The Music in Old Cracow International Festival, which first took place in 1975, has since been held annually from mid till end of August. Its co-organizer and artistic manager is Stanislaw Galonski, the founder and head of the twenty-year-old oratorio and cantata ensemble Capella Cracoviensis.
The Festival is presently one of the oldest and most important music projects not only in Cracow but also in Poland. Its main purpose is to fill the summer holidays gap in Cracow's cultural life and to use music to help the tourists better appreciate the charm of the town's historical buildings. Depending on the kind of music, on each of the seventeen Festival days concerts are played in different historical interiors of churches, museums, in the courtyard of the
Wieliczka Salt Mine, at the
Wawel Royal Castle and at the
Philharmonic. The concert programmes and musicians are selected so as to present the varied culture of Cracow's heritage. Concerts of early music always go hand in hand with performances of more recent or contemporary pieces, and the stars of European and world stages appear side by side with Polish musicians.
So far the Festival has hosted such renowned artists as Henryk Szeryn, Schlomo Mintz, Grigorij Zhyslin, Jordi Savall, Ivan Monighetti, Paul Esswood, Gwedolyn Bradley, Emma Kirkby, Andrzej Hiolski, Fou Tsong, Malcolm Frager, Jeffrey Swann, Christopher Hoogwood, Rafael Puyana, Ida Haendel, Witold Rowicki, and the ensembles: Philharmonia Quartett Berlin, Hilliard Ensemble, Anonymous 4, Borodin Quartet, Europa Galante and many others.
Polish Music Information Center Polish Composers' Union January 2002 updated by: Anna Iwanicka-Nijakowska August 2006 | |
ul. Zwierzyniecka 1
31-103 Kraków
Phone: (+48 12) 421 45 66
Fax: (+48 12) 421 96 60
WWW: www.capellacracoviensis.pl