69th International Festival of Contemporary Music "Warsaw Autumn"
SIGNS
With ‘Signs’ as the theme of this Warsaw Autumn edition, we propose a collective shift of attention: away from the audible and visible surface of its events, and towards their meaning and deep structure.
The aim is to jolt us out of purely musical habits, and to remind us that, as audiences for art, we are immersed in a sea of signs. Some serve as cultural anchors, having taken shape in the deep strata of cultural history; others we create today. There is nothing for it but to try to recognise and read them—to renew their meaning and gauge their relevance, all the more so at a time when we are assailed by information overload and noise. We are bombarded with fake news and caught up in wars waged through traditional and online media alike.
As a counterbalance, alongside works that respond directly to reality, the Festival offers many artistic statements that deliberately stand back from current-affairs commentary—including works marked by humour and a gleeful sending-up of stereotypes. Warsaw Autumn also has room for a music of structures: absolute and abstract; a music that cleanses us of the incessant new doses of information pressing in from every side, and stands as a sign of autonomy and concentrated attention to art’s own material.
Jerzy Kornowicz
Festival Director
SIX FESTIVAL STRANDS
Main programme // Warsaw Autumn Hits the Club / Dagna Sadkowska—curator // Little Warsaw Autumn / Anna Kierkosz—curator // Warsaw Autumn – Contexts // inter-festival strand // fringe events //
AND ALSO
meetings with artists / workshops for young composers / coordinated by Aleksandra Bilińska // Festival Web Radio broadcasts / hosted by Monika Pasiecznik and Tomasz Biernacki //
THEMES AND CONCERNS
Music and signs: sound motifs, words, phonemes, graphic images, gestures, dance, choreography, film, lighting, and spatial design; the individual in relation to the world, the continuing relevance of memory, community, politics, an international cultural perspective, music from neighbouring countries; musical and sonic aesthetics, technologies, intermedia, ideas, and contexts; the artistic grotesque and pure nonsense, structures and abstractions, world premieres and other premieres, Warsaw Autumn commissions and co-commissions, commissions from other organisations, composers, sound artists, artists working in non-musical media, collective practice and co-production, networks of initiatives and collaboration [guest festival: SPOR (Aarhus); Polish Radio’s centenary—world premieres of works commissioned by the broadcaster; a return to the Polish Radio Experimental Studio and the music of Bogusław Schaeffer]; concerts by recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s 2026 Ensemble Prizes; a joint Warsaw Autumn–Ukrainian Institute event; collaboration with festivals in the ULYSSES network; the inter-festival strand at Hashtag Lab [with the participation of PWM Edition and the Korean Cultural Center in Poland]; and fringe events [including events at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw]; curated events, a new opera, orchestral and ensemble concerts, and recitals; performance art, improvisations, staged works, a marathon, music theatre, a radio play, sound art, soundscapes, installations, artistic interventions in the unfolding of events, music as a computer game, participatory forms, privacy and intimacy—Music at Home, musical walks, meetings, conversations, workshops, web-radio broadcasts, an interactive installation on the Festival website, and artists in focus [Trond Reinholdtsen, Annesley Black, Niels Rønsholdt, Kelley Sheehan, and François Sarhan]; venues of markedly different character; events for diverse audiences and several generations of listeners.
IN THE MAIN PROGRAMME
Opening intermedia concert: Krzysztof Knittel, Mateusz Śmigasiewicz, Adam Porębski, Annesley Black / Mia Zabelka—violin, electronics; Hubert Zemler—percussion; Krzysztof Knittel—conducted improvisation, electronics; Adam Porębski—electronics / POLISH NATIONAL RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA IN KATOWICE / Marzena Diakun—conductor //
In Krzysztof Knittel’s work, a study in signs: conducting gestures that set improvisation in motion. In Mateusz Śmigasiewicz’s, references to memory. Both works are Festival commissions and world premieres. In Adam Porębski, an orchestra both present and absent, caught in interweavings of light and sound. In Annesley Black’s work, an immersion in gestures and signs brought forth by the orchestra surrounding the audience.
