UP Diliman (UPD) College of Music (CMu) conducted a lecture-concert on Polish music on Nov. 21 and a lecture-workshop-concert on harp on Nov. 22 at the CMu Mini Hall.
“We look forward to collaborations like this; international collaboration of music-making, learning, and of course, most importantly, friendship,” said CMu Dean Ma. Patricia B. Silvestre in her welcome remarks during the Polish music event.
“It is a genuine pleasure to return to UP Diliman. I hope that your students found inspiration and joy from their masterclasses that were conducted by our Polish musicians and alumni,” said Anna Krzak-Danel, Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of Poland to the Philippines.
“I believe that such initiatives represent a remarkable way to foster cultural dialogue through music,” Krzak-Danel added.
Leading the Polish musicians was suka player Maria Pomianowska, DMA. She is a professor at the Academy of Music in Krakow (AMK), director of the international Crossroads of Culture festival, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer.
Joining Pomianowska were Anna Wandtke (assistant professor at the Academy of Music in Gdańsk, soloist, and chamber musician) on violin, Piotr Kopietz (multi-instrumentalist, arranger, composer, and cultural manager) on accordion, Wojciech Lubertowicz (sound director and multi-instrumentalist) on percussion, and Sebastian Wypych (double bass player, soloist, composer, manager, producer, art animator, and artistic director) on contrabass.
They performed compositions of Frédéric Chopin and of Pomianowska, old Polish dances, and Polish folk songs.
“The essence of Polish music is demonstrated through Chopin’s timeless masterpieces,” Pomianowska explained.
Pomianowska also narrated how the traditional Polish musical instruments used in the event were reconstructed from an unearthed specimen (Bilgoraj suka) and re-created from paintings (Plock fiddle).
The lecture-concert on Polish music was facilitated by Ena Maria Aldecoa, a professor at the Department of Piano and Keyboard of CMU, and Solaiman E. Jamisolamin, chairperson of the Department of String and Chamber Music (DSCM).
Before the evening lecture-concert, three masterclasses were held in the afternoon, one each for the violin, contrabass, and percussion.
The lecture-concert was a product of a memorandum of agreement between UPD and AMK through the initiatives of Aldecoa and Pomianowska, signed in November 2023.
On the second day, harp as an instrument was highlighted with a lecture-workshop by Colombian harpist Wuilmer López, followed by his concert in the evening.
López earned his Master of Music from the INCCA University of Colombia with a distinction for meritorious thesis.
In his concert, López performed his own compositions together with the works of Colombian artists Egberto Gismonti and Juan Luis Guerra. Opening the concert were CMu students Aliya Margaret Tablante (violin) and Victor Gregory Cahapay (harp).
The harp event was facilitated by DSCM, in partnership with the Embassy of Colombia in the Philippines represented by Chargé d’Affaires Juan Pablo Mejía, and UPD Department of European Languages represented by Spanish Section Coordinator Miguel Blázquez-Carretero, PhD, and Sandra Jimenez.
