2020 WarszeMuzik Festival

It is already the fourth edition of a series of micro-concerts known as WarszeMuzik Festival. From 1 till 29 August, seven concerts and two urban walks will be held in the former Northern Quarter district of Warsaw, in the courtyards of the surviving pre-war tenement houses and in the Umschlagplatz Monument area.

• 1-29 August 2020 (Saturdays, Sundays), free admission

Music of Franz Schubert, Mieczysław Wajnberg and Szymon Laks will fill up these spaces, as well as compositions by eminent Israeli composer Yair Klartag. The festival finale will take place at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. All concerts are open to the public.

On Saturday evenings, music will resound in the courtyards of pre-war tenements—at 20 Chłodna Street (Under the Clock tenement house), at 66 Żelazna Street (Mieczysław Wajnberg’s home), and at 41 Chłodna Street. The opening concert will take place on 1 August at 6 PM and will feature Hashtag Strings under the baton of Lilianna Krych, performing the music of Mieczysław Wajnberg, Aleksander Tansman, Józef Koffler and Yair Klartag.

On Sundays, WarszeMuzik concerts will be held in the area of Umschlagplatz Monument on Stawki Street. Four concerts, during which a grand piano will be accompanied by, consecutively: cello, violin, viola and flute, will feature duets: Jan Kalinowski and Marek Szlezer, Maria Sławek and Mischa Kozłowski, Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska and Wojciech Pyrć as well as WarszeMuzik curators—Ania Karpowicz and Marek Bracha.

2020 WarszeMuzik finale will take place at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on Saturday, 29 August. Program of the concert titled Murano: A Dream Island includes pieces by Salomone Rossi, Annie Gosfield and Paweł Szymański. The audience will also have a chance to listen to the first performance of a piece „No: e non vorrei” by the festival’s resident Yair Klartag. In this composition, commissioned by Hashtag Ensemble, the artist raises the question of “memory at work,” referring to the history of his own grandfather who used to be a member of the choir at the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie. It will be a fascinating journey in time, and into the origins of one’s identity.

Aside from concerts, participants of the 4th edition of WarszeMuzik will also have an opportunity to join one of the two historical walks. The first one, titled In the Footsteps of Wajnberg, will take place on 8 August at 3PM and will take us to the places where pre-war artists and people related to culture lived and worked. During the second walk, to be held on 29 August at 5PM, setting off from the Krasiński Garden Gate, we will stroll across the former Northern Quarter which is where the very heart of pre-war Jewish life was beating—back in the time when Warsaw was the home of the largest Jewish diaspora in Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic rules pertaining to artistic events organized outdoors will be in force in the course of the entire WarszeMuzik Festival. 
 

Program of 2020 WarszeMuzik Festival

• 1 August (Saturday), 6PM, 41 Chłodna Street
  Kamila Wąsik-Janiak – violin
  Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska – viola
  Agnieszka Guz – violin
  Marta Piórkowska – violin
  Anna Loska – viola
  Dominik Płociński – cello
  Mateusz Loska – bass
  Lilianna Krych – conductor

  Program:

  Yair Klartag – Half Tiger, Half Poet
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – Sonata for Two Violins
  Józef Koffler – Strings Trio
  Aleksander Tansman – Concerto for Viola
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – Concertino for Violin  

• 2 August (Sunday), 6PM, Umschlagplatz Monument, Stawki Street

  Jan Kalinowski – cello
  Marek Szlezer – grand piano

  Maurycy Moszkowski – Berceuse op.29 nr 3
  Aleksander Tansman – Sonata no. 2 for cello and grand piano
  Jan Radzynski – Mazurka
  Ludomir Różycki – Sonata for cello and grand piano op.10

• 8 August (Saturday), 4PM, 20 Chłodna Street

  Ania Karpowicz – flute
  Marek Bracha – grand piano

  Franz Schubert – Sonata Arppeggione
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – 12 Miniatures
  Władysław Szpilman – Mazurka

• 9 August (Sunday), 6PM, Umschlagplatz Monument, Stawki Street

  Maria Sławek – violin
  Mischa Kozłowski – grand piano

  Artur Gelbrun – Nigun&Dance
  Jan Radzynski – Mazurka
  Szymon Laks – Suite polonaise
  Mieczysław Weinberg – 3 pieces
  J.S. Bach – Largo from 4th Sonata in C-minor BWV

• 15 August (Saturday), 6PM online event at Facebooku WarszeMuzik >>
   
• 16 August (Sunday), 6PM, Umschlagplatz Monument, Stawki Street

  Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska – viola
  Wojciech Pyrć – grand piano

  Aleksander Weprik – Kaddish op.6
  Ignacy Friedman – Romance op.32
  Jerzy Fitelberg – Serenade 
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – Sonata op.28
  Karol Rathaus – Rapsodia Notturna op.66

• 22 August (Saturday), 6PM, 66 Żelazna St.

  Ania Karpowicz – flute
  Marek Bracha – grand piano

  Aleksander Tansman – Sonatina for flute and grand piano
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – 5 piece
  Tadeusz Kassern – Sonatina for flute and grand piano 
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – Lullaby

• 23 August (Sunday), 6PM, Umschlagplatz Monument, Stawki Stawki

  Ania Karpowicz – flute
  Marek Bracha – grand piano

  Aleksander Tansman – Sonatina for flute and grand piano
  Tadeusz Kassern – Sonatina for flute and grand piano
  Erwin Schulhoff – Sonata for flute and grand piano
  Mieczysław Wajnberg – Lullaby

• 29 August (Saturday), 6PM, POLIN Museum

  Hashtag Ensemble
  Lilianna Krych – conductor

  Salomone Rossi – selection of pieces
  Annie Gosfield – Phantom Shakedown
  Paweł Szymański – Recalling a Serenade
  Yair Klartag – No: vorrei e non

For more detailed information on the festival and its program, please go to www.warszemuzik.org >>