Zygmunt Krauze and the Polish Perspective

January 10-13, 2010

Glenn Gould Studio, Gallery 345, Music Gallery and U of T

NEW MUSIC CONCERTS’Äô 39^th Season

New musical inventions that provoke, awaken and inspire

For Immediate Release ’Äì Toronto, December 21, 2009: Poland has long enjoyed the reputation of spawning some of the world’Äôs most successful and controversial composers. New Music Concerts enters 2010 with a four-day Polish festival beginning on January 10 with Zygmunt Krauze and the Polish Perspective. Distinguished pianist/composer Zygmunt Krauze has curated a program of Canadian premieres by challenging young Polish composers and including Pawel Szymanski, who has proved himself one of the most uncompromising composers of our times. As part of the mini-Polish festival, Zygmunt Krauze offers a special benefit recital for New Music Concerts (January 11, non-subscription event) in which he improvises on the music Chopin and Lutos‰Çawski, as well as a Free Public Lecture at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto on January 12. The Polish celebration ends on a high note as Poland’Äôs electrifying performer Agata Zubel, a versatile musician who enjoys a rising double career as composer and soprano, performs music for solo voice with piano and electroacoustic accompaniment, on January 13.

Famed Polish composer and pianist Zygmunt Krauze was born in 1938. He studied composition and piano at the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He is known as a composer of unistic music, based on the theory of unistic art adopted from the painting of Wladyslaw Strzeminski (1893-1952). Unistic music lacks contrasts, tension and climaxes in the traditional sense and its form is as homogenous as possible. Krauze has written operas, film music, symphonic and chamber works. Together with architects he also composed spatial music, which was presented in Poland, Austria and France. His music has been performed throughout the world. A sought-after teacher and lecturer, Krauze is a true music pioneer. He has received countless awards and honours, and is very active as a pianist performing mostly 20th century music.

Born in Wroclaw in 1978, Agata Zubel leads a busy double career as a singer and composer. She has won several international competitions for both voice and composition. As a vocalist she has participated in many prestigious musical events. Modern music occupies a special place in her repertoire, and she has premiered and recorded numerous works by contemporary composers. She established the ElettroVoce Duo together with composer and pianist Cezary Duchnowski. On January 10, she performs Cascando for voice, flute, clarinet, violin and cello, based on the 1936 poem by Samuel Beckett (not his later radio play of the same name). ’ÄúWith Cascando, it seems, Agata Zubel has crossed another threshold. She has submitted the almost unlimited technical abilities of her voice, and her temperament as a composer and singer, to the ascetic text, perfectly conveying the psychological truth of Beckett’Äôs reductionism, the chilling logic of his world and the suppressed emotions and despair that underlie that chill’Äù, writes Joanna Grotkowska in the liner notes of the CD, also entitled Cascando.

Agata Zubel

January Polish festival events sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Toronto:

Sunday January 10, 2010

Zygmunt Krauze and the Polish Perspective

New Music Concerts Ensemble; Zygmunt Krauze, piano and direction; Agata Zubel, soprano

Pawel Mykietyn (Poland, 1971) ’Äì 3 for 13 (1994)

Agata Zubel (Poland, 1978) ’Äì Cascando (2007) for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin and cello

Zygmunt Krauze (Poland, 1938) ’Äì Piano Quintet (1993)

Zygmunt Krauze ’Äì Polychromie (1968) for clarinet, trombone, piano and cello

Pawel Szymanski (Poland, 1954) ’Äì Concerto ˆÝ 4 (2004) for clarinet, trombone, piano and cello

Wojciech B‰Ça‰ºejczyk (Poland, 1981) ’Äì *M.A.D. (2007) for 12 players

*Mutually Assured Destruction

Glenn Gould Studio: 250 Front St. West

7:15 Illuminating Introduction with the composers / 8PM Concert

Monday January 11, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Special (non-subscription) Fundraising Event: Zygmunt Krauze, piano

Frˆ©dˆ©ric Chopin (Poland, 1810-1849) ’Äì Mazurka in A minor op. 67, no. 4 (1846) with improvisations

Witold Lutos‰Çawski (Poland, 1913-1994) ’Äì Mˆ©lodies populaires (1945) with improvisations

Zygmunt Krauze (Poland, 1938) ’Äì Six folk melodies (1957); Refrain (1993); Nightmare Tango (1987); Stone Music (1972); Gloves Music (1972)

The $50 admission includes a wine and cheese reception and a charitable receipt will be issued for the portion allowable under Canada Revenue Agency guidelines. Reservations: (416) 961-9594

Gallery 345: 345 Sorauren Avenue

Tuesday January 12 at 7:00 PM

Public Lecture by Zygmunt Krauze

Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Edward Johnson Building Room 216

Free Admission

Wednesday January 13, 2010

Contemporary Vocal Recital with Agata Zubel, soprano; Peter Tiefenbach, piano

Karol Szymanowski (Poland, 1882-1937) ’Äì (3) Kurpian Songs (1929) voice and piano

Alban Berg (Austria, 1885-1935) ’Äì (3) Frˆºhe Lieder (1907) voice and piano

Pawel Szymanski (Poland, 1954) ’Äì Drei Lieder nach Trakl (2002) voice and piano

Luciano Berio (Italy 1925-2003) ’Äì Sequenza III (1966) for solo voice

Cezary Duchnowski (Poland, 1971) ’Äì Dishevelled Grasses (2002) for voice and soundfiles

Agata Zubel ’Äì Parlando (2000) for voice and sound files

Alejandro Viˆ±ao (Argentina/UK, 1951) ’Äì Chant d'Ailleurs (1991) for voice and sound files

Music Gallery at St. George the Martyr: 197 John St.

7:15 Illuminating Introduction with Agata Zubel / 8PM Concert

Individual Tickets for all concerts (except for January 11 event):

Tickets: $30 (regular)/$20 (seniors/arts workers)/$10 (students)

Box office: (416) 961-9594

New Music Concerts

157 Carlton Street, Suite 203 Toronto ON M5A 2K3

416.961.9594 / fax 416.961.9508

nmc@interlog.com / www.NewMusicConcerts.com

New Music Concerts gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for the Arts; Toronto Arts Council; The Department of Heritage through Arts Presentation Canada; The Province of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council & the Ontario Arts Foundation Endowment Fund; The Goethe Institut; The Julie-Jiggs Foundation; The Koerner Foundation; The McLean Foundation; Roger D. Moore; The SOCAN Foundation; The Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation; The Amphion Foundation Inc.; The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.; Edward Epstein and Gallery 345; The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Toronto