Rathaus Festival
Chamber music festival presenting programme focusing on Karol Rathaus music, as well as other Polish-Jewish composers (S. Laks, M. Weinberg, I. Friedman, A. Tansman, R. Palester). „Emigration“, „roots“, „heritage“ – these are key words of the festival. Concert programs are to show the search for identity and to present music that mirrors turbulent and tragic history of the 20th century (Rathaus-Heritage and Rathaus-Emigration). The festival looks also into the future and explore Rathaus‘s legacy (Rathaus-Bridges) by performing contemporary American and Polish composers.
Concerts:
16.11.2022 – 7.30 pm, LeFrak Hall (65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY 11367)
Rathaus – Heritage – music by Karol Rathaus, Simon Laks, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Ignatz Waghalter, Ignaz Friedman, Alexandre Tansman
Performers: Magdalena Filipczak (violin), Karolina Mikolajczyk (violin), Piotr Lato (clarinet), Iwo Jedynecki (accordion), Monika Gardon-Preinl (piano), Grzegorz Mania (piano)
18.11.2022 – 7.30, Elebash Hall (365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016)
Rathaus – Bridges – music by David Schober, Edward Smaldone, Jan Sanejko, Francesco Bottigliero, Bruce Saylor, Jeff Nichols, Joel Mandelbaum, Aaron Copland, Joseph Koffler
Performers: Magdalena Filipczak (violin), Karolina Mikolajczyk (violin), Piotr Lato (clarinet), Iwo Jedynecki (accordion), Alice Jones (flute), Michael Boriskin (piano), Steven Beck (piano), Monika Gardon-Preinl (piano), Grzegorz Mania (piano)
21.11.2022 – 7.30, Flushing Town Hall (137-35 Northern Blvd, Queens, NY 11354)
Rathaus – Emigration – music by Karol Rathaus, Roman Palester, Simon Laks, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Ignatz Waghalter, Alexandre Tansman, Tadeusz Z. Kassern
Performers: Magdalena Filipczak (violin), Sarah Song (cello), Alice Jones (flute), Piotr Lato (clarinet), Monika Gardon-Preinl (piano), Grzegorz Mania (piano)
Free admission to all concerts
Presented by:
Presented in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York:
Additional support:
PERFORMERS AND COMPOSERS:
DUO KAROLINA MIKOŁAJCZYK & IWO JEDYNECKI
Duo Karolina Mikołajczyk & Iwo Jedynecki are one of the most vibrant and innovative chamber ensembles of the young generation. Recognized by artists such as Maxim Vengerov and Krzysztof Penderecki, they are multiple winners of Grand Prix and 1st prizes at international music competitions (France, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Poland), performing i.e. at the New York Carnegie Hall, Guangzhou Opera House and Warsaw Philarmonic, where they enjoyed their debut to a sold-out audience. They have played more than a hundred recitals in France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Georgia, United States, Cuba, Chile, China, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand.
The Duo’s performances are described as perfect and mature, yet luminous and filled with youthful vitality. Hailed by Maxim Vengerov as „an ensemble that sounds like one instrument”, the Duo brings completely new qualities and original interpretations to classical masterpieces thanks to Iwo Jedynecki’s accordion transcriptions. Both artists boldly venture into renowned works of chamber music literature giving them new character and delightfully diverse colouring.
The Duo also collaborates with leading Polish composers, such as Marcin Błażewicz (Double concerto for violin, accordion and symphonic orchestra dedicated to Karolina Mikołąjczyk and Iwo Jedynecki), Piotr Moss (performance of Opolian Concerto for violin, accordion and orchestra in 2021), and Krzysztof Penderecki (Violin Sonata in Duo’s arrangement receiving an offical approval from the Master in 2019). In 2016 the debut CD „Premiére” by Duo Karolina Mikołajczyk & Iwo Jedynecki was published, containing pieces for violin and accordion written between 1952 and 2015 by three generations of composers. Most of these pieces have never been recorded before, and it was the first ever album with new music by a duo violin-accordion.
