Musicophilia Festival is an event dedicated to lovers of music. It will take place on May 20th-21st in Dwor Artusa in Torun. It’s the 6th edition of the show, dedicated to the memory of Kazimierz Serocki, a pianist, compositor and the co-creator of Warsaw Autumn music festival.
Kazimierz Serocki was born on March 3rd, 1922 in Torun. He studied playing and composition at the State Conservatory of Music in Łódź and under Nadia Boulanger and Lazare Levy’s eyes during his one-year scholarship in Paris. He was one of the pioneers of sonorism, an avant-garde movement focusing on timbre.
In 1952, Serocki won the rank II State Award for the soundtrack to “Youth of Chopin”, a movie directed by Aleksander Ford. After that, he focused on making film music. His most important works include the soundtracks to “Knights of the Teutonic Order” (1960, dir. Aleksander Ford), “The First Day of Freedom” (1964, Aleksander Ford) and “The Deluge” (1974, Jerzy Hoffman). Kazimierz Serocki was also the initiator of the “Warsaw Autumn” (active since 1956), the biggest Polish festival of contemporary music. He died on January 9th, 1981 and was buried on the Powązki Cemetery.
To commemorate the memory of Serocki, modern artists will perform re-interpretations of his compositions, as well as original pieces inspired by his works. On May 20th, there will be two concerts. At 7 P.M. Andrzej Karałow will play ‘Improvisations around Serocki’s Compositions’ on grand piano. In the final, Jacek Buhl, Rafał Iwański will play on drums. Later a German band Half Cloud, Half Plain will perform with Chris Heenan on double bass and Michael Vorfeld on drums and stringed instruments that he had created. The next day, at 6 P.M. there will be a lecture ‘Tone – Form – Experiment. About the Avant-garde Creations of Kazimierz Serocki’ lead by Iwona Lindstend. Later there will be a concert of the Torun Music School students. Additionally, there will be a ‘Small Music Fair’ in the Sala Lustrzana at Dwor Artusa.
More information and tickets are available on Dwor Artus website.