Make sure to check out some of the key festivals happening in the city of Krakow over the next few months. And if you’re staying at Hilton Garden Inn Krakow, you’ll also get access to tickets at reduced prices. So don’t miss out and book your stay below!
Festivals are deep-rooted into Krakow – cultural and tourist centre of Poland. The city’s official and largest festival organisation, Krakow Festival Bureau, hosts over 100 festivals each year. In partnership with the Krakow Festival Bureau we are offering all customers staying at Hilton Garden Inn Krakow access to tickets at reduced prices for the following key festivals taking place in the city of Krakow over the next few months. Most of the events will take place in the ICE Congress Centre within a short walk from the hotel. Enjoy!
SACRUM PROFANUM
Sacrum Profanum is a festival which creates an opportunity to get to know, but also to experience the most significant phenomena of contemporary music. This year, the 16th edition of the Festival will take place between 11-17 September. The programme is composed of the works of the representatives of 11 countries: from Poland and Europe to the USA, Japan and Australia.
Sacrum Profanum is the only festival in Krakow at which you can hear unique instruments such as double trumpet, take part in intriguing concert performances or watch the shows dedicated to children under 3.
Festival curator Krzysztof Pietraszewski recommends the following concerts in particular:
The Shape of Jazz to Come – 15.09.2018 // 05:00 p.m.
ICE Kraków Congress Centre| Chamber Hall S3 ul. Marii Konopnickiej 17
My Funny Valentine (1937), Strange Fruit (1939), Cry me a River (1953) and many more compositions interpreted by the Zeitkratzer band and Mariam Wallentin. They will deliver bold interpretations of jazz standards written in the first decades of this genre’s existence. Musicians focus on the sound and texture, translating well known pieces into the language of amplified instruments. It constitutes a radical approach of the world of new music to traditional jazz.
Antagonisms –15.09.2018 // 08:00 p.m.
ICE Kraków Congress Centre | Auditorium Hall S1 ul. Marii Konopnickiej 17
The music by John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Michael Wertmüller and many others performed by Peter Brötzmann, Lucas Niggli and Ensemble Musikfabrik. In the composition antagonisme contrôlé, written especially for Peter Brötzmann and his full blast, Michael Wertmüller conducts an effective and fascinating dialogue between a veteran of free impro and a band. We shall also have a chance to hear pieces commissioned by Musikfabrik for the purpose of emphasizing their character – an ensemble of soloists and the virtuosity of each member. A real feast for the lovers of free impro and new music!
The Otheroom – 16.09.2018 // 04:00 p.m.
Małopolska Garden of Art, ul. Rajska 12
The musical theatre performance The Otheroom (2016) with the music of Rolf Wallin performed by Double bell quartet of Ensemble Musikfabrik. The Otheroom is a ritual – the audience enters a place where something significant happens, yet unaware of its purpose. Everything is in motion – objects, musicians, dancers, but also the audience, whose direct participation and involvement are indispensable to carry out the ritual. Such form of presenting music, not relying on the static reception of the seated audience is a magnificent alternative for traditional structure – stage/audience.
$półdzielnia 16.09.2018 // 05:30 p.m.
Museum of Municipal Engineering, ul. św. Wawrzyńca 15
The most promising young composers from Poland, including Piotr Peszat, Teoniki Rożynek, Mikołaj Laskowski, Marta Śniady [and their music] performed by Spółdzielnia Muzyczna. Project $półdzielnia aims at breaking a taboo by speaking openly about money in art. The composers shall reflect more generally on capitalism, commerce or the consumer society. In between the pieces of music the commercial breaks will be shown, simulating the experience of using free streaming services which can interrupt any kind of music without any hesitation.
KANTATA POLSKA
Charming and filled with love, yet, at the same time, noble and solemn – this is what Kantata Polska by Piotr Rubik and Zbigniew Książek will be like. With the help of some well known songs, as well as the works found somewhere among poems, the authors will, with the use of music, present Poland at the moment of regaining independence. Musical performance premiere will take place in Krakow on 11 October at 07.00 p.m. In the ICE Kraków Congress Centre the music will be performed by The Lower Silesia Philharmonic Orchestra in Jelenia Góra and the Academic Choir of the Silesian University of Technology conducted by Alan Urbanek.
Jakub Wieczorek, the narrator, will play the roles of the main characters of the 1920s, e.g. Józef Piłsudski, Ignacy Paderewski, Wincenty Witos, Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Mościcki. His task will be to interprete fragments of letters written by the leaders to their wives and friends, in order to remind us that they too were people of flesh and bones. Despite the hardships of those years and the fight for an independent Poland, they also experienced love, dilemmas, had their private lives and families. Hence such moving pieces like Miłości cud (Wonder of love), Fruwając po chmurach (Flying in the clouds), Czterolistna miłość (Four-leaf love), and also songs filled with longing for the homeland based on the poems, e.g. by Virgil To moja miłość, to moja ojczyzna (This is my love, this is my homeland).
Turbulent, but still our own. Such history – of regaining independence by Poland – shall be presented in ICE Kraków on 11th October at 07.00 p.m. Let’s see this great premiere performance together.
TATRA
The event held in ICE Kraków will be the first concert of Paweł Kaczmarczyk to promote his upcoming album entitled Kaczmarczyk vs Paderewski – „Tatra”. The record will be released in November
and will present six pieces, whose source of inspiration is „Album Tatrzańskie” by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. In 1884 this great artist and statesman reinterpreted Highlanders’ songs, and 134 years later his music will be „translated” into Paweł Kaczmarczyk’s language of music by combining folk, classical and jazz music.
On the stage, apart from Paweł Kaczmarczyk himself at the piano, we will also see Michał Barański (double bass), Tomasz Torres (percussion), Mr. Krime at turntables and the Beethoven Academy Orchestra – one of the leading Polish symphonic ensembles of the young generation. It will be a huge musical performance!
„Tatra” will be my sixth album, but the first to be recorded with such a panache. – says Paweł Kaczmarczyk. We are planning to take this panache onto the ICE Kraków stage, in order to move the audience as much as possible. I am convinced that this concert will give many listeners the opportunity to look at both Highlanders’ songs, and Paderewski himself from a different perspective.
Kaczmarczyk is a Cracovian pianist and composer, who has already been nominated twice to the Fryderyk Award, „Gazeta Wyborcza” Award, „Trójka” Award and numerous titles of Artist of the Year and Record of the Year. He regularly performs all over the world, his surname being frequently referred to by the foreign media. He does not like to pigeonhole music, since his music is supposed to escape clear designations.