The Duo also shows an up-to-date approach in promoting their work through video recordings: the one with W. A. Mozart’s Violin Sonata gained more than a milion views on the internet, and was shared by the most popular classical music platform – Classic FM (followed up by Bach’s Goldberg Variations and excerpts from film music-inspired The Hollywood Fantasy projects). The latter was presented by the Duo in 2021 at the Cracow Film Music Festival – one of the industry’s most important events in the world.
Karolina Mikołajczyk plays a Duke London violin from 1776. Iwo Jedynecki plays a Pigini Sirius Millennium accordion. The purchase of both instruments was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Magdalena Filipczak
Award-winning Polish violinist Magdalena Filipczak has been hailed by the ARTS DESK as “a musical chameleon” and praised by D&S Times for “virtuosic music making of the highest order”. With her eclectic and expensive repertoire she has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in the UK (including Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, St John’s Smith Square, in Europe (among others in Het Concertgebouw, Tallinn Philharmonic, Cracow Philharmonic, Baltic Philharmonic) as well as in the USA, Canada and South America. Magdalena’s Carnegie Hall recital debut, postponed due to the pandemic, will be on May 30th 2023.
Among her many international competition successes, she is the winner of the IV Heino Eller International Violin Competition in Estonia and recipient of special prizes for the best interpretation of Bach (Bärenreiter Edition Prize) and the best concerto performance (Music Academy in Tallinn Prize). Most recently Magdalena has received Gold Prize of 2018 Manhattan International Music Competition, Silver Prize at 2018 Berliner International Music Competition, and First Prize at 2017 United States International Concerto Competition. For her achievement she was awarded Młoda Polska Scholarship (Young Poland) by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Magdalena’s new CD with a renowned Hungarian pianist Peter Frankl is in the final stage of postproduction. Her solo debut CD, Essence of Violin. She has been praised by critics, including THE STRAD Magazine as “glittering…beguiling…captivating…hauntingly atmospheric…”. She has also featured in two discs recorded with Gruppo Montebello at the Banff Arts Centre in Canada, two CDs with music by Grammy Award composer Tim Garland, Songs to the North Sky’ and Weather Walker, and two CDs with music by Peter Gregson Quartets: One and Quartets: Two. Media appearances include BBC Radio 3, Chicago WFMT Radio, Dutch Radio 4, Canadian Radio, Bulgarian TV, Polish, Austrian and Estonian TV and Radio. Magdalena also toured Brazil and Argentina as a guest leader/ director with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she studied with the distinguished Polish violinist Krzysztof Smietana, she was awarded an Individual Artist’s Fellowship. At the Guildhall she won the Max and Peggy Morgan Violin Concerto Prize, and together with her brother, pianist Łukasz Filipczak, Ivan Sutton Chamber Music Award of the City Music Society in London. Magdalena also trained voice at the Guildhall with John Evans and later she had private lessons with Benita Valente in America. Currently, she is a recipient of the prestigious Fellowship Award of CUNY Graduate Center in New York for Doctoral Studies in Music Performance. During the DMA she has been mentored on violin by Daniel Phillips and Donald Weilerstein, and additionally she has studied voice with Robert White. Magdalena was one of the Holland Music Sessions’ New Masters on Tour, and she was admitted and performed at American music training programs, including Itzhak Perlman Chamber Music Program and Residencies, Yellow Barn, Norfolk Festival, as well as Krzyżowa-Music in Poland, and IMS Prussia Cove in the UK. Magdalena has been awarded scholarships from the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, the Philharmonia Orchestra/ Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, the Craxton Memorial Trust, the City of London Corporation, the Derek Butler Trust, the Wolfson Foundation, the English Speaking Union, the Norfolk Festival/ Yale Summer Music School Fellowship, the Fishmongers@$Company, the Solti Foundation, and the Zetland Foundation. She has given masterclasses in Brazil, Yellow Barn@s Young Artists Program and through Itzhak PerlmanAs Music Residencies in America. Currently Magdalena is an Adjunct at the Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College) in New York. (www.magdalenafilipczak.com)
Monika Gardoń-Preinl
