Concert of Christmas Carols Filharmonia Narodowa

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It is a beautiful and long-standing tradition of the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir in the pre-Christmas period to invite music lovers to a concert of Christmas carols and songs based on the best arrangements in the repertoire. The audience will hear both well-known works as well as those less frequently performed. Poland boasts an immense treasure trove of hundreds of Christmas carols composed over the course of half a millennium. One of the first individuals to collect and research them was Rev. Michał Mioduszewski, the author of the very important and ground-breaking collection Pastorałki i kolędy z melodiami (1843); numerous carol melodies and words were also written down by Oskar Kolberg, Zygmunt Gloger and Aleksander Brückner, among others, as well as by Rev. Jan Siedlecki, who collected and edited the Śpiewnik kościelny (1878), which is the foundation for many choral and solo arrangements to this day.

The concert programme will be complemented by other masterpieces of choral music, which in their mood reflect both the solemn and joyous sides of the Christmas spirit.

The Warsaw Philharmonic Strategic Patron of the Year – PKO Bank Polski – warmly welcomes you to join us in this concert
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Jakub Pankowiak

A graduate of the Academy of Music in Poznań, where he studied in the organ class of Sławomir Kamiński (diploma with distinction), whose assistant he has been since 2008. He also studied at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music under the tutelage of Magdalena Czajka, and the Musikhochschule Lübeck with Arvid Gast (as part of the Socrates and Erasmus programmes in 2009). He has honing his skills at national and international master classes run by such artists as Susan Landale, Michael Radulescu, Ton Koopman, Harald Vogel, Bine Katrine Bryndorf, Renata Marcinkutė-Lesieur, Éric Lebrun, and Martin Haselböck.

Jakub Pankowiak is a prize-winner of a number of organ competitions in Poland and abroad, including the International Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Competition in Vilnius (Third Prize and a special prize for the best performance of J.S. Bach’s works, 2011), the Polish Organ Competition of Performance of Buxtehude’s Works in Krakow (First Prize, 2008), the International Organ Competition in Opava (an honorary mention, 2006), the Competition of Polish Organ Music in Legnica (First Prize, 2006), Feliks Nowowiejski International Organ Competition in Poznań (Fourth Prize and a prize for the youngest finalist, 2005), the Organ Music Competition as part of the International Rev. Stanisław Ormiński Religious Music Competition in Rumia (Second Prize, 2004), he was also the holder of a scholarship from the Mayor of Poznań (2010). In 2017, he was honoured with a Decoration for Merit to Polish Culture from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

Since 2005, Jakub Pankowiak has collaborated as a musician-organist with the Poznań Boys’ Choir (director Jacek Sykulski). The artist also participated in the recording of the Boże Narodzenie – Weihnachten album with the Poznań Boys’ Choir (Ponte, 2005).

 

[2021]