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We would like to extend a warm invitation to the second educational concert from the ‘NOWA MIODOWA. SINFONIA IUVENTUS’ series. The concert series was inaugurated on 23 October in the school’s new premises, inside its modern ‘Nowa Miodowa’ Concert Hall. We are incredibly pleased to be back and able to work with young musical talents as part of such an outstanding programme.

First up on the programme is Ludvig van Beethoven’s overture to the H.J. van Collin drama Coriolan, full of tragic pathos, about a leader during the Roman Republic. The artistry of our orchestra also allows us to present Witold Lutosławski’s Little Suite, composed in the early 1950s, at a time when the composer was successfully maintaining his creative autonomy despite the expectations of communist authorities, often creating music that was “based on folk motives”, while maintaining the highest artistic level. In addition to symphonic works, the programme will include compositions featuring solo instruments played by the talented students of the Complex of State Music Schools No. 1; among these will be two interesting examples of the favourite genre of 19th-century virtuosos, who enjoyed creating their own arrangements of motifs from popular operas. The legendary Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate took themes from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust for the subject of his dazzling potpourri – his Fantaisie Op. 13 will be performed by violinist Mateusz Izdebski. Flautist Maciej Kasperek, in turn, will present a work by a less well-known but very prominent master of the instrument in the late Romantic era, Claude-Paul Taffanel (a peer of Sarasate, both were born in 1844 and died in the same year: 1908), who composed the impressive Fantaisie sur le Freyschütz, a reference to the epochal opera-singspiel by Carl Maria von Weber. George Gershwin’s beloved Rhapsody in Blue will transport listeners to a whole other world, much like he amazed and delighted his first listeners (1924) with the innovative sound of the jazz orchestra (during the premiere – of the legendary Paul Whiteman ensemble) combined with a virtuoso solo piano. Though played then by the composer himself, during the March concert the solo will be performed by Stanisław Pańta.

Behind the conductor’s podium will be Zofia Guz, who in 2013 graduated with a bachelor degree in symphonic-operatic conducting with honours from the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, where she studied under Prof. Kai Bumann. Guz completed her master’s degree in 2016 at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius under Prof. Juozas Domarkas. She was also a semi-finalist at the Stefan Turchak conducting competition in Kiev, recognised by musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. In 2021, she was awarded a special distinction by the Bucharest Music Institute during the International Conducting Competition in Bucharest. She has collaborated with, among others, the Polish Baltic Philharmonic, the Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, the Silesian Chamber Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic Choir, the Gdynia Symphony Orchestra, the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, student orchestras, the Festival Chamber Orchestra of the Summer Organ and Chamber Music Concerts in Władysławowo, the Arte Creatura Musical Theatre, the Youth Orchestra in Władysławowo and, as part of her conducting apprenticeship, the Sopot Chamber Orchestra. She also founded her own Chamber Orchestra, alongside which she performed during the Digital Excellence Awards gala.

FREE ENTRANCE: guest passes are available at the school’s department of administration (Monday to Friday, 10 am to 6pm) from 15 February 2022. Limited number of guests.