Warsaw, capital of music
Autumn in Warsaw is a time when the city becomes a real music capital. Festivals such as ‘Cross-Cultures’, ‘Warsaw Autumn’, ‘Crazy Days of Music’ and ‘Jazz Jamboree’ are a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of diverse sounds, from ethnic music, through classics and contemporary compositions of classical music, to experimental jazz. On theatre stages, in concert halls, and at many other venues, artists from all over the world perform, providing unforgettable experiences. Whatever your taste and musical sensitivities, you are sure to find something for you.
Cross-Culture Warsaw
September 13-15, 2024
In mid-September, the Cross-Culture Warsaw Festival will be held for the 20th time in the socialist-realist Palace of Culture and Science. The Dramatic Theatre (Teatr Dramatyczny) will showcase ethnic music from Korea, Cape Verde, Algeria, Burkina Faso, and Italy. Get ready to meet unique artists, exotic rhythms, and unusual instruments.
Korean janggu (twin-headed drum) player Duk-soo Kim and Ensemble Sinawi will perform first. This is a rare opportunity to hear live pieces inspired by shamanic ritual music and Korean opera, and since sinawi means improvisation, you can expect a real show.
Next up will be Elida Almeida, who comes from a small African village in Cape Verde, Cesária Évora’s country of origin. She honed her talent in a church choir, and in her repertoire you will hear both beautiful ballads and energetic songs permeated with indigenous, island rhythms: batuku, funana, and tabanka. The last of these, combined with the artist’s fiery temperament, will make your blood rush.
From a little closer to home, the Suonno d’Ajere trio, which hails from Naples, combines traditional Neapolitan music with modern sounds. Played on instruments characteristic of Italian folk music, like the mandolin and mandola, it was adored both by the common people and by aristocrats. See whether this mix of popular and classical music is to your taste.
Bonga Kwenda, better known as Bonga, considered one of the most important African artists of the 20th century, will fly in from Lisbon. Born in Angola, he was once an icon of the local resistance movement and songs from his most famous album ‘Angola 72’ even became anthems of the country’s liberation movement. He will invite you to have fun with the sounds of his favourite Semba. This rhythmic music was born in the 20th century from traditional African dance and colonial European influences.
A day later, you will move on to the countries of the Maghreb, specifically to southern Algeria, home to a female troupe called Lemma. In Arabic, it means ‘meeting’ or ‘gathering’, and this is also the nature of the ensemble’s performances. The women dance, clap the rhythm, and sing together, and the spectacle may at times resemble a religious ritual or a dance show, although in reality it is traditional Saharan music.
The festival will be topped of with a concert by one of the world’s best known Senegalese musicians—Cheikh Lô. Born in Burkina Faso, the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist will show how to rock to the sounds of mbalax—dance music characteristic of Senegal and The Gambia. His music also includes elements of reggae, funk, jazz and even Cuban music. His impressive dreadlocks are not a sign of an affiliation with Rastafarianism but with one of the Islamic Sufi associations.
Warsaw Autumn
September 20-29, 2024
A week later, one of the most important festivals in the world dedicated to contemporary music starts. Organised since 1956, Warsaw Autumn was the only contemporary music festival in Central and Eastern Europe for several decades. It will be of interest not only to lovers of this creative genre, but to anyone open to new musical experiences. The festival lasts a full nine days and the programme includes dozens of works of classical music created by avant-garde composers, many of them never presented before. It will certainly broaden your musical horizons and allow you to hear how contemporary music draws on diverse areas of culture and art.
The performers include distinguished artists from over 20 countries, led by the Polish National Radio Radio Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic Orchestra, who will play at the beginning and end of the festival. Music lovers from all over the world will also enjoy performances by such ensembles as the Black Page Orchestra founded in Vienna, Orkest De Ereprijs of the Netherlands, Polish vocal sextet proMODERN, the Spółdzielnia Muzyczna (Musical Cooperative) Contemporary Ensemble, and Switzerland’s Basel Sinfonietta, as well as the European Workshop for Contemporary Music, made up of Polish and German university students. Early musical pieces will be performed by the vocal group Simultaneo with the maestro of archaic folk instruments, Maria Pomianowska, and one of the best known bands of this genre—the {oh!} Historical Orchestra.
A real treat awaits lovers of absurd humour and… folk punkrock. Ten songs to new lyrics by the popular author of pastiches of poems, Grzegorz Uzdański, will be performed by the rebellious backyard orchestra Hańba!
Experimental electronic music drawing on techno and rave culture has also been included in the festival. As part of the Dance Modern project, there will be five improvised sets with music to listen and dance to. Sound artists from various countries—FOQL, Rafał Ryterski, H31R, Brandhi Persico and LOUFR—will perform on the stage of Komuna Warszawa—one of the most important independent theatres in Poland.
For two evenings, the festival will be hosted by legendary Warsaw club Pardon to tu, where Polish rock and ambient duo Surreal Voyagers will perform as well as the STOCKHOLM SAXOPHONE QUARTET, Dries Tack, and DJ Lenar, among other artists.