Annesley Black, photo: Amelie Kahn-Ackermann
Music at Home: John Luther Adams, Leilehua Lanzilotti, John Cage, Jaouen Rudolf, David Lang, Tom Johnson, Stefano Scodanibbio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Georg Philipp Telemann, traditional music of the Kajocy microregion, Joshua Uzoigwe, Ali Osman, John Luther Adams, Michelle Agnes Magalhães, Alexandre Lunsqui, Sergio Krakowski, Zygmunt Krauze, Alvin Lucier, Raven Chacon, Ge Gan-ru, Hubert Zemler, Bogusław Schaeffer, Shirish Korde, Witold Szalonek, Saad Haddad, Garth Knox, Chinary Ung, Wajdi Abou Diab, Nabil Benabdeljalil, Egidija Medekšaitė / Mikołaj Pałosz—cello; Miłosz Pękala—props, tape, percussion; Anna Kwiatkowska—violin; Łukasz Owczynnikow—double bass; Aisha Orazbayeva—violin; Mateusz Kowalski—violin; Adam Kośmieja—upright piano; Anna Pašić—harp; Kuba Sokołowski—upright piano; Giacomo Piermatti—cello; Marta Piórkowska—violin; Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska—viola; Paweł Janas—accordion; Magdalena Kordylasińska-Pękala—percussion //
Bringing music back home—to a home open to signs from different cultures, to contrasting musicalities, and to works moving freely along the historical timeline, regardless of when they were composed.
Concert at Nowy Teatr: Oskar Tomala, Stefan Prins, Aleksandra Słyż, Sara Glojnarić, Andrew Evdokimov, Cezary Duchnowski / HASHTAG ENSEMBLE, ENSEMBLE KOMPOPOLEX / Lilianna Krych—conductor //
Planes of sound and linear textures from Hashtag Ensemble, set against the intricate weave of Cezary Duchnowski’s music in Ensemble Kompopolex’s performance. World premieres of works commissioned by Hashtag Ensemble from Oskar Tomala, by Polish Radio from Aleksandra Słyż and Cezary Duchnowski, and by Warsaw Autumn from Andrew Evdokimov.
Marathon at the Institute: Kelley Sheehan, Luxa M. Schüttler, Agata Zemla, François Sarhan, Annesley Black, Loïc Destremau, Alex Paxton, Agustín Issidoro / Małgorzata Walentynowicz—keytar, piano, electronic keyboard, synthesiser, computer keyboard, multimedia, electronics; Miłosz Pękala—objectophones; Wojciech Błażejczyk—electric guitar; Agata Zemla and Katarzyna Sikora—performers; François Sarhan—narrator, video; Loïc Destremau—computer keyboard and multimedia / ZAFRAAN ENSEMBLE, proMODERN //
Five chapters. Two form part of Małgorzata Walentynowicz’s keyboard meta-recital; another two are instalments in François Sarhan’s annals of illustrated diaries; the last, for vocal ensemble with IRCAM electronics, is a work by Agustín Issidoro. Warsaw Autumn commissions from Agata Zemla and Kelley Sheehan; and, jointly with IRCAM and the deciBels and Gaudeamus festivals, from Agustín Issidoro.
Zafraan Ensemble, photo: Anton Tal
Concert-ritual: Liisa Hirsch, Jan Martin Smørdal, Klaus Lang, Wojciech Błażejczyk, Arash Yazdani / Katariin Raska—Estonian bagpipes; Talvi Nurgamaa—viola d’amore, viola / ENSEMBLE FOR NEW MUSIC TALLINN / Arash Yazdani—conductor //
After four years, the distinctive Ensemble for New Music Tallinn returns to the Festival—now as a recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s 2026 Ensemble Prize. Its sound is expanded by Estonian bagpipes and viola d’amore. The premiere of a Warsaw Autumn commission by Wojciech Błażejczyk.
Sound theatre: Piotr Peszat, Sam Salem / NO HAY BANDA //
Paradox and a play of cultural signs in the hands of the Canadian ensemble NO HAY BANDA—the second recipient of a 2026 Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Ensemble Prize presented at this year’s Warsaw Autumn. A conceptual music-theatre work by Sam Salem. The world premiere of a Festival commission by Piotr Peszat.
No Hay Banda, photo: Huei Lin
Concert across several spaces: Elena Rykova, Barbara Zach, Georges Aperghis, Yana Shliabanska, Jessie Marino, Peter Ablinger / SPÓŁDZIELNIA MUZYCZNA CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE //
An abundance and diversity of sounds, words, gestures, and symbols. Forms that play ever-changing games with time and enter into ever-changing relationships with the spaces of the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of Polish Radio. The world premiere of a Festival commission by Yana Shliabanska.
