As a matter of fact, such concerts make no claim to lengthy notes. An attempt to define the repertoire, its profile, selection, and variety would be akin to predicting the future, which would be a vain endeavour. And more than ten months before the end of the academic year it seems simply impossible. Whatever the case, the idea behind the concert is summed up in its very title. This suffices to show us how an invitation to the hospitable premises of the Warsaw Philharmonic is a kind of ennoblement and a reward, a distinction for the best graduates of a university that can boast a whole host of alumni that have gone on to be world-famous artists. After all, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music is “Poland’s oldest and largest music university”. The University authorities feel the weight of responsibility that rests on their shoulders – on the official website of the institution they clearly emphasise that they also take responsibility for the future of their graduates. A concert of this kind, organised in collaboration with the most important musical institutions in the country, is the best testimony to this.
Last season, instrumentalists and singers, representatives of the largest faculties of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, performed at the Warsaw Philharmonic. The Department of Instrumental Studies has approximately 450 students. It is from its graduates that the heirs to the current ensembles of the Warsaw Philharmonic will be recruited. The Department of Vocal and Acting Studies inevitably focuses on collaboration with musical theatres and the National Opera, although the wide variety of vocal and vocal-instrumental music successfully encompasses all genres that can be heard in the Chamber Music and Concert Halls of the Warsaw Philharmonic. The dozen or so people who will have the chance to take part in the graduates’ concert will certainly include this fact in their official bios. After all, it is a very meaningful caesura – on the one hand, it symbolises the end of their lives as students, while on the other, it marks a rite of passage to a mature professional path, with all its real and serious challenges. Let us hope that these challenges – ones that are key to their future success – turn out to be truly positive experiences. After all, this is a solemn moment in their lives – it is worth spicing it up with a smidgeon of optimism.