Welcome to the 10th Leo Festival!

The festival’s central event commemorates the year 1918, when Poland regained its independence. This year, we will proudly celebrate the 100th anniversary of independence, and as musicians we are especially proud to say that it was a famous Polish musician, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who greatly contributed to winning international approval for the reinstatement of Poland on the European map.

Of course, our programme will present the beautiful Suite in G Major for string orchestra by Paderewski, and also works by Frederic Chopin, Jerzy Fitelberg, Krzysztof Penderecki and a world premiere of a new string orchestra piece by Tomasz Skweres. Justyna Skoczek has found moving texts from diaries, poems, and speeches of contemporaries that introduce us to how they felt and what they thought during the time of historic political changes.

‘Music and Magic’ will treat you to many surprises. Please bring your children. They will, surely, enjoy the spell and charm of themagicians’ enchantments and the music! It is a long-standing tradition of the festival that students of the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław present a programme of chamber music with their teachers Christian Danowicz, Michał Micker and Marcin Misiak. For the first time, wind players will perform some of the lesser-known repertoire.

The call for peace in Panufnik’s Invocation for Peace for choir and instruments is the central message of our last programme to be held at the Church of St Mary Magdalene. It is actually not a concert, but rather a regular religious service. The chorus, led by Małgorzata Podzielny, and the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will present music by Palestrina, Caccini, and Mozart as well as Panufnik’s work.

I would like to cordially thank all our sponsors and the people who make presenting the Leo Festival possible. My special thanks goes to the team, to all the musicians, magicians and actors.

Come and join us!

Ernst Kovacic
artistic director of Leo Festival