On 12 September, we invite you to a gala concert inaugurating the new artistic season 2025/2026.
The first part of the evening will feature L. van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, ‘Eroica’ – a work of groundbreaking, epoch-making significance. It is music with a strong emotional charge, encouraging the listener to explore its inner poetic idea, designed to evoke certain emotional states, and extremely demanding in terms of performance. Initially, the work was dedicated to Napoleon, but when he proclaimed himself ‘emperor’, the composer, in anger, changed the subtitle to a more general one: Heroic Symphony, composed to commemorate the memory of a great man.
After the interval, you will hear Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 – a work far ahead of its time, now recognised as exceptional and of enduring value. This work breaks with the traditionally understood concert style and actually presents the characteristics of a symphony with a participating solo instrument. Its monumental and pathetic character was influenced by two important experiences of the composer: his first encounter with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the failed suicide attempt of his friend, Robert Schumann.
The concert will feature the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk and world-renowned pianist Szymon Nehring, finalist of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition.
We would like to invite you to this special evening!
Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk
He graduated with honours from the Academy of Music in Katowice, class of conducting under K. Stryja. In 1993, thanks to the scholarship in the American Society for Polish Music, he was perfecting his conducting skills in Los Angeles. In the period 1984–1986 he conducted an ensemble of musicians from the Katowice-based Great Symphonic Orchestra of the Polish Radio and Television during the festivals “Warsaw Autumn” and “Silesian Days of Contemporary Music.” In 1986 he became Artistic Director of the National Symphonic Orchestra in Zabrze, and in 1990—General and Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic in Białystok, with which he went for a tour around USA (1995, including the Carnegie Hall in New York). For two seasons he was General and Artistic Director of the Poznań Philharmonic (1996). In the period 1998–2013 he was Artistic Director, and from 2013 General Director of the Henryk Mikołaj Górecki Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice. Since 1999 he is Artistic Director and a juror of the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors in Katowice. Since 2017 he is also Artistic Director of Polish Orchestra “Sinfonia Iuventus.” In the period 1999–2002 he was the main conductor of the International Piano Competition in Porto (Portugal), and in 2003—a juror and conductor at the International Piano Competition in Morocco. Two years later he was appointed Artistic Director at the 2nd International Violin Competition in Toruń, and then again in 2013; while in 2013 and 2016 he was also its juror. In 2011 he took the position of the chairman of the jury of the 8th Witold Lutosławski International Cello Competition in Warsaw, in 2016 he was the chairman of the jury of the 6th Witold Lutosławski National Competition for Young Conductors in Białystok. He performs on all stages in Poland, the National Philharmonic in the lead, and abroad (e.g. in Albania, Austria, Belarus, Canada, China, Czechia, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Ukraine and the USA). He has recorded several dozen albums with the ensembles of the Silesian Philharmonic. The last one—“Górecki. Mikołaj / Henryk Mikołaj” (DUX 0924) was nominated to the Fryderyk 2013 Award. He has also conducted numerous premieres. Silesian philharmonic musicians under his baton weere the first in Poland to perform H.M. Górecki’s Symphony No. 4 “Tansman. Epizody” closing the cycle of the world premieres of the work (2014/2015 London—Los Angeles—Amsterdam—Łódź/Katowice). That performance, being the second in the world, was published as a CD in 2016. In 2017 H.M. Górecki’s Symphony No. 2 “Copernican” under his baton was published. The album: P. Łukaszewski’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 6 conducted by Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk received the 2022 Fryderyk Award in the Symphonic Music Album of the Year category. For promoting Polish music, with special attention paid to the contemporary music, and for the achievements of the Silesian Philharmonic under his baton, he has been honoured with the Award of the Mayor of Katowice in the field of culture. Similar award he’s received from the Mayor of Rybnik. He is the director of the Symphonic-Orchestral Conducting department at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. August 7, 2012 the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, granted the artist with the title of the Professor of Musical Arts. Since 2017 he is the Artistic Director and First Conductor at the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 2022, he received the ‘Silesian Emerald’ award from the Diocese of Katowice of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland for his outstanding achievements in the field of ecumenism, tolerance, reconciliation between nations, commitment to serving others, and contribution to contemporary European integration processes.
SZYMON NEHRING
He is one of the most talented and promising pianists of the young generation in Poland. The artist is the only Pole to have won first prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. At the age of 19, he was also a finalist at the International F. Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
He performs with orchestras such as Sinfonia Varsovia, the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, the National Forum of Music Orchestra in Wrocław, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Symphoniker Hamburg, Orchester Philharmonique de Marseille and Orchestre Paseloup in France, and the Orchestra of the 18th Century. He has collaborated with conductors such as John Axelrod, Łukasz Borowicz, Sylvain Cambreling, Karina Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marzena Diakun, Lawrence Foster, Giancarlo Guerrero, Jacek Kaspszyk, Grzegorz Nowak, Pawel Przytocki, George Tchitchinadze, David Zinman, Omer Meir Wellber, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
Szymon Nehring has performed at Carnegie Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Konzerthaus in Berlin, DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Musikverein in Vienna, and Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal in Munich.
The artist has released several albums to date, both solo and with orchestra. Among the recordings are Fryderyk Chopin’s piano concerts conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki. Two new releases are planned for the 2024/2025 season – the first will focus on minimalism in music, while the second will be the first part of a series of recordings of Chopin’s works for the F. Chopin Institute in Warsaw. In the near future, the pianist will perform at Bozar in Brussels, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and La Seine Musicale in Paris. A tour of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with him under the baton of Marin Alsop is also planned.
Szymon Nehring was initially a student at the Mieczysław Karłowicz Primary Music School in Krakow (2002–2008), and then at the Fryderyk Chopin Secondary Music School in Krakow (2008–2014), which he graduated from with honours, studying piano with Olga Łazarska, MA. He then studied at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz in the class of Prof. Stefan Wojtas and, between 2017 and 2019, at Yale University in New Haven with Prof. Boris Berman. Since 2020, he has been a doctoral student at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz in the class of Prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń.
In 2015, he was awarded the Krystian Zimerman scholarship.