Walks, operas and co-opera-tions

Little Warsaw Autumn is now a teenager. She is focused on herself but also constantly reflecting, trying to keep an eye – or rather an ear—on her surroundings. And even though she often seems not to see, she hears everything. He sees the connections between the sounds of nature, culture and civilisation. She is aware of the richness layers of sound in the world around her. Sometimes, this sound environment makes her tired or even depressed and causes her to reflect more deeply on the future. Above all, she is sensitive and alert, especially to invisible sounds, structures and layers. She is becoming increasingly tired of the acoustics of Polish schools, so she will take every moment to leave the tiresome noise classrooms and school corridors and go out into parks, urban gardens and squares to search for other sources of sound and inspiration—or silence. Perhaps the sources of music and a musical story that can become the basis for a libretto. The libretto of an opera? Little WA is a (somewhat rebellious) teenager, so why not the libretto of a walk?

She will show sensitivity and vigilance, listening carefully to the surroundings of the sound world: not just one setting but many different ones; not just to the sounds of the familiar world, intertwined sometimes with silence, sometimes with noise, too often with chaotic reverberation and occasionally with a bang. She will be listening to the stories hidden in the history, structure and contemporaneity of the city with its green and concrete places; to the absurdities of the contemporary soundscape. In its vigilance and reflection, she will also implement auditory perception devoid of vision, focusing almost exclusively on auditory, olfactory, and tactile stimuli and on kinesthesia. She will go a few steps further, up to hypersensitivity to sounds and other stimuli that often characterise the perception of highly sensitive people and those on the autism spectrum.

This year’s Little Autumn became big almost overnight. While in the years of its “infancy” it offered 6–8 events, in its 14th edition it will feature as many as 24 events, including thirteen with the active participation of children and teenage coauthors. This is also its idea and goal: to actively and repeatedly involve children in creative activities related to contemporary music. Thanks to the creative presence of children and teenagers, we can thus proudly say that this year’s Little Warsaw Autumn sees the contribution of around 300 artists, coauthors and cocreators young and old (including around 200 children). What is also unique about this edition is that, without exception, all the works presented within Little Warsaw Autumn are world premieres: 14 in total (exactly as many editions as of our “little” contemporary music festival). We will therefore feature premiere works by Jarosław Siwiński, Rafał Ryterski, Aleksandra Bilińska, Jerzy Kornowicz, Barbara Zach, Olga Pasek, Przemysław Pacek, Wojciech Błażejczyk, Ignacy Zalewski, Krzysztof Cybulski, Agnieszka Widlarz, Lena Michajłów, Anna Jędrzejewska, Patrycja Kołodziejska and Włodzimierz Żukowski. Performers will include Joanna Freszel, NeoQuartet, Hashtag Ensemble, Michał Slawecki, Bartek Wąsik, Piotr Nowicki, Paweł Nowicki, Sean Palmer.

Why opera? Because it takes the work (the original meaning of the word 'opera') and treats it as the result of an operation. Work, resulting from action or preferably joint action: cooperation. Stage opera is the result of a synthesis of arts. And what about contemporary opera? Shouldn’t it be the result of a synthesis of contemporary elements? An amalgamation of the thoughts and actions of all the generations representing contemporaneity? You want a work (an opera? a truly contemporary opera?)? Get cooperative. Collaborate. Look for new collaborations, partnerships and connections. And I want to say to us adults: collaborate with children and young people if you want to create a truly accessible work for children and young people! They want to be active and creative.

For this reason, the three complex “works” that make up the 14th Little Warsaw Autumn festival are governed by one principle: the participation in the creative process of people representing different backgrounds. People with visual impairments (binaural opera), people on the autism spectrum (ecopera), children and young people from primary schools under the supervision of teachers (space®opera). It also tries to incorporate Artificial Intelligence in this process, and ultimately—as we find out throughout this collaboration—perhaps even generates Collective Intelligence (Collective IQ)?

All that should help to understand and communicate with these worlds is: empathy, respect, vigilance, tenderness, listening, dialogue, mental effort and striving to understanding. And this is what the fourteen-year-old Little Warsaw Autumn will try to 'demonstrate' this year.

The partners of this year’s Little Warsaw Autumn are: Stefan Żeromski Primary School no. 28, Giuseppe Garibaldi Primary School no. 29, Little Insurrectionist Primary School no. 32, Peasant Battalions Primary School no. 109, Stefan Starzyński Primary School no. 143, Gen. Mariusz Zaruski Primary School no. 231, Warsaw Uprising Primary School no. 344, Maria Curie-Skłodowska Primary School no. 400, Władysław Broniewski Youth Cultural Centre Łazienkowska, Wiktorska Harp Open, Guliwer Puppet Theatre, Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Space, Warsaw Chamber Opera, National Library.

Anna Kierkosz
programme curator of 14th “Little Warsaw Autumn” Festival of Contemporary Music for Children