Solidarity of Arts 2011
Watch Marcus+ this New Year's Eve on Polish Canal+ HD @ 3:05 am CET. If you are actually celebrating New Year's in Poland, please take the above broadcast time under careful consideration and behave accordingly. This is in order to last until 3:05 am and beyond!!!
Angélique Kidjo, Marcus Miller. Photo: Piotr Manasterski
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Watch Marcus+ on Tuesday, 4 October 2011 on Polish Canal+ HD @ 3:30 CET. Don't miss it!
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Dive in. And do leave the speakers on. Courtesy of Dariusz Kula.
Polish Baltic Philharmonic, 20 August 2011. Photo: Dariusz Kula.
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A bundle of new exquisite photographs covering the Marcus+ project. Click the below photograph to enter.
Briefing with Angélique. Polish Baltic Philharmonic, 19 August 2011. Photo: Dariusz Kula.
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A fitting finale to an amazing three weeks in Gdańsk. La Révolte des Orgues turned out as good (or better) than advertised. Have a look at concert photographs courtesy of Piotr Manasterski.
Organists salute the sold out Polish Baltic Philharmonic. Photo: Piotr Manasterski
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It is the organ music's champions league final. The magnitude of this concert cannot be exaggerated. On 2 September 2011 at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk the third edition of our festival will come to an end. Naturally, with a bang. It is only fitting to finish a hugely succesful Solidarity of Arts 2011 with Jean Guillou's La Révolte des Orgues!
poster design by Headmade.
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24 August 2011: another full house at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic. It can now be confirmed: I, CULTURE are ready to take on Europe this autumn! Please have a look at show photographs by Piotr Manasterski.
Farid Feyzullayev and Rovshan Amrakhov of Azerbaijan sharing a laugh minutes ahead of I, CULTURE's World Premiere. Photo: Piotr Manasterski.
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Our festival's next thrill is coming to the Polish Baltic Philharmonic this Wednesday, 24 August 2011, 7 pm sharp. An obvious, yet awfully important information for the accredited reporters: no flash is allowed when taking pictures. Furthermore, please keep reasonable distance from the musicians and make sure to steer clear of the video cameras recording the concert (TV Gdańsk are the only ones allowed to capture video footage on the night). Solidarity of Arts is proud to make history with the World Premiere of the I, CULTURE Orchestra, an extraordinary project by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute!
poster design by Headmade.
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Click the below image for a sound-rich concert panorama by Dariusz Kula.
Photo and panorama courtesy of Dariusz Kula
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Meryl Streep is an actress. Michael Jordan was a basketball player. Yesterday's concert was great. These statements are true, yet scandalous due to their insolent incompleteness. Do have a look at several photographs of an amazing evening. Gallery by Piotr Manasterski.
Marcus Miller, Edmar Castaneda. Photo: Piotr Manasterski
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Gdańsk, 19 August 2011. The deeper you go into the below photograph, the closer you get to Poland's biggest jazz show of the year. We are only 12 hours away from take-off!
Photo: Dariusz Kula
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12 hours, we're this close. Another excellent batch of rehearsal photographs here.
Marcus Miller and Louis Cato, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, 19 August 2011, photo: Dariusz Kula
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Attention. The below drawing illustrates the Marcus+ car-free area. Notice the three red rectangles: these are the stages of Saturday's show, so this is where you want to be come Saturday afternoon. Red stars indicate streets that are illuminated at night. If you need a broader context, please click the second (google) map below.
Please see below to see the actual concert site on photographs.
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Marek Napiórkowski, Marcus Miller, Angélique Kidjo and Sean Jones, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, 19 August 2011.
Photo: Piotr Manasterski
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Rehearsal photographs, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, 18 August 2011. Courtesy of Dariusz Kula
Photo: Dariusz Kula
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Morning of August 18th 2011. Marcus' spaceship 60+ hours before take-off. Photo: Solidarity of Arts
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Marcus+ stages set up, evening of August 16th 2011.
By no stretch...
...of the imagination is this one going to be a walk in the park! Photo: Piotr Manasterski
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This was the first of four huge occasions of this year's Solidarity of Arts. World Orchestra by Grzech Piotrowski gave a magnificent performance at the sell-out Polish Baltic Philharmonic, a performance that has turned not-knowers into believers. Our photographer, despite being heavily struck by the virtuosity of Grzech's special guests, has managed to take several photographs.
