News - NOSPR

We are proud to announce the 2021/2022 season programme. Sacred Traditions and New Ways

The nine months to come will see Katowice host such performers as Daniel Barenboim, Bomsori Kim, Grigorij Sokołow and Philippe Herreweghe. This year’s NOSPR programme, however, is not only a galaxy of the brightest stars – it is also a daring answer to the changes underway in the world of music.

This year, the three flagship series of NOSPR subscription concerts, reach for the greatest works of the symphonic repertoire. The inaugural concert will feature Beethoven'sSymphony No. 9, with Andrzej Lampert and Szymon Komasa as soloists. The programme of the season, designed in collaboration with Lawrence Foster, will also feature such masterpieces as Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Leningrad; Gustav Mahler'sSymphony No. 7 in E minor, as well as symphonies by Bruckner, Mendelssohn and Mozarta.

The most prominent soloists to perform with the orchestra are the violinists – Pinchas Zuckerman, Bomsori Kim and Linus Roth, to mention but a few. The company of guest conductors to lead the orchestra in the coming months is also a most inspiring one. We are happy to announce more frequent appearances from Lawrence Foster, who was not able to conduct all the concerts as planned last year due to the pandemic. The conductor’s podium will also often be occupied by NOSPR’s principal guest conductor Domingo Hindoyan, one of the pieces we will hear in his interpretation being Rossini’s Stabat Mater (10.12.2021).

What is particularly noteworthy is the diversity of conductors invited – in addition to such experienced artists of established renown as Pinchas Steinberg and Simone Young, we are going to see multiple young conductors taking global stages by storm. Among the latter, one can surely mention Angus Webster – a 22-year-old student of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s, as well as Rebecca Tong and Lina Gonzales-Granados – laureates of the prestigious „La Maestra” competition in Paris. They are not the only women conductors – others are the Estonian Anu Tali and Marta Gardolińska. Ewa Bogusz-Moore, NOSPR’s general and programme director, says:

Only 6 out of 100 guest conductors in European concert halls are women. This would not surprise anyone as recently as 15 years ago. Today, however, such a situation is difficult to comprehend, as we have many truly excellent women conductors in the musical market. They are artists who introduce much-needed diversity to the world of music, which we want to show you at NOSPR.

The sound of history, sounds of the world

Posters for the subscription concerts will not be the only star-studded ones. One of the most anticipated events of the season will be the special concert celebrating Lawrence Foster’s 80th birthday featuring Daniel Barenboim as a soloist (23.10.2021). The Early Music series of concerts will feature such ensembles as Les Arts Florissants (23.01.2022) and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the latter of the French groups to be conducted by Philippe Herreweghe and joined by the singers of the Collegium Vocale Gent in a performance of Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives oratorio (18.03.2022). The Gabrieli Consort ensemble conducted by Paul McCreesh are going to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their foundation and the 30th anniversary of recording „Venetian Coronation”, one of the most significant albums in the current of historically informed performance. However, early music aficionados will not be the only ones to enjoy live performances from the best ensembles from the world over – others to perform at NOSPR this season are the Paris Mozart Orchestra (8.03.2022), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (9.04.2022), and the Brazilian NEOJIBA Orchestra (3.04.2022), modelled on the famous „El Sistema” social musical education project. The landscape of world music will be completed by the KODO Japanese drumming band (4.02.2022). Their concert had originally been scheduled to take place in 2020 and enjoyed immense interest from the audience, but had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

The JazzKLUB series of concerts is also bound to boast unusual diversity. We will see such legends of the genre as Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, yet the series is going to feature first and foremost such artists of contemporary, progressive jazz stage as Jaimie Branch, Collocutor, Moon Hoax and O.N.E Quintet.

Rising Stars

The NOSPR hall in Katowice is going to be one of the first stops on this year’s Chopin Competition winner’s triumphal tour. This autumn, we are going to see as many as four of the competition’s laureates in the Masterfully series. The remaining concerts of the series are also going to be filled with piano music – with solo recitals from Grigory Sokolov (16.03.2022), Garrick Ohlsson (3.12.2021) and Piotr Orzechowski „Pianohooligan” (13.03.2022).

This season will also be the first for NOSPR to host the Echo Rising Stars programme laureates. They are outstanding young artists whose potential has been recognised by directors of the most important concert halls in Europe, associated in the European Concert Hall Organisation. Participation in the programme includes performances in ECHO-associated concert halls, thus granting the participants an introduction to international career they once only dreamt of. This year, the programme’s selection focused on chamber music ensembles, often ones of quite unusual composition. In addition to the Simply Quartet string quartet and a violin-piano duo, we are going to hear the Keybart Ensemble saxophone quartet and a lute-recorder duo. The ECHO Rising Stars concert series repertoire includes a wide range of pieces from different eras and new compositions, created by leading European composers especially for the participants of the programme.

The very best of Silesian tradition

As they do every year, NOSPR’s ensembles-in-residence have prepared their own concert series as well. The Silesian String Quartet have dedicated their six concerts to the „Stalowa Wola generation” – a group of composers including Eugeniusz Knapik and Aleksander Lasoń. Since their debut at the Stalowa Wola festival at the end of the 70s, they have exerted exceptional influence on the musical landscape of Silesia until the present day. Composers of this generation will also be present in performances from Camerata Silesia, The Katowice City Singers' Ensemble. The Orkiestra Muzyki Nowej continues its search for new works of art and discovery of artists who change the history of music. One of the noteworthy premieres to take place this season is that of Prasqual’s new composition Rozmowy o miłości, to be heard on 8th May. The AUKSO orchestra from Tychy seeks new sounds in other regions, welcoming collaborations with jazz and alternative musicians, such as Krzysztof Herdzin, L.U.C and Dominik Wania.

• From 16th August you can renew your NOSPR concerts subscription. It is also from then on that subscribers will be able to preorder their tickets for all the concerts of the season.
• You can join the company and buy a new subscription as early as on 7th September.
• Open sale of tickets for the 2021/2022 season concerts will start on 14th September.

The complete programme can be found here.