About the Festival

Marcel Chyrzyński – general and artistic director of the Festival (Photo by Marta Filipczyk / PWM Edition)

The Krakow International Festival of Composers (formerly known as Days of Music by Krakow Composers and 2014-2019 International Festival of Krakow Composers) has been part the cultural life of Krakow since 1989. The main purpose of the Festival is the promotion and presentation of contemporary professional work of Krakow composers (classics and professors, but also the outstanding middle generation, and the youngest composers and students of composition) created in relation to world music. This concept is realized via organization of concerts and meetings with composers. What is more, special lectures are organized during the Festival (conducted, among others, by music theorists of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, musicologists of the Jagiellonian University and invited guests from Poland and abroad).
In 1989, the festival was brought to life by Jerzy Kaszycki, Juliusz Łuciuk, Maciej Negrey and Kazimierz Pyzik. Since 1994 (for 20 years) the artistic director of the festival and the author of the program concept was musicologist Jerzy Stankiewicz. Since 2014 the general and artistic director is composer Marcel Chyrzyński.


Ladies and Gentlemen!

The main motif of the 35th Krakow International Festival of Composers is spaciousness in music. Although music as art is generally associated with the dimension of time, we cannot forget about another important aspect, space. Different manifestations of spaciousness in the musical work are brilliantly described by Leszek Polony in the book Przestrzeń i muzyka (Space and Music). He divided the types of sound and music space into acoustic, hearing, musical, and symbolic or mythical space.
During this year’s festival, the aspect of space will be present in numerous compositions performed during the concerts, and it will be the theme of the musicological session, at which we will listen to the presentations by: Magdalena Dziadek, Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz, Maciej Jabłoński, and Marcin Strzelecki. The session will be hosted by Renata Borowiecka.
A special guest of the festival will be the accomplished Italian composer Federico Gardella, who is a lecturer of Composition at the Conservatory in Milan. He will give a lecture about his work and teach a masterclass for Composition students of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow.
Thanks to the established collaboration with the Baltic Contemporary Music Network, the festival audiences will get familiar with the interesting art of composers of the Eastern Baltic region. Their compositions will be performed by: Chordos String Quartet from Lithuania, duos Anna-Liisa Eller (kannel) and Taavi Kerikmäe (clavichord, electronics) from Estonia as well as Ieva Saliete (harpsichord) and Artūrs Noviks (accordion) from Latvia. During the festival, you will also listen to e.g. Quasars Ensemble (Slovakia), Roman Widaszek (clarinet), Dâfo quartet, proModern vocal ensemble, Anna Kwiatkowska (violin, electronics), Duo Fluda–Lato, and others. Traditionally, we will present the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Academy of Music in Krakow at the concert entitled “Electronic cocktail”. This year, the Studio celebrates the 50th anniversary of its activity.
During the nine festival concerts, we will hear the work by the composers from Poland, Estonia, France, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Ukraine, the USA, and Italy. There will be 28 world premieres and 14 Polish premieres.

I wish you an unforgettable experience!

Marcel Chyrzyński
General and Artistic Director