The first star of this year's Festival's opening concert (9 October) is Leonora Armellini, winner of fifth place in the Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2021 and the first Italian to climb so high in a competition considered to be the pinnacle of world piano playing. In the 2010 edition, she won the Janina Nawrocka Award for ‘extraordinary musicality and beauty of sound’.
She has performed over 500 times in major concert halls and at prestigious festivals around the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Salle Cortot in Paris, the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Steinway Hall in London, Tongyeong Concert Hall in South Korea, Musashino Concert Hall in Tokyo, Millennium Monument Theatre in Beijing, and Martha Argerich Project in Lugano.
At our Festival, she will perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, accompanied by the Cavatina Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ewa Strusińska.
Leonora Armellini and Ewa Strusińska will be accompanied by the Cavatina Philharmonic Orchestra at the opening concert. The orchestra was founded in 2024 and is Poland's first private symphony orchestra. The first artistic season of the orchestra, conducted by Stanley Dodds, featured works from almost all musical eras. In addition to classical music, it often combines popular and jazz music in its programmes. It is open and prepared to promote any music whose artistic values are of the highest quality. Thanks to the cooperation and financial support of the local authorities of Bielsko-Biała, its activities fill a gap that existed in the city's cultural offer in the field of symphonic music.
The second star of this year's Festival is the outstanding conductor Ewa Strusińska, a Polish-British symphony and opera conductor, one of the most interesting artistic personalities of her generation. She is a finalist and laureate of the prestigious Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg.
Ewa Strusińska is also the first woman to hold the position of assistant conductor in the history of the United Kingdom, and the first Polish woman to hold this role outside her home country. She held this position from 2008 to 2010 at the famous The Hallé – the oldest professional orchestra in the United Kingdom, working under the direction of Sir Mark Elder. The conductor's success has been widely reported by the Polish media and the British press (The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone).
On the second day of the Festival (10 October), we have a real treat in store for all music lovers – we will be offering Chopin in a jazz style. The outstanding pianist and arranger Andrzej Jagodziński will perform, accompanied by the Trio: Czesław Bartkowski on percussion and Adam Cegielski on double bass (from Bielsko-Biała!).
Drawing on his classical roots and drawing on his many years of experience as a jazz musician, A. Jagodziński created a project combining these two musical worlds. In 1994, the album “Chopin” was released, featuring jazz arrangements of F. Chopin's music. The album was voted Album of the Year 1994 by the readers of Jazz Forum magazine, received the Polish Music Industry Award – Fryderyk’94 and the Melomani '94 award from the Łódź Music Lovers’ Association. This project became a passport and an invitation to music scenes around the world. This success reinforced Andrzej Jagodziński's conviction that he had made the right choice in pursuing an artistic path combining jazz and classical music, and prompted him to develop it further. In the following years, the trio recorded many albums with jazz arrangements of F. Chopin's music, culminating in the recording of the Sonata in B flat minor in 2008.
Based on the jazz trio's playing, A. Jagodziński began to invite classical musicians, instrumentalists, vocalists and chamber orchestras to perform his compositions and arrangements. The culmination of his search for sound and composition was his Piano Concerto in G minor for jazz trio and large symphony orchestra.
The final concert (11 October) will feature Aleksandra Świgut, pianist, soloist and chamber musician, Doctor of Musical Arts, and lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, performing in Bielsko-Biała for the first time. According to critics, she is one of the most distinctive personalities on the classical music scene. She is the winner of the 17th International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in Bergen and special awards: the audience and orchestra awards and the prestigious Steinway Prizewinners Concert Network award.
The Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw will also perform at the Festival in Bielsko for the first time. It is a great coincidence that the arrival of this ensemble is connected with the 80th anniversary of the orchestra's founding and the centenary of the public broadcaster. In addition to accompanying Aleksandra Świgut in Chopin's Concerto in E minor, the orchestra will present two interesting works from the composer's era: Symphony in C major, Op. 11 by Józef Elsner (Chopin's teacher) and Symphony in G minor (Finale molto presto) by Franciszek Lessel.
The final concert of the Festival will be conducted by Michał Klauza, Artistic Director of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. His artistic achievements include a number of radio and television recordings, including the first studio recording of K. Szymanowski's operetta “Loteria na mężów” (“The Lottery for Husbands”) with the NOSPR, released by Polish Radio and nominated for the Fryderyk 2019 award. Polish Radio has released recordings under his baton with the Polish Radio Orchestra, including Szymanowski's opera “Hagith” (Fryderyk 2020 in the Album of the Year – Oratorio and Opera Music category), symphonic works by Henryk Wars, masses by Moniuszko and music by Polish composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In May 2002, he recorded Szymanowski's “King Roger” for Polish Radio with the ensembles of the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw.
As part of the accompanying events, an educational concert by the Bielsko Music Society (9 October), a school concert by the Stanisław Moniuszko State Music School Complex in Bielsko-Biała (10 October) and a pre-premiere screening of the film “Chopin, Chopin” at the Helios Cinema (9 October) are planned.
The festival poster was designed by Wiesław Łysakowski.
The festival is organised by the Maria Koterbska Cultural Centre in Bielsko-Biała. The co-organisers of the festival are: Ars Cameralis, Cavatina Hall, the Bielsko-Biała Music Society, the Stanisław Moniuszko State Music School Complex in Bielsko-Biała and the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. The partners are: the Silesian Province, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, “Ruch Muzyczny” and the Helios Cinema. The media patrons of the Festival are: “Dziennik Zachodni”, the Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC, Radio Bielsko, “Kronika Beskidzka”, beskidzka24.pl, bielsko.biala.pl, bielsko.info, bielskirynek.pl and TVP Kultura.
Detailed information about the Festival is available at www.fkpbb.pl. Tickets can be purchased at the box offices of Cavatina Hall and BCK, as well as at https://cavatinahall.pl (concert on 9 October) and www.bck.bielsko.pl (concerts on 10 and 11 October).
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the ‘Music’ programme implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
