Beijing, 23.05.2011 - 24.05.2011
On 23rd and 24th May concerts organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute were held at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Two Polish ensembles: the New Music Orchestra (Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej, OMN) and the quintet Lason Ensemble - Mikolov City Chamber Players performed at the prestigious Beijing Modern Music Festival.
OMN was founded in 1996 from among the students of the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice, on the initiative of the composer Aleksander Lason. Its principal goal is the promotion of new music and the classical works of the 20th-century repertoire. The orchestra is now made up of graduates and members of staff of the Music Academy in Katowice.
The idea of "Lason Ensemble" was to create a camerata - group of chamber musicians performing in various configurations, from duo to piano quintet. The members of the ensemble, laureates of many competitions both in Poland and abroad, are bound up with the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music. They work under the honorary patronage of Mikolov City.
On 23rd May in the CCoM's Concert Hall the New Music Orchestra under the leadership of the conductor Szymon Bywalec presented the programme consisting of works of Tristan Murail, George Crumb, contemporary Chinese composers - Jia Daqun and Yu Pengfei, as well as the works of two Polish composers: "Advection" by Jakub Tomasz Opalka and "Latent Image" by Marcin Rupocinski, commissioned by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute especially for this occasion and performed for the first time. The Chinese audience's enthusiastic response prompted the Orchestra to play an encore - a rare event to occur at the contemporary music concerts in China.
On the next day of the Festival, the CCoM's Recital Hall hosted the concert of the quintet Lason Ensemble, equally warmly received by the audience. The artists performed several works of Polish composers: Karol Szymanowski, Grazyna Bacewicz and - for the first time in China - Aleksander Lason.
Date: 23rd - 24th of May, 2011
Venue: Central Conservatory of Music (CCoM)
Organizers: Central Conservatory of Music (CCoM), Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing
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