the language is completely contemporary. Electronics are woven into the rich orchestra - discreetly but visibly. The vocal parts are very demanding, but well written. This opera will for sure have a future life. For now, apparently, all four shows sold out in Gdańsk.”
Stanisław Suchora, after watching the show in Paris, wrote in the biweekly magazine, “that the musicians of the Baltic Opera Orchestra conducted by Wojciech Michniewski performed the new work very well, not only emphasizing the power of Sikora’s music, but also giving superb support for the action on stage (...) Sikora merged both media with such mastery that sometimes it was difficult to know whether we were listening to "live" instruments, or also their "extension" coming from the speakers. The composer enriched the traditional orchestral forces composer by adding, amongst other things, an electric guitar, frequently performing glissandos or punctuating the musical discourse, which draws attention to itself because of its uncommonness in the context of opera.”
Once again, we warmly invite you to listen to comments by Elżbieta Sikora, Marek Weiss, Anna Mikołajczyk-Niewiedział and dr. Roman Luboradzki about „Madame Curie”: http://www.youtube.com/user/PWMEdition
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.
