KNAPIK 75 | Prof. Eugeniusz Knapik's Birthday Gala | Shemet | Choir | Symphony Orchestra

Performers: Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk — soprano

Yaroslav Shemet — conductor

Jarosław Wolanin — choir preparation

Silesian Philharmonic Choir

Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Program: Eugeniusz Knapik — Blue sea and sails for a cappella choir

Eugeniusz Knapik — When (song)

Eugeniusz Knapik — La flûte de jade for soprano and orchestra

Eugeniusz Knapik — Blessing gentle breeze for choir and orchestra

Accompanying events: screening of the film Relevant Conversations. Eugeniusz Knapik: The Meaning of Music (directed by Violetta Rotter-Kozera)

meeting with Eugeniusz Knapik

The evening dedicated to Eugeniusz Knapik will be an opportunity to meet one of the most important creators of contemporary Polish music. The composer, pedagogue and long-time professor and rector of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice has been co-creating the landscape of Polish musical culture for more than four decades, and his works are performed by the most outstanding artists and ensembles in Poland and abroad. In the year of the composer's 75th birthday, the Silesian Philharmonic invites you to an event that will combine a conversation, a film and a concert presenting selected works of the Jubilee.

At 16.30 in the chamber hall there will be a screening of the film “Important Conversations. Eugeniusz Knapik: The Meaning of Music” directed by Violetta Rotter-Kozera. The documentary presents the composer's figure, his creative path and his way of thinking about music, which from the beginning has been a space for him to search for beauty, meaning and spiritual depth.

At 17.30 we invite you to the chamber room for a meeting with Eugeniusz Knapik. It will be an opportunity to talk about the work, inspirations and experiences of one of the most important representatives of the generation of composers, who in the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century co-created a new chapter in the history of Polish music.

At 19.00 in the Karol Stryja concert hall, the composer's monographic concert will begin, which will be conducted by Yaroslav Shemet. The program will include works showing different facets of Jubilat's work — from chamber lyric to elaborate vocal and instrumental compositions. The soloist of the evening will be Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk, whose interpretations of contemporary music have won the recognition of the audience and critics in Poland and abroad.

The concert will open the Blue Sea and Sails — a subtle composition for a cappella choir, in which Eugeniusz Knapik's characteristic singing meets extraordinary attention to timbre and sound space. Next to her will be the song Gda, showing the special place of the word in the composer's work and his sensitivity to the poetic dimension of music.

The focal point of the programme will be La flûte de jade for soprano and orchestra — one of Eugenius' most acclaimed vocal and instrumental works. Here, the composer turned to poetry inspired by the culture of the Far East, creating music that is extremely sensual, full of subtle shades of color and lyrical expression. The soprano part does not dominate the orchestra, but engages in constant dialogue with it, building a world full of tenderness, contemplation and inner light.

The evening will culminate with Blessing gentle breeze for choir and orchestra — a work in which Eugeniusz Knapik's distinctive compositional language is particularly clearly revealed. Extensive vocal phrases, rich orchestral colors and deep emotionality create music that prompts reflection and concentration. It is a piece that symbolically closes the concert dedicated to the artist who has been consistently searching for beauty and truth in art for years.

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