Poland in Tanzania

- During the second edition of the competition, we are waiting for numerous applications from both domestic and foreign participants. Everything is now in the hands of the musicians to make a decision to enter the competition. We hope that the professors of music universities will play an important role here and will persuade their pupils to participate in this event - says Katarzyna Meissner, director of IMiT.

In the competition, the artists will be able to present works by 56 Polish composers, who worked mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is the participants who prepare their own program, selecting pieces for each stage of the competition. In addition to composers such as Chopin, Paderewski, Górecki, or Penderecki, we can find less known representatives of various musical styles and eras, such as Antoni Kątski, Eugeniusz Pankiewicz or Tadeusz Paciorkiewicz. Equally important are Polish female composers: Maria Szymanowska and Grażyna Bacewicz.

Musicians-instrumentalists are invited to participate individually and as chamber ensembles - from duets to twelve-person ensembles. There are no age and nationality restrictions. The jury of both categories of the competition consists of outstanding Polish and foreign musicians and figures of musical life. This year they are chaired by: the piano ensemble - Jarosław Drzewiecki, and the jury in the chamber ensembles category - Andrzej Tatarski.

Musicians taking part in the competition also get a chance to win many non-statutory awards - from financial awards to performances in leading concert halls in Poland and at selected festivals. There will be a prize of 500 euros for the best performance in the competition for a piano sonata or a chamber piece by Miłosz Magin, funded by the composer's daughter Margot Magin and the Société Frédéric Chopin Genève award in the form of a recital during the Chopin Festival in Geneva 2021. Additionally, Polish Institutes cooperating with the competition they give recitals to the awarded laureates in the cities of their headquarters, such as Bratislava, Saint Petersburg and Vienna. Therefore, the organizers give the winners a chance to present their skills along with the original program of Polish music both in Poland and abroad. Another surprise for the participants is the opportunity to record selected songs live during the next stages of the competition, which are included in the multi-part CD release that forms the audio chronicle of the Competition. Sometimes these works have their world premiere.

The first edition of the competition took place in 2019. It attracted 81 participants from 6 countries. The winner in the piano category was the representative of Russia - Pavel Dombrovsky, and in the chamber ensemble category the winner was the violinist duo: Marta Gidaszewska and Robert Łaguniak, currently performing under the name Polish Violin Duo. The regulations, the framework schedule of the competition, application forms, information about the repertoire, composers and sheet music as well as all the news about the event are available on the website: https://konkursmuzykipolskiej.pl/en/