Pianist, outstanding specialist in the field of chamber music, long-term academic teacher and accompanist. In 1991, she graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków in the class of prof. Stefan Wojtas. In 2013, she obtained a Habilitated Doctor Degree in Musical Arts. She has taken part in many competitions, initially for pupils and then students, winning them (including the prize at the Stendhall Foundation Competition, Chopin Competitions in Darmstadt and Göttingen) and in master classes for pianists (Rudolf Kehrer in Weimar and Rudolf Buchbinder in Zurich). She has given concerts in the country performing piano concertos with an orchestra and abroad (Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Estonia, Finland). As a chamber musician, she has performed with many outstanding artists from around the world in significant concert halls, also during the most important music festivals (maestro Peter Lukas Graf, Wolfgang Pfistermuller, Magnus Nilsson, Carlsten Svanberg, Robert Kozanek, Nicola Mazzanti, Carlo Colombo, Janos Balint, Wally Hasse, Foroug Karimi Diafar Zadar, Barbara Świątek-Żelazna, Tomasz Sosnowski, Marek Mleczko, Zdzisław Stolarczyk, Zdzisław Piernik, Maciej Łakomy, Grzegorz Mania, Piotr Różański, Maria Sławek, Jakub Jakowicz, Bartosz Koziak and others). After graduation, she joined her home university – the Academy of Music in Kraków. Currently, she is employed at the Department of Chamber Music as a university professor. She was the head of the Department of Accompaniment, head of the Department of Early Music, Vice Dean of the Instrumental Department, and currently she is a Vice Rector for Art and Science. She is a certified teacher at the W. Żeleński State Secondary Music School in Kraków. She is both a performer and a teacher. She is the co-author of an innovative, three-part sight-reading textbook for secondary music school students (PWM 2017-2022). She has participated in many concerts, master classes, auditions and competitions, and has been a lecturer during scientific sessions (devoted to both performance and educational problems). She has been repeatedly awarded with numerous diplomas and distinctions for outstanding accompaniment. Also, she is a laureate of state awards for her contribution to the development of art, including the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.
Grzegorz Mania
Pianist Grzegorz Mania graduated with distinction from the Kraków Music Academy and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He also read law at Jagiellonian University, and obtained a PhD for a dissertation about music and copyright law. In 2019 he became a full professor at the Kraków Music Academy.
He works extensively as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and a chamber musician and is a member of the Extra Sounds Ensemble. Mr Mania is a versatile pianist, regularly duetting with Katarzyna Budnik, violist and Piotr Rozanski, pianist (Zarebski Piano Duo). He appeared in international festivals throughout Poland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Austria, Italy, Norway, Iceland, Vietnam, Israel, the United States of America, Cyprus, and the Ukraine and has been a finalist in a number of international solo and chamber competitions from 2002 to the present.
A co-founder and president of the Polish Chamber Musicians’ Association, Mania also co-authored an innovative sight-reading handbook for pianists. PWM Editions recently published Mania’s definitive volume on music and authors’ rights, as well as his selection of works for piano four hands for intermediate and advanced pianists. Currently, Grzegorz Mania divides his time between professorships at the Feliks Nowowiejski’s Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, lecturing copyright law in Krakow and Wroclaw and rehearsing chamber music programs all over Poland. He is also an artistic director of chamber festivals in Krakow, Rzeszow, Zielona Gora and Gdansk.
Piotr Lato
is a recipient of numerous awards and distinctions: he entered the semi-finals of the Prague Spring International Clarinet Competition in 2002, received third prize at the 4th Johannes Brahms International Chamber Music Competition in Gdańsk in 2006, and very recently second prize at the MEDICI International Music Competition for Chamber Music.
In recognition of his artistic and academic achievements, he has been awarded honorary badges and scholarships, such as the Order of Merit in the Service of Polish Culture (2016), the Ars Quaerendi Małopolska Voivodeship ‘for outstanding commitment to dissemination and promotion of culture’ (2019), the Bronze Cross of Merit (2019), creative scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2020) and the Order of Honoris Gratia by the City of Kraków (2021).