As every year, the festival also encourages children to participate actively. Three unique types of opera await them: a space opera held at a different city monument every day, a binaural opera for people with visual impairments, and an eco-opera for people on the autism spectrum. They will provide novel experiences for youngsters.
The finale concert, which will take place on September 28 at the National Philharmonic, promises to be extremely interesting. On the same stage you will see a symphony orchestra, the Chopin University Big Band, which in 2023 accompanied the participants of the Voice of Poland programme, and the proMODERN choir. The ensembles will perform the work ‘Trio’ by Danish composer Simon Steen-Andersen. During the evening, we will hear Krzysztof Penderecki’s only jazz piece, entitled ‘Actions’, which will be given its final form by the performers during the concert itself, and ‘Beatles(s)’ composed by Paweł Hendrich for large symphony orchestra. Try to catch echoes of the Liverpool Four’s songs in it. Did you know that this Wrocław-born composer began his musical journey by playing in a heavy metal band?
La Folle Journée or Crazy Days of Music
September 27-29, 2024
The Polish edition of the festival La Folle Journée, or Crazy Days of Music, which will be held on the last weekend of September, will be of interest not only to music lovers. If you have so far given concert halls a wide berth, this is something for you. In the programme you will find dozens of short concerts taking place in parallel from morning to evening on six stages. They are located near Warsaw’s Old Town in the Grand Theatre of the National Opera, St. Andrew the Apostle and St. Brother Albert Church (the Parish of Creative Communities) and in a tent on the Theatre Square (Plac Teatralny).
In line with this year’s motto, ‘Sources’, you will hear mainly works of the classical canon alluding to the sounds of nature, folk dances or primal rhythms. The festival programme includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations, excerpts of Mozart’s operas, Beethoven and Dvořák symphonies, Bartók’s sonatas, and audience participation events. In addition to classical music ensembles such as Warsaw’s Sinfonia Varsovia, jazz performers and experimentalists crossing genre boundaries will also appear.
During the inaugural event you will be transported to… the world of birds. This is thanks to French saxophonist Valentine Michaud, who, accompanied by an orchestra, will perform Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales. At the same time, in the hall next door, the Quatuor Hermès string quartet will perform the Polish premiere of a recently discovered, youthful piece by Leonard Bernstein. The following day, on Saturday evening, the Paul Lay Trio jazz group will present for the first time in Poland its version of one of the most outstanding works of the 20th century, composed 100 years ago—G. Gerschwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Popular musicians from Poland will allude to the roots of jazz: pianist Marcin Masecki, who will present the History of Jazz 1899–1940, Chopin University Big Band, and jazz violinist Kacper Malisz, both solo and with the band Suferi.
You have probably had the chance to hear the sound of bagpipes, but did you know that this is the oldest complex musical instrument, known as early as in the Roman army? François Lazarevitch will present their thousand-year tradition in a concert on Sunday. Two unusual concerts will also be performed by Sirba Octet, which combines conventional classical music with Eastern European folk, gypsy and klezmer music.
In his concert, Maciej Skrzeczkowski will draw on of the sources of harpsichord music—the works of English composers from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. He will perform music from his debut album ‘The Real John Bull’.
French group Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien will present the ‘wild beauty’ of Central European music as seen through the eyes of Georg Philipp Telemann. Did you know that this German composer was more popular during his lifetime than Jan Sebastian Bach?
The primeval rhythms resounding on the African savannahs will be heard during performances of the Percussion Ensemble of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music and percussion duo Jerzy Rogiewicz and Hubert Zemler. The university artists will perform pieces including a suite of West African dances, works by the famous Stomp theatre and performance troupe (known, among others things, for playing on toilet plungers), and a composition by the most extravagant of contemporary music composers—John Cage. At the percussion duo’s performances, which are also intended for children, you will get to know different variants of the clave rhythm, present in such diverse musical genres as pop, hip-hop, jazz and reggae.
The festival will close with a concert by Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Julien Masmondet, which will perform Symphony on a French Mountain Air by Vincent d’Indy and Symphonic Dances from the Leonard Bernstein musical West Side Story.
If you are still undecided, check the ticket prices. You probably won’t find such cheap ones anywhere else. Some concerts are even free. You will find that classical music does not always have to be so serious, becoming ever more available and attractive to a wide audience.
Pat Metheny
October 5, 2024
Another autumn month in Warsaw belongs to jazz music. A few weeks before the next festival, 20 Grammy Award-winning guitar virtuoso and one of the most famous jazz personalities—Pat Metheny—will appear on stage at the Palladium Theatre. He is probably the only jazzman as popular as pop idols. If you can still manage to get tickets, you will hear music from his latest solo album, Dream Box, and selected songs he has created over his 50-year career.
Jazz Jamboree
October 23-24 and 25-27, 2024
In the middle of autumn, Warsaw hosts an event of particular importance in Polish musical history. It is Jazz Jamboree, organised for the first time in 1958, in the times of the Polish People’s Republic, when jazz was treated in Poland as a manifestation of rebellion and a declaration of a certain worldview. It featured the world’s greatest jazz stars, headed by Miles Davis. For many years, it was the only event of its kind in Eastern Europe.
This year, like the first time, it will take place in the popular student club Stodoła. Musicians of the older and younger generations will appear on stage. If you’re looking for something more than a jazz classic, you certainly won’t be disappointed. This year, the programme includes many innovative, experimental sounds with elements of many musical genres.
On October 23 and 24, an accompanying event will feature a Swiss multi-instrumentalist, electroacoustic harp maker and virtuoso—Andreas Vollenweider. Together with his group, he will present songs from his second album, Caverna Magica from 1982, complemented by the most important hits from a career spanning more than four decades. Those with a taste for sophisticated musical landscapes in the style of world music, new age and jazz will be well satisfied.
On the next day, the stage of the Warsaw club will be taken over by unconventional artists of the younger generation. If you like musical experiments, you will be thrilled. The sounds of a trio founded by Polish pianist Joanna Duda blend twisted jazz with groove, ambient and electronic music. Next on the bill will be one of the most innovative pianists on the 21st century New York jazz scene. Kris Davis is known for her ability to combine elements of the avant-garde, contemporary classical music, electronics and free jazz. In Warsaw, with accompanying musicians, she will present her most famous project, ‘Diatom Ribbons’, hailed by The New York Times as the jazz album of the year.
The finale of the concert belongs to an American trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and two-time winner of the prestigious Edison Award—the intriguingly named Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah. The artist, born Christian Scott, adopted the moniker to emphasise the African origins of his ancestors. He is also the authentic leader of one of the Black Indian tribes of New Orleans—African Americans who identify with Native American culture. These diverse influences can be heard in his music, which is referred to as ‘stretch music’ because it stretches boundaries. What genres you will find in it?
The next day will begin with a performance by one of the most original Polish jazz ensembles of the younger generation, the Tomasz Chyła Quintet. Its leader is a violinist, conductor and composer who feels at home with both jazz and choral music. Listen to how, together with his band, he can combine such disparate genres as jazz, folk, post-rock and choral. The line-up will be joined by Kebbi Williams, tenor saxophonist and musician of the famous blues-rock outfit Tedeschi Trucks Band, with which he won a Grammy Award in 2012.
After the Polish-American team, two jazz music veterans and three young jazzmen will join forces on stage. Together, they will pay a musical tribute to Pharoah Sanders, the late American saxophonist who died two years ago, known for his collaboration with John Coltrane. If you don’t yet know what spiritual jazz sounds like, you will surely find out at this concert. And all thanks to the iconic song Harvest Time, which, as always, will be performed in a unique way. This time, playing alongside legendary guitarist Tiszija Muñoza and Joshua Abrams will be musicians from Ill Considered—a London-based group drawing on electronics, drum’n’bass, afrobeat and other genres.
The Saturday evening finale is an opportunity to meet live a unique phenomenon in the history of jazz—70-year-old supergroup Sun Ra Arkestra. Did you know that its founder, an American jazz composer, pianist, poet and philosopher, took his artistic nickname from the Egyptian sun god Ra? He also claimed to have come from Saturn…. Get ready for a thrilling show where eclectic music plays the main role, but not the only one. You will find in it motifs from various periods of African-American music and probably all the styles from the long history of jazz. A collective of over a dozen musicians of different ages appears in shiny, multicoloured costumes studded with sequins, alluding to the religion of ancient Egypt. Currently, their leader is Marshall Allen, who in May this year…. turned 100. Will he come to Poland to play his EVI—electronic valve instrument?
The last day of the festival is a feast for fans of crazy guitar sounds. For starters is the trio of Italian Raffaele Matta, a respected guitarist taking inspiration from jazz, rock as well as…. Indian classical music, which he studied in Mumbai with masters of this genre. Later, the stage will welcome the quartet of Eivind Aarset, an innovator of modern guitar and one of Norway’s most respected guitarists. His debut album as band leader was lauded by The New York Times as one of the best electric jazz albums since Miles Davis. The master of unconventional sounds modified with digital pedals and computer software will transport you to a world of strange, sometimes surprising tones.
The festival finale is a unique treat for the demanding listener and a nod to progressive jazz rock. In the TU-NER supertrio, fans will recognise two members of the legendary King Crimson: guitarist Trey Gunn and drummer Pat Mastelotto. They will be joined by a second guitarist—Markus Reuter from Germany, known for his two-handed Touch Guitar playing. Together, they create total music combining experimental rock, jazz, and electronics. As they say, they draw on everything, including the classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries. If you value sophisticated musical experiments and innovative forms of expression, get ready for a feast.
In autumn, Warsaw is a place where music becomes a universal language, bringing together different cultures, styles and traditions. From the energetic rhythms of Africa at ‘Cross-Culture’, through classical music favourites during the ‘Crazy Days of Music’ and the avant-garde works of contemporary composers at ‘Warsaw Autumn’, to the innovative jazz sounds of ‘Jazz Jamboree’—each of these events offers something unique. For music lovers, regardless of their preferences, Warsaw festivals are an opportunity to discover new sounds, meet outstanding artists, and experience culture at the highest level.
