Zbigniew Podraza, President of Dąbrowa Górnicza about jubilee Michał Spisak International Music Competition
2016 is a special date in the history of our city and a dual anniversary. This year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of granting the municipal rights to Dąbrowa Górnicza and the 10th edition of Michał Spisak International Music Competition. This unique event, organised to commemorate the outstanding composer who came from Dąbrowa Górnicza, has been created by excellent artists, talented musicians and people involved in popularisation of culture. From the very beginning, the high level of the competition has been guaranteed by the support of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. Over the last years, we managed to rediscover the oeuvre of this brilliant composer, there were many valuable initiatives, and young musicians had an opportunity to present their talