July 2022 will mark the 18th edition of the Polish Music Festival, which will take place from 8.07-30.07.2022. The history of the festival dates back to 2005, when it was first organized by the Polish Music Association, created by a group of musicologists, culture managers and all kinds of music lovers.
This event is also a great opportunity to visit the beautiful, former capital of Poland. If you are a tourist from another country or city and you want to get to know the history and monuments of this place in detail, take a private tour around Krakow.
The festival in itself is not only a musical event, where works of valuable and well-known Polish composers, composed over the centuries – from the Middle Ages to the present day – are presented, but above all it is an opportunity to bring their works into contact with world music and to show Polish creativity in various contexts. In this connection, the organizers aim mainly to premiere contemporary musical works.
Previous editions have featured such stars as pianists Ivo Pogorelich and Nicolai Khozyainov, world-renowned violinist Nigel Kennedy, as well as: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, London Sinfonietta, Elżbieta Chojnacka, Akiko Suwanai, Piers Lane, Peter Jablonski, Jonathan Plowright, Grigory Żyslin, and many others. Also featured were prominent composers from the Polish music scene: Krzysztof Penderecki, Agnieszka Duczmal, Jerzy Maksymiuk, and the likes of Wojciech Kilar, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, and Paweł Mykietyn.
At the festival, you can hear both contemporary and early music, works known around the world, as well as those yet to be discovered, all kinds of vocal and instrumental forms, and chamber duos.
In the repertoire of the whole enterprise, it is easy to point out the part common for all known musicians of Polish nationality. During the concerts, no one aims to prove whether Chopin is better than Liszt, Moniuszko perhaps more interesting than Smetana, and Szymanowski more important than Vaughan Williams. The aim of the organizers is simply to present Polish music worth listening to, with an excellent history and a rich message. It is supposed to unite and fraternize, people, the souls of artists, and those who see the beauty of sounds every day.
If you have just arrived by airport shuttle to the center of Krakow, the 18th edition of the Polish Music Festival is waiting for you from 8 to 30 July! It will begin with Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto in F sharp minor and will be officially opened by an outstanding young violinist: Miranda Liu.
The festival of Polish music and artists combines not only well-known works but also expands the repertoire with the discovery of new works, sometimes presented for the first time in centuries. In this way, the continuity of Polish art is presented to us, and a close spiritual and emotional attachment is created.
The only festival of this kind in Poland, which focuses on the native classical music from Poland. Over the past years it has gathered its faithful and regular group of listeners, who eagerly await the July concerts every year. The most numerous group are of course music lovers from Krakow, but quite a large group, depending on the month and how many tourists there are in Krakow, are people from outside who come to our city to learn about the culture, monuments, places of post-war memory, and at the same time to commune with Polish culture.
Among the many positive aspects of taking part in the Krakow, the festival is the fact that it is mainly devoted to Polish music but does not limit itself to any particular historical era. The Polish Music Festival opens up the full spectrum of national creativity, proving that our Polish music is, and always has been, an essential part of high-class European music.
If you are coming to the city of Krakow for festivals with your children, check out what attractions the city can also provide for them. Certainly, they will not be bored because Krakow has a wide range of attractions as well as the youngest tourists. Read more about it here: https://krakowdirect.com/news/childrens-day-krakow/
