The celebrations of the 153rd city’s birthday “I Love Katowice”

The celebrations of the 153rd anniversary of Katowice’s securement of municipal rights are ahead. During these celebrations, we will have a chance to enjoy the performance of Ørganek and friends, in a special project for “I love Katowice” City’s Birthday event. As usual, the celebration will be held in form of a music festival, which should quench various artistic thirsts of the audience.

We can safely say that the outdoor concert for Katowice’s birthday will be one of the most important ones. Tomasz Ørganek, a vocalist, has invited outstanding guests to his project. Guests that will not only make the performance even more pleasurable, but also present themselves in a repertoire typically uncharacteristic of them! Katarzyna Nosowska, Wojciech Waglewski, Miuosh, Abradab, Natalia Grosiak, Jan Galach or Maciej Lipina are only some of the artists that have accepted this challenge.

For this unique, open concert, the city of Katowice and the Metropolis would like to invite all its citizens to the Culture Zone, on Saturday September 8th. The concert, during which artists associated with various realms of music, representing a few generations, will perform music of Silesian artists. We will be able to listen to blues, rock, rap or electronics. Pieces we all know in fresh and unpredictable arrangements that the artists worked on with the city’s birthday project leader – Tomasz Ørganek. However, who will sing which song will not be known till the actual concert!

Tomasz Ørganek has become the leader of the project also as an artist associated with Katowice. Originating in Podlasie, he studied at the Jazz Institute of the Music Academy in Katowice, where he perfected his technique as a guitarist.

I am connected with Katowice through heart and mind. Silesia truly is a cradle of Polish blues. This particular music genre sits in me deeply since my early youth. It is what I am made of. At certain stage, the mind was shaped by the Music Academy in Katowice, where I spent a few beautiful years.

Ørganek

For the City's Birthday, we will prepare a great concert, which will also serve as an homage to the music of Katowice and the entire Upper Silesia. Through the concert, we will remind the audience of the power of our music. Its artistic value is guaranteed by an artist about whom one can confidently say that is a star of the Polish music scene. The fact that he was educated here, in Katowice, is an additional point of pride.

Marcin Krupa, the Mayor of Katowice.

Concerts in the Culture Zone will commence on September 8th at 3 pm. First, we will be able to listen to the performances of the District Sounds Good project, as well as guests from Saint-Etienne in France – Bottle Next. The Ørganek and Friends concert is planned to start at 8 pm. The entry is free of charge!

The Ørganek formation was created 5 years ago, upon the initiative of its leader, Tomasz Organek, initially as a power trio, A year later, Tomasz Lewandowski, a keyboardist, joined the forces alongside Adam Staszewski (bass) and Robert Markiewicz (drums). In the same year, the group released their debut album entitled “Glupi” [Stupid], which stormed the music market in Poland and lead the hit lists of radios, as well as receiving numerous awards and distinctions (among others, Mateusz Trojki 2014, Szczota Offensywy 2014, Grzegorz Ciechowski Award in 2014, as well as a nomination for the 2015 Fryderyk Award).

In 2016, Tomasz Organek was invited to assume the position of the music director of the Meskie Granie Orchestra 2016, which he also held in 2017.

In April 2017, the ØRGANEK band received two awards of the Polish music industry: the Fryderyk Award, in the categories of “Rock Album of the Year” for the record “Czarna Madonna” [Black Madonna], as well as the Song of the Year for “Mississipi w Ogniu” [Mississipi on Fire].

The “I love Katowice” Birthday celebration programme:

6 September (Thursday), 5 p.m

Mayor of Katowice Concert for senior citizens: Joachim Krzyk’s Big Silesian Band

Katowice City of Gardens’ concert hall (plac Sejmu Śląskiego 2, 40-032 Katowice)

6 September (Thursday), 7 p.m

Jef Neve (BE) & the Piotr Steczko string quartet

A phenomenal Belgian pianist and a remarkable Polish violinist in a common, authorial project prepared solely for the City’s birthday celebration event.

Jef Neve is a pianist for whom jazz, classical and popular music constitute equally as natural environments. He looks for a middle ground in each of the genres, which allows him to enter the hearts of his audiences. With his trio, he performed at the most important European jazz festivals, and as a soloist he delivers concerts where he performs the Goldberg Variations of Bach. His music can also be heard in an Oscar awarded soundtrack for the film “Artist” in 2011.

Openness is what also characterises Piotr Steczko – a violinist of tehe AUKSO Orchestra on an every day basis, but also a multi instrumentalist known from projects which have very little to do with classical music.

A meeting of two such unpredictable artists will allow us to rediscover the meaning of “popular music”.

Kinoteatr Rialto (Świętego Jana 24, 40-001 Katowice)
Tickets: 10 zł (reduced) and 20 zł (standard),
going.pl, kupbilecik.pl, ticketportal.pl

7 September (Friday), 6 p.m

Concert for Citizens

4th concert symphony opus 60 by Karol Szymanowski

Zbigniew Raubo in A-minor piano concerto opus 17 by Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Piotr Salajczyk – piano
Alexander Liebreich – conductor
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

NOSPR concert hall (plac Wojciecha Kilara 1, 40-202 Katowice)
Free entry tickets available from 21st August, also at the City of Gardens Headquarters

8 September (Saturday), 3 p.m

Ørganek and friends with a special project dedicated to Katowice

Support: Bottle Next (FR)

And bands of the District Sounds Good project:

ZOŚKA, Max Bravura, Aiselis, Szklane Oczy, Żyjoki (PL)

Katowice Culture Zone (plac Góreckiego, 40-001 Katowice)
Free entrance.

9 September (Sunday), 7:30 p.m

Tin Men and the Telephone (NL) and The AUKSO Chamber Orchestra

Have you ever dreamt of conducting an orchestra? In this case, what can you say about the possibility to conduct an orchestra and a jazz trio? During this concert, it is not only possible, it is necessary!

Tin Men and the Telephone is a Dutch trio known around the world for their amazing concerts, where it is the audience that decides which direction music will take. It is done through their mobile phones, where the audience votes how musicians are to play next. Louder or quieter? Livelier or calmer? The results are displayed on a screen located above the stage, and the musicians succumb to the will of the majority.

During the concert, one will be able to listen to a piece dedicated to Katowice for the first time, and the whole event will be supported by visualisations pertaining to issues of ecology, owing to the fact that Katowice will host the COP24 climate summit in December.

Katowice City of Gardens’ concert hall (plac Sejmu Śląskiego 2, 40-032 Katowice) (plac Sejmu Śląskiego 2, 40-032 Katowice)

Tickets: 30 zł (standard) i 20 zł (reduced)
ticketportal.pl, kupbilecik.pl i going.pl.