Espen Leite Skarpengland, photo: Piotr Manasterski
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Marcus+ breaking news: Kenn Hicks is joining Saturday concert's star-studded line up! Kenn, internationally acclaimed and award winning tenor, returns to Poland for his 3rd time after being the recipient of The Silver Medal of Excellence for his Rossini performance at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in 1992. From Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition finalist to opera and concert stages around the world, Hicks heralds enormous successes as artist. He is a TV personality and vocal coach to some of the biggest stars in the music industry. We look forward to Kenn's performance of Ottorino Respighi's Nebbie, arranged by Marcus Miller and Kenn Hicks!
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It is on. Not all official openings are as warm and pomp-free as the Solidarity of Arts 2011 one. Just have a look at the below photograph. It features, among others, the winners of this year's Neptune awards, which are annual outstanding lifetime achievement recognitions for Polish and foreign artists who are dear to Gdańsk, on mutual terms. Did you know that Andrzej Wajda's wife, Krystyna Zachwatowicz, is a brilliant actress and stage designer herself? Well, she is. She has won a Neptune this year and can be seen below sitting and smiling. What about the man who created the world-famous Solidarność logo? He has won one as well: he is standing third from right, right between two fantastic actresses Magdalena Cielecka and Dorota Kolak. Then there is the third winner, film director Antoni Krauze, third from left. Some of his films waited years to see daylight during the communist day censorship. Eventually however they won him international recognition and, in a way, contributed to the fall of the old system in 1989.
Read more about Neptune awards here. Have a look at this year's event pictures here.
Paweł Adamowicz, president of the city of Gdańsk (first on the left), together with the Marshall of the Pomorskie Voivodeship Mieczysław Struk (first on the right) would like to welcome everyone to the 2011 Solidarity of Arts festival!
Photo: Piotr Manasterski
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The first handprint ceremony of the festival (it took place right before its official opening) was an event easy both on the eyes and the ears. The former because the occasion saw three remarkable artists (see the note above) in a cool – if emotional – moment of leaving their prints in the Gdańsk's Alley of the Stars. The latter because of the performance by an exquisite brass band of the I, CULTURE Orchestra, whose exciting World Premiere at the Solidarity of Art festival is scheduled for 24 August 2011. They played under London Symphony Orchestra's principal trumpeter Rod Franks, a former Leeds United player (1969-1971). Do have a look at this article to find out more about Rod Franks. It was clear the musicians love their conductor. Or else they were extremely good actors.
Speaking of the musicians: not only have they played the right way, they also looked like they were having fun. They thus deserve full name credits on this page. Ladies and gentlemen, the young and talented:
Dzmitry Kastsiushka - trumpet (Belarus)
Viaceslav Bilia - trumpet (Moldova)
Kamil Barciok - trumpet (Poland)
Dorota Cholewa - trumpet (Poland)
Mykhailo Golovin - trumpet (Ukraine)
Paulina Chudzyńska - French horn (Poland)
Ivan Kravchenko - French horn (Ukraine)
Mateusz Dudek - tuba (Poland)
Krzysztof Mucha - tuba (Poland)
Łukasz Ostrowski - trombone (Poland)
Marcin Wołowiec - trombone (Poland)
Dawid Klahs - trombone (Poland)
Rafał Krauze - trombone (Poland)
Aleksandra Wasik - percussion (Poland)
Photo: Piotr Manasterski
It is scary to think how good the entire I, CULTURE Orchestra will sound come 24th. Meanwhile the second handprint ceremony of the festival is taking place on 20 August 2011, just ahead of the Marcus+ show. Make sure you don't miss Trilok Gurtu and Angéligue Kidjo leave their mark on the Alley just ahead of leaving their (maybe even more permanent) mark on Poland's biggest jazz event of the year!
Read more about the Alley of the Stars here. Have a look at this year's event pictures here.
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To start off, the extraordinary World Orchestra by Grzech Piotrowski:
poster design by Headmade.
Be there if you can. We look forward to welcoming you in Gdańsk!