Sfogato Festival

The Sfogato Music & Arts Society has the honor to invite students of all music schools to participate in the 2nd International Sfogato Stage Music Competition 2023. The competition is held as part of the 14th International Sfogato Music & Arts Festival under the Honorary Patronage of:
Marshal of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Witold Kozłowski
The Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski
Metropolitan Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jędraszewski
Media patronage: TVP3 Kraków, Radio Kraków, POLMIC.PL - Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej, Kraków PL, Kraków otwarty na świat
The competition auditions will be held online on December 28-30, 2023 in the following categories: piano, organ, violin, viola, cello, singing, chamber ensembles.
Applications to participate in the Competition must be sent by December 22, 2023.
APPLICATION FORM
SOLO ONLINE FORM - SOLO PERFORMANCE
CHAMBER ENSEMBLE ONLINE FORM - CHAMBER ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
The Competition Regulations can be found on the website:
CATEGORIES & RULES
The entry fee for participants in solo categories is 50 Euro, and for each member of a chamber ensemble - 30 Euro.
We encourage students from piano, organ, violin, viola, cello, singing classes and chamber ensembles to participate.
There is no limit of prizes in the Competition. The prize or distinction is awarded to the participant who scores from 56 to 100 points.
Below you will find a link to the recording of the Japanese duo Ayumi Iga and Masatoshi Yamaguchi - jurors of the first edition of the Competition in the piano/piano duet categories.
Ayumi IGA & Masatoshi YAMAGUCHI

Chopin Soirée – The Poet Of The Piano

The 14th International Sfogato Music & Arts Festival in Krakow, organized by The Sfogato Music & Arts Society, began with the Chopin Soirée – The Poet of The Piano concert (October 17, 2023) on the 174th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's death in the Ballroom of the Villa Decius Institute of Culture.

The festival is held under the honorary patronage of:

Marshal of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Witold Kozłowski

The Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski

Metropolitan Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jędraszewski

The program of the Chopin Soirée, co-organized by the Villa Decius Cultural Institute and performed by: Marek Polański - violin, Tomasz Jarosz - baritone, Marta Polańska - piano, included: works by Fryderyk Chopin (solo and transcribed for violin and piano) closely referring to the Fryderyk Chopin's artistic activities in the context of the composer's cooperation with Marcelina Czartoryska. The Princess Czartoryska was Chopin's student, present with the composer on the day of his death, and from 1870 she ran a music salon in her home in Krakow - in the Villa Decius. Fryderyk Chopin dedicated the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 7 No. 4 to Marcelina Czartoryska, which was heard at the end of the Chopin Soirée. The program, in addition to the works of Fryderyk Chopin, also included works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Caroline Unger and Stanisław Moniuszko, whose song "Znasz-li ten kraj" - an Italian gondolier was composed to the words of the poem Do H*** Wezwanie do Neapolu (To H*** A Call to Naples) by Adam Mickiewicz dedicated to Henrietta Ewa Ankwiczówna - the previous owner of Villa Decius, before Marcelina Czartoryska.

Since the first edition of the event, the festival stage has been decorated with sunflowers, which, in connection with Schubert's song "Aus Heliopolis I", constitute a metaphor for a journey towards the sun. Their ability to turn towards the sun is seen as a metaphor for the human quest for enlightenment and self-realization.

On October 18, 2023, members of the Sfogato Musical and Arts Society laid flowers decorating the concert stage on the grave of Princess Marcelina Czartoryska.

Media patronage: TVP 3 Kraków, Radio Kraków, POLMIC.pl, Krakow.pl, Kraków The Open City

Portraits of Fryderyk Chopin and Alexei Sultanov (to whose memory Chopin Soirée is always dedicated): Kazuko Narumi (Japan)