The guiding principle of the Twenty-Ninth International Festival of Kraków Composers was to offer a clash between Kraków-based and Polish composers against those originating from the Nordic countries, represented by repertoires from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark.
An eminent Finnish composer now resident in France, Kaija Saariaho will be one of the special guests of the Festival. She will give a lecture on her own output and an open master class to be attended by the students of composition from the Academy of Music in Kraków. A performance of the first movement of Saariaho’s Concordia for violin and cello will be one of the key moments of the present edition of the Festival. The complete composition’s premiere performance will take place during the Bergen Festival in May, but the artist has accepted the request to have the world premiere of the work’s first movement performed in Kraków.
A professor of the Royal College of Music in London and an excellent Danish cellist, Jakob Kullberg will appear as the other special guest of the Festival. The artist will take part in two concerts (including one with the Kroger Quartet from Denmark) and teach at master classes to be offered at Kraków’s Academy of Music.
The Festival will also feature a session dedicated to the music from the Nordic countries and the Netherlands hosting Dutch musicians (composer and musicologist Leo Samama and the excellent duo of Ensemble 306). As usual, the electronic music enthusiasts will have a chance to savour the ‘Electronic Cocktail’ (‘Koktajl elektroniczny’), a concert organised by the Electroacoustic Music Studio from the Academy of Music in Kraków. There will also be a lecture given by Dr Piotr Kletowski on “Nordic sounds in the cinema – from Sibelius to Pärt” illustrated by Inquest of Pilot Pirx (1979), a film directed by Marek Piestrak with music by Arvo Pärt and Eugeniusz Rudnik, that will showcase a variety of inspirations drawn by film music composers.
The world premiere performance of Symphony no 3 by Kraków-based composer Maciej Jabłoński will be one of the highlights of the finale of this year’s edition of the Festival. I hope that all the features and events provided by the Twenty-Ninth International Festival of Kraków Composers will bring you a wealth of memorable experiences!
Marcel Chyrzyński, artistic director
The premiere performances of Wojciech Ziemowit Zych’s Drogi powietrza. Splątane echa. Double Concerto for contrabass flute, contrabass clarinet and chamber orchestra in a spatial arrangement, as well as Józef Rychlik’s Octet for flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, cello and piano have been financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage through the ‘Composing Commissions’ programme managed by the Institute of Music and Dance (Instytut Muzyki i Tańca).
Enjoy the Festival!