Notations / Improvisations: Nazarii Stets, Anna Zaradny, Mykhailo Chedryk, Kuba Krzewiński, Polina Pohozha, Dominik Strycharski / NEOQUARTET AND SOLOISTS OF ENSEMBLE NOSTRI TEMPORIS //
A mosaic of musical languages drawing on sound art and improvisation—Anna Zaradny, Dominik Strycharski, and Nazarii Stets; theatre and conceptualism—Kuba Krzewiński; and a new structuralism—Mykhailo Chedryk and Polina Pohozha. NeoQuartet musicians and Ensemble Nostri Temporis soloists in different configurations. An unprecedented collaboration between Warsaw Autumn and the Ukrainian Institute. Six world premieres, jointly commissioned by the two partners.
Opra – Post-opera: Trond Reinholdtsen / Trond Reinholdtsen, Øystein Hvamen Rasmussen, Tobias Schülke—performers //
The composer Trond Reinholdtsen is one of the defining figures of this year’s Festival. An enfant terrible of new music, he blows up one genre after another—symbols of music history—with consummate skill, while proposing new formulas in their place, stripped of trappings and pomp. The Chosen Ones is an opra turned inside out: a frenetic tale of Europe, its imperial project, and its disintegration. There will be laughter, bitter one at times. An event truly for ‘the chosen ones’: one of two five-hour performances of the ‘opra’. Audience capacity will be severely limited.
The Chosen Ones, photo by Trond Reinholdtsen
Music theatre: Jeppe Ernst, Niels Rønsholdt / SCENATET //
An event shrouded in silence. It calls for deep listening and immersion in unhurried time—all the more so because Jeppe Ernst’s work is devoid of sound (sic!). It is, however, full of signs. A collaboration between Warsaw Autumn and SPOR of Aarhus, this year’s special guest festival.
Intermedia concert: Alexander Schubert / ENSEMBLE KOMPOPOLEX //
The world premiere of a work by one of the younger generation’s most prominent compositional voices. A joint commission from Warsaw Autumn, the Kompopolex Foundation, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Le Vivier.
Ensemble Kompopolex
Performative radio play: Tadeusz Wielecki / Agata Zubel—soprano; Matylda Damięcka and Tomasz Nosiński—actors; Pia Partum—director / ORKIESTRA MUZYKI NOWEJ (ENSEMBLE OMN) / Szymon Bywalec—conductor //
An elaborate philosophical parable drawing on excerpts from Jan Potocki’s The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, poems by W. B. Yeats, Fernando Pessoa, Miron Białoszewski, and Jarosław Klejnocki, and texts by the composer himself.
Performance event: Katarzyna Krakowiak—concept, script, and realisation / Rafał Zalech—viola, realisation of the musical narrative; Asthma—rapper, musical narration; Michał Sławecki—countertenor, musical narration; Anna Zeman—costumes / proMODERN—voices and musical narration //
Set in the Palace on the Isle at the Royal Łazienki Park, a ‘parade / paradiso of plants’. A form that brings together two orders: the parade—as secular movement founded on rhythm and repetition—and the procession—as sacred, ritual movement founded on deceleration, concentration, and relationship. Crucial is the moment of passage between them. The premiere of a Festival commission.
Intermedia concert: Przemysław Pacek, Adrianna Kubica-Cypek, Eloain Lovis Hübner, Yiran Zhao, Farzia Fallah / Marta Dawidiuk—visuals; Przemysław Pacek—electronics / EUROPEAN WORKSHOP FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC / Rüdiger Bohn—conductor //
A meeting of young instrumentalists associated with German conservatoires, the Chopin University of Music, and the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. Diversity and contrast; an audiovisual dimension whose uses of new media continually surprise.
Concert-performance: Krzysztof Wołek / Krzysztof Wołek—computer, electronics; Artur Lis—visuals //
Chamber music reinvented. A duo of sound and visual artists. Density and energy. States of maximum intensity.
Intermedia concert-performance: Sławomir Wojciechowski / Bogusław Schaeffer, Trond Reinholdtsen / Ellen Ugelvik—piano / WARSAW PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA / Julien Masmondet—conductor //
Graphic signs from the score of Bogusław Schaeffer’s Symphony: Electronic Music inspire Sławomir Wojciechowski’s instrumental reinterpretation of the legendary work created at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio. Trond Reinholdtsen’s irreverent piano concerto moves far beyond the genre’s customary bounds to embrace acting, film, live video, and unusual instruments. Sixty minutes in a state of turbulence.
