The Silesian String Quartet has been organising the International Chamber Music Festival Silesian String Quartet and Guests since 1993. The Festival has a unique format – the audience is treated to chamber pieces for string quartet and other instruments, and hence also to guest soloists, who perform together with the musicians of the Silesian String Quartet. Each year, the Festival also has a main theme.

The Festivals are accompanied by album releases. The year 2011 saw the premiere of the 6CD collection Pokolenie Stalowowolskie (The Stalowa Wola Generation) with all works composed by Aleksander Lasoń, Eugeniusz Knapik, and Andrzej Krzanowski and featuring a string quartet. The music was recorded in the years 1983-2011.

The album, released by the Musica Pro Bono Foundation, was nominated for a Fryderyk Award in the category of Album of the Year – Chamber Music.

Master and Disciple is the guiding theme of this year’s’ 23rd International Chamber Music Festival Silesian String Quartet and Guests (2015). It features composers representing different styles and from both familiar and less familiar cultural backgrounds, ranging from Poland (Maliszewski - Lutosławski), Russia, France and England right through to South America.
In our time, more and more often the question arises of whether the master disciple relationship is a challenge or an anachronism, Do we need role models? Is mentoring an innovation, a trend or maybe a sign of our times?

All of this can be traced in music – beginning in the remote past, and passing through various styles and trends.

During this year’s Festival we will be offering audiences several examples of this relationship:
Ginastera - Piazzolla, Voughan Williams - Ravel, Mendelssohn – Gade, Bridge - Britten, Maliszewski - Lutosławski, Gliére - Prokofiev.

In some of these cases it turned out that the disciple became the master, surpassing their teacher in the process. The name of the latter would have fallen into oblivion had it not been for their phenomenal student. Therefore, “Master and disciple, teacher – master” seems to be the right complement to the title of this year’s Festival.

As for the line-up, youth will also clash with experience. At one of the concerts, students will perform alongside their teachers. This year’s guests include both young artists, the winners of numerous competitions and auditions (Szczepan Kończal - pianist, Julia Łopuszańska – a harp student at the Academy of Music in Katowice), and university professors with an impressive output as concert artists and teachers (Maria Szwajger-Kułakowska, Tomasz Miczka, Tomasz Strahl). You will also have a chance to listen to several fellow string quartets. Out of two Octets included in the programme – by Niels Gade and Rheinhold Gliére – the first will be performed with the young Jubilee Quartet from England, and the latter with the esteemed Camerata Quartet. In addition, one of the Festival concerts will also feature a string quartet of students from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, who will perform as the Marselan Quartet. 

We do hope that this peculiar multifaceted programming and performance of the 23rd International Chamber Music Festival Silesian string Quartet and Guests will help answer the questions above.

• Silesian String Quartet and Guests - 2015

• Silesian String Quartet and Guests - 2015

• Silesian String Quartet and Guests - 2015

• Silesian String Quartet and Guests - 2015

• Silesian String Quartet and Guests - 2015

• Silesian String Quartet and Guests - 2015