He has taken part in many national and international festivals, e.g. the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, Kraków Film Music Festival, the Music in Old Kraków. He has been involved in numerous CD, television and radio recordings for DUX, Centaur Records, Le Foxx Music, Universal Music and others.
In demand as a teacher, he has served as an assistant professor at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow since 2006. In 2011, he obtained the Doctor of Philosophy degree in instrumental art and the Post-doctoral degree of Musical Arts five years later. Since 2020 he has been the chair of the Woodwinds and Accordion Faculty and was promoted to the position of associate professor. He is also a clarinet teacher at the Władysław Żeleński Secondary State School of Music in Kraków.
Piotr Lato joined the Beethoven Academy Orchestra as principal clarinet in 2004. He appears regularly as a soloist, with many orchestras and ensembles. He is a signed artist of Henri Selmer Paris, MARCA Reeds and Chedeville USA.
David Schober
Composer and pianist David Schober is an associate professor and past Director (2016-19) of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Michigan, and Yonsei University in South Korea. His music has been performed by the American Composers’ Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, IRIS Orchestra, eighth blackbird, marimbist Makoto Nakura, and the Miró and Praxis String Quartets. His music has been issued on the Naxos, Cédille, and Kleos Classics labels.
Michael Boriskin
Hailed as “a brilliant pianist who has done as much for contemporary music as anyone” (Fanfare magazine), MICHAEL BORISKIN has performed four centuries of music in over 30 countries, He has appeared as soloist with major international orchestras, guest artist with dozens of chamber ensembles, and recitalist at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, BBC, Berlin Radio, Theatre des Champs-Elysees (Paris), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Arnold Schoenberg Center (Vienna), and other leading venues. He is a prolific recording artist, with a wide-ranging discography on the Naxos, SONY Classical, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Bridge, and other labels, and is a frequent presence as performer or commentator on NPR, American Public Media, CBS Sunday Morning, Sirius, Euro-Radio, and other leading media platforms. As Artistic and Executive Director of Copland House, he has led that singular creative center for American music to nationwide prominence. He has also served as Music Director of Mikhail Baryshnikov’s fabled White Oak Dance Project, and was a program advisor for the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, U.S. State Department, Lincoln Center, and other prominent institutions.
Edward Smaldone
Dr. Edward Smaldone’s music has been performed by throughout the United States, Europe and in Asia. A new clarinet concerto (Murmurations) was performed in Copenhagen in June 2021, by Søren-Filip Hansen and Den kongelige Livgarde Musikkorps, the wind and brass orchestra of the Queen of Denmark, and also performed in a standard orchestra version by the Idaho State-Civic Symphony, in September 2022.
His music appears on more than a dozen CDs, including three, released in 2020, reviews in Fanfare Magazine said, in part, “Smaldone has a gift for connecting one phrase with another, even one note with another, so that you get wrapped up in the music.”
Two Sides of the Same Coin (1990) is a single movement that develops music of different sensibilities from common motivic and harmonic material. The A section is energetic, eventually exhausting itself, and gives way to a contrasting and dream-like B section. Now the propulsive rhythms are translated into a steady stream of eighth-note quintuplets in the left-hand of the piano against which the clarinet plays long, angular lines “as though in a haze.” A short coda restores the energy and material of the A section.
Dedicated to the composer’s eldest daughter, Laura, the piece was intended to reflect life at home with an eighteen-month-old child. “Her boundless energy (when awake) and dreamy tranquility (when asleep) were two sides of what now seems like a blissfully simple experience of parenting!”
Adapted for violin and accordion
Suite for Violin and Piano (1992) was composed for Canadian violinist Victor
Schultz and later revised in 2002. Stephane’s Dance is the final, jazz inflected movement and was adapted by the performers Karolina Mikolajczyk, violin and Iwo Jedynecki, accordion. It is a dazzling showpiece for the duo. Set in a bold and confident fast frame, this rambunctious music evokes the spirit of Stephane Grappelli, the famous jazz violinist, who is referenced in the title.