Following on from the two previous sold-out Festivals, the third annual Chopin Festival returns once more to the Polish Social and Cultural Centre POSK, in London, on Saturday the 19th October 2024.
Join us in this celebration of the unique piano genius Fryderyk Chopin.
GALA CONCERT In the POSK Theatre at 18.00 featuring:
Aleksandra Świgut
A participant of the XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. A graduate of and a teacher at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, a prize-winner and laureate of numerous special prizes of the 17. International Edward Grieg’s Competition in Bergen (2022) – including the Orchestra Prize, the Audience Prize and the Steinway Prize-winner Concert Prize. Aleksandra also performs on historical instruments. She is a prize-winner of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw (2018). Her wide experience with historical and modern instruments and different performance practices make her interpretations quite unique. She has won many prizes in piano competitions for young pianists, including at the Polish Chopin Competition in Warsaw. She has appeared at festivals in Nohant, Paris, Chopin Genève Festival, Cremona Musica, Eufonie Festival of Central-Eastern Europe as well as the Beethoven Easter Festival and ‘Chopin and his Europe’. As a soloist, she has performed with amongst others the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, , Sinfonietta Cracovia, Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and numerous Polish philharmonic orchestras including those of Warsaw , Łódź, Opole, Kraków, and Zielona Góra. She has collaborated with conductors such as: Lawrence Foster, Alexandar Marcovic, Maxim Pascal, Michał Nesterowicz, Michał Klauza, Johannes Gustavsson, Zoi Tsokanou, Grzegorz Nowak, Aleksander Humala, Bassem Akiki, Jurek Dybał, Marek Wroniszewski, Ruben Silva and collaborated with the Polish Theatre „Wierszalin” creating music for a theatre play „Dancing Conrad” based on Adam Mickiewicz’s poetic drama „Dziady” performed in December 2023 in Tokyo.
She has recorded three albums.
Piotr Pawlak
One of the most versatile Polish pianists of the present young generation. Winner of many international competitions, among others V Maj Lind International Piano Competition in Helsinki (2022) and XI International Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt (2017), laureate of Chopin Competitions in Beijing (2016), Budapest (2018) and Cracow (2019), International Competition of Polish Music in Rzeszów (2019), International Paderewski Competition in Bydgoszcz (2022) and International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw (2023). Piotr performs frequently in Poland – longside, amongst others, the Polish Chamber Orchestra Sopot, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Zielona Góra and the Toruń Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at numerous musical events in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Switzerland, Georgia and the United States. As a soloist, he has played amongst others with the Warsaw National Symphony Orchestra, the Lower Silesia Philharmonic Orchestra, the West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra, the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has performed on such stages as the Berliner Philharmonic, Sala Verdi in Milano, Teatro alla Scala and at such festivals as „Kissinger Sommer” in Bad Kissingen and “Chopin and his Europe” in Warsaw. In 2019 he embarked on a concert tour of China and presently is due to give a series of recitals in Japan.
Piotr is an enthusiast of improvisation in classical music – in the Chopin Competition in Darmstadt, besides the 1st prize, he also received a prize for the best improvisation..
Complementary to his piano talent , in 2020 Piotr was awarded 2nd prize on the „Transatlantyk Instant Composition Contest” at the International Film Festival in Katowice. And, having graduated from music school finishing in organ studies he is now a laureate of organ competitions
Mateusz Dubiel
A rising star indeed ! Studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków and graduated from the Stanisław Moniuszko Music School in Bielsko-Biała. He won first place and four specialty prizes in the 27th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Children and Youths in Szarfarnia (a favourite holiday place of Chopin as a teenager). Mateusz is a aureate of the 12th “Arthur Rubinstein” International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz (2021), He gained first Place in the 6th International Chopin Carpathian Foothills Competition in 2022, was a winner in the Fryderyk Chopin General Competition in Warsaw (2022), was second Place in the Third International Piano Competition “Jeune Chopin” in Lugano, Switzerland—sponsored by Martha Argerich (2023). He has performed actively across Poland and abroad, including appearances in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Chopin’s birth-house in Żelazowa Wola, the Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Center in Lusławice, Mateusz has played in such festivals as the “Chopin Marathon” on Polish Radio Chopin, the Chopin Festival in Paris at the Orangerie Du Parc De Bagatelle, the Festsaal of the Amtshaus Hietzing in Vienna, the Vigyàzó Sandor Music Center in Budapest and at the “Chopin in Omotesando in Tokyo .
Dominika Mak
Dominika Mak is a Polish classical pianist, currently undertaking the Master of Arts course at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Christopher Elton (Professor Emeritus). While completing her BA and MPhil in Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, Dominika became the Artistic Director of the Trinity College Music Society , a Chopin scholar and a solo pianist. As an undergraduate, Dominika was a laureate of various competitions, such as the National EPTA Competition, the Edith Leigh Prize, the Birmingham Conservatoire John Ireland Prize. The ‘liquidity’ of Dominika’s performances of Chopin’s works has been described as ‘perfection.’ Dominika has given performances at , amongst other , St John’s Smith Square, The Alexandria Theatre, St Martin-in-the-Fields and West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge. Dominika has benefitted from masterclasses from Yevgeny Subdin, Dina Parakhina, Katya Apekisheva, Julian Jacobson, Stephen Hough and other esteemed pianists.
Free Gala Printed Programme, with essays by
Prof. Alan Walker – “Fryderyk Chopin: An English Interlude, July 1837”.
Prof. Norman Davies – “Pianos and Chopin Worldwide”
Dr. Ewa Sawińska-Dahlig – “90 Years of The Fryderyk Chopin Society in Poland”
TALKS In the Jazz Club
@ 15.30
Lady Rose Cholmondeley
President of the UK Chopin Society
“Mysteries surrounding Fryderyk Chopin”
@ 16.30
Prof. John Rink
Professor of Musical Performance Studies in the Cambridge University Faculty of Music
“The Young Chopin”
EXHIBITION in the POSK Gallery, 19th – 28th October 2024
“The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition”
Presented by The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw and the POSK Library
POLISH SCHOOLS in the Atrium @ 14.30
“TIK TOK CHOPIN” Competition Winners
CHOPIN JAZZ – In the Jazz Club @ 20.30
John Donegan Quintet
Adam Bishop – Flute and Alto sax
Riley Stone-Lonergan – Tenor sax
John Donegan – Piano & Arranger
Alec Dankworth – Bass
Matt Fishwick – Drums.
John Donegan is a modern jazz pianist and composer, UK based but originally from Cork. His music has been featured on the BBC, Jazz FM, RTE and independent radio stations in the UK and Ireland. He has performed with a variety of UK, Irish and International artists, including Art Blakey, Art Farmer, Barney Kessel and Greg Abate, Louis Stewart and many more. He has also performed in France, Spain, Portugal and at Birdland in New York as well as being a regular performer for Global Music Foundation who held online concerts during Lockdown. In 2022 he performed at The Chopin festival playing his arrangements of Chopin pieces and we welcome him back, by popular demand in 2024.
The Chopin Festival is a joint collaboration between The Relief Society For Poles Trust (Charity No. 327128) & The Polish Social & Cultural Centre POSK (Charity No 236745).
British Poles are the media patron of the Festival.
WHEN: Saturday, 19 October 2024, 3.30pm
WHERE: Polish Social and Cultural Association POSK, Sala Teatralna, 238-246 King Street, London W6 0RF
TICKETS: here