Trond Reinholdtsen, photo: Sara Li Stensrud
Actions in public space – Interventions / Patrols: Lidia Zielińska, Karol Urbański / GROUP OF POLISH ACTIVISTS //
Interventions / Patrols appear without warning at various points throughout the Festival. They respond to the moment, while also forming an independent thread that runs from the first event to the last. The causes championed by the group of Polish activists may prove surprising, both in their subject matter and in how they are articulated. The surest way not to miss any of the Patrols is to attend the whole of Warsaw Autumn.
Warsaw Autumn Hits the Club: Frank Gratkowski, Qba Janicki, julek ploski, Bruno Maderna, Gerald Eckert, Filip Popielarz, BYDGOSZCZ COMPOSERS’ COLLECTIVE / Frank Gratkowski—saxophone; Qba Janicki—percussion, electronics; julek ploski—electronics; Beatrix Wagner—flute; Gerald Eckert—electronics; Filip Popielarz—electronics; Konrad Janus—viola / BYDGOSZCZ COMPOSERS’ COLLECTIVE: Rafał Gorzycki—percussion, harmonica; Mikołaj Sarad—saxophones; Krzysztof ‘Freeze’ Ostrowski—live electronics //
Two evenings at Pardon, To Tu, featuring music emerging from different creative scenes yet developing comparable sonic phenomena.
Special event – audiovisual performance: Beata Bolesławska-Lewandowska, Olga Jaros, Jerzy Kornowicz, Waldemar Raźniak, Tadeusz Sudnik, Adam Kruk / Wojciech Błażejczyk—bass guitar, objectophones; Rafał Zalech—viola, electronics; Miłosz Pękala—percussion; Paweł Hendrich—computer, electric guitar; Marta Grzywacz—voice; Joanna Halszka Sokołowska—voice; Masza Wągrocka, Maja Kalbarczyk, and Tomasz Obiński—actors / MUD CAVALIERS: Ryszard Latecki—trumpet and small instruments; Jerzy Kornowicz—upright piano, electronic keyboard, musical direction; Tadeusz Sudnik—electronic media; Tadeusz Wielecki—double bass //
The collective composition Giedroyc Archipelago was initiated by the Kultura Literary Institute Association. The event forms part of the Jerzy Giedroyc Year. It will be presented in the Kubicki Arcades at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on the eve of Warsaw Autumn’s Opening Concert, as a special Festival event.
Interactive installation on the Warsaw Autumn website: Jarosław Siwiński / RYTM.DIGITAL //
Each year, the Festival unveils a new website which, besides providing information, serves as an interactive game keyed to the Festival’s theme.
Little Warsaw Autumn—a space for creative collaboration among nearly 500 children and young people from Warsaw and the surrounding area; fifteen children’s and youth choirs and ensembles and one adult choir; fourteen conductors; and fourteen composers, whose new works were created especially for this Festival edition. Audiences will hear twenty world premieres of musical and music-and-text works, including twelve miniatures, one large-scale hybrid work, and seven site-specific radio plays.Together, these make up one of this year’s most extensive participatory projects—Space®opera 3.0—and form a multi-stranded story of the city, nature, and contemporary ways of experiencing music together.
Little Warsaw Autumn programme
Inter-festival strand: Autumn at the Lab—a series of six events co-organised by Hashtag Lab – Contemporary Music Space; PWM Edition (Tomasz Sikorski: A Fieldstone by the Road—a meet-the-author event with Jan Topolski; Simply Too Many Words—a meet-the-authors event with Lidia Zielińska, Anna Zielińska, and Dominik Puk); the Korean Cultural Center in Poland (the New Pansori: Rituals for Free Narratives concert); and the Youth Circle of the Polish Composers’ Union.
Fringe events coordinated with Warsaw Autumn: eight varied initiatives organised by the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music / Chopin University Electronic Music Studio (#Elektrofonia); the ArtEngine Foundation (a performance event); the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in partnership with the Polish Composers’ Union (an international academic conference); the Austrian Cultural Forum (an exhibition and a meeting); the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (a concert by the ENSEMBLE OF THE ESTONIAN ELECTRONIC MUSIC SOCIETY); Collectif4Composers (a concert); the Critical Arts Foundation (a performance); and the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Composers’ Union (a concert).
The organisers reserve the right to make changes to the programme.