ORCHESTRA OF NEW MUSIC

The Orchestra of New Music is a group of chamber musicians performing pieces by modern composers. It was founded in 1996 at the Karol Szymanowski Musical Academy in Katowice at the initiative of a renown composer, Professor Alesander Lasoń aimed at propagation of the 20th century classics and promotion of the works written by contemporary composers. The mission of the Orchestra is to bridge the gap between the composer and the recipient of music that formed in the 20th century. The Orchestra meets its artistic goals by presenting masterpieces of the contemporary music exquisitely performed in an interesting stage setting.

MUSICIANS

The core of the Orchestra includes 18 musicians of the Akademos Quartet, The Silesian Quartet and the lecturers and graduates of the Karol Szymanowski Musical Academy in Katowice. The Orchestra plays under conduction of Professor Aleksander Lason and Szymon Bywalec, a talented conductor representing the young generation.

REPERTOIRE

The Orchestra's repertoire includes a number of world and Polish premieres of pieces, a part of which has been written especially for the Orchestra itself. Apart from the most contemporary music, the Orchestra also plays classical pieces of the 20th century as well as earlier epochs.

CONCERTS

Ever since the Orchestra of New Music was established, it has started playing concerts quickly to gain a very good opinion in the Polish and European music community. This resulted in invitations to renown music festivals in Poland, such as The Warsaw Autumn (Warszawska Jesien), Musica Polonica Nova in Wroclaw, The International Days of Music by Cracow Composers (Międzynarodowe Dni Muzyki Kompozytorow Krakowskich), The Silesian Days of Contemporary Music (Sląskie Dni Muzyki Wspolczesnej). The Orchestra also participated in foreign festivals: New Music Marathon in Prague and Melos-Ethos in Bratislava.

PROJECTS

Since 2001 the Orchestra of New Music has hosted the Festival of New Music (Festiwal Muzyki Nowej) in Bytom and since 2002 it has been part of the project Fdrderpreise fur Polen carried out in support of the creativity of the young generation of Polish composers funded by Ernst von Siemens Muslkstiftung. In 2003, under the aegis of the Silesian Society of Music, the Orchestra started an educational cycle of concerts entitled the Alchemy of the New Music (Alchemia Muzyki Nowej) in Bytom.

RECORDINGS

The Orchestra of New Music has recorded a number of pieces by contemporary Polish composers for the Polish Radio. One of the pieces, by Jerzy Kartowicz, entitled Figury w oplocie and conducted by Aleksander Lason was awarded an appreciation prize of the International Tribune of Composers in Amsterdam in 2000. In 2003, Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne and DUX released a CD album with pieces by B. Szabelski, H. M. Gorecki, E. Knapik, A. Lason and M. Chyrzynski. The album was nominated for the prize Fryderyk 2003 in the category of the Album of the Year -contemporary music.