POP Culture / subculture

What is this year’s Musica Polonica Nova festival about? Above all, it is about inspiration, fluid boundaries and connections. The history of contemporary music, like every art form actually, is conditioned by two tendencies. The first is to strive to maintain autonomy and continuity of tradition, the second is to search for new inspirations and means of expression. For a long time, musical art was primarily an art of its own matter drawing inspiration and driving force for development from itself. Yet nowadays the fear of the influence of external trends has weakened, and composers are increasingly drawing inspiration from both the dominant popular culture and plentiful subcultures. Boundaries in art still exist, but it is becoming easier to cross them. Contemporary music is no longer elitist, it is opening up to the world of everyday life and non-connoisseur audiences, outside academia. Sometimes it makes critical interceptions, venturing into the vast field of pop culture. But it also happens that composers simply and sincerely, without a hint of irony, take full advantage of popular music, enjoying its energy.

I think that regular participants of our festival will easily notice the ideas that connect this year’s edition with the previous ones. We return to the concept of networking, we again consider the relationships that contemporary music enters into, adding more layers. We are experimenting with the form of the festival again and challenging its traditional formats. When programming this year’s edition of MPN, we tried to abandon linear thinking and give recipients the freedom to create their own participation plan. This will allow listeners to have more individual, intimate relationships with music. Instead of a series of concerts, we have interconnected points. This idea will be best visible during the Saturday culmination, consisting of interwoven events in various spaces of the National Forum of Music venue.

Relationships, connections, bonds – this is, as always, an important topic for us. In this context, the series of mini-concerts 71/42 will be particularly noteworthy, beginning each day of the festival. How to understand the title of this series? These are simply the area codes of two cities: Wrocław and Łódź, symbolising the combined efforts of two music centres. As part of this project, students of the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź will present their works created as part of a project authored by conductor Maciej Koczur. These will be inclusive concerts, addressed to a wide audience. The performers invited to co-create the festival include: Spółdzielnia Muzyczna contemporary ensemble, Ensemble OMN, NeoQuartet, NFM Leopoldinum String Trio and LutosAir Quintet. The programme also features a project by young composers combining electronic and organ music and a concert organised by the Polish Composers’ Union.

We have always wanted MPN to be a festival that audaciously builds relationships with other, non-musical spaces of the arts. This year we have begun cooperation with the Polish Theatre in the Underground in Wrocław. Thanks to this, we have a wonderful accompanying event in the programme – the play Finnegans W/Fake. Wojtek Blecharz’s music plays a key role in this performance, but the sound (sonorism) of the text is equally important.

A special place in this edition is occupied by two composers-in-residence of the festival: Marta Śniady and Artur Zagajewski. Not just because they make great music. They both daringly use pop and subcultural elements, crossing the boundaries of genres and artistic disciplines. In Artur’s music we can find punk rock rebellion, but also inspirations from architecture and urban planning, thanks to which his music becomes a perfect commentary on modern times. Whereas Marta draws from a wide range of pop culture and keeps her finger on the pulse of the latest trends, without losing her clearly individual character.

MPN also stands for curiosity about the world. We do not have ready answers, but we like to ask questions, dig deeper and observe the reality that surrounds us in the era of technological acceleration and cultural changes. At the same time, give something back, provide the audience with new impressions and perception strategies.

Join us!

Paweł Hendrich
Artistic Director
Musica Polonica Nova

71/42 #1
Maciej Koczur / SoundCheck – New Music Ensemble
10.04.2024
Wed.
6:30 PM
NFM, foyer -3
Poview
LutosAir Quintet
10.04.2024
Wed.
7:00 PM
NFM, Black Hall
71/42 #2
Aleksander Stachowski
11.04.2024
Thu.
6:30 PM
NFM, foyer +2
AccordiON/OFF
Concert of Polish Composers’ Union Wrocław Division
11.04.2024
Thu.
7:00 PM
NFM, Black Hall
Finnegans W/Fake | Polish Theatre in the Underground
Accompanying event
11.04.2024
Thu.
7:00 PM
Piekarnia – Centre for Performing Arts of the Grotowski Institute
POP-up
Ensemble Kompopolex
11.04.2024
Thu.
8:00 PM
NFM, Chamber Hall
Avant –– Pop
Event in partnership with Glissando
12.04.2024
Fri.
5:30 PM
NFM, foyer -1, red banquettes
71/42 #3
Maciej Koczur / Artur Zagajewski
12.04.2024
Fri.
7:00 PM
NFM, foyer+4
Maximum
Pierre Jodlowski / Aleksander Wnuk
12.04.2024
Fri.
7:30 PM
NFM, Red Hall
Trio – Riot
NFM Leopoldinum String Trio
12.04.2024
Fri.
8:15 PM
NFM, Chamber Hall
Blood
Piotr Damasiewicz / Kuba Wójcik
12.04.2024
Fri.
9:00 PM
NFM Spaces
71/42 #4
Maciej Koczur / Caroline Mayrhofer
13.04.2024
Sat.
5:00 PM
NFM, foyer -1
34. Musica Polonica Nova | Full-day festival pass
 
13.04.2024
Sat.
5:00 PM
NFM Spaces
TransOrganic // 1
Jan Paweł Przegendza / Maciej Michaluk
13.04.2024
Sat.
5:30 PM
NFM, Main Hall (ground floor)
Transfusion // 1 – installation
Piotr Damasiewicz / Kuba Wójcik
13.04.2024
Sat.
5:45 PM
NFM Spaces
The Body of Water – installation
 
13.04.2024
Sat.
6:00 PM
NFM, foyer -3
kOMNata 1, or the Kingdom of Things and Pleasures? Dopamine
Szymon Bywalec / Ensemble OMN
13.04.2024
Sat.
6:30 PM
NFM, Red Hall
Transfusion // 2 – video-art
Piotr Damasiewicz / Kuba Wójcik
13.04.2024
Sat.
7:30 PM
NFM Spaces
TransOrganic // 2
Jan Paweł Przegendza / Maciej Michaluk
13.04.2024
Sat.
8:00 PM
NFM, Main Hall (balconies)
Am I AI?
NeoQuartet
13.04.2024
Sat.
8:30 PM
NFM, Chamber Hall
Transfusion // 3 – performance
Piotr Damasiewicz / Kuba Wójcik
13.04.2024
Sat.
9:15 PM
NFM Spaces
TransOrganic // 3
Jan Paweł Przegendza / Maciej Michaluk
13.04.2024
Sat.
9:30 PM
NFM, Main Hall (choir, stage spaces)
kOMNata 2, or Parallel Realities, Avatars
Szymon Bywalec / Ensemble OMN
13.04.2024
Sat.
10:00 PM
NFM, Red Hall
Zone of Movement: Is New Music a Subculture?
Event in partnership with Ruch Muzyczny
14.04.2024
Sun.
4:30 PM
NFM, foyer -1, red banquettes
71/42 Finale
Maciej Koczur / SoundCheck – New Music Ensemble
14.04.2024
Sun.
6:00 PM
NFM, Black Hall
was / is
 
14.04.2024
Sun.
7:30 PM
NFM, Red Hall
PWM Edition – Musica Polonica Nova 2024 Festival Partner
In partnership with: Polish Composers’ Union Wrocław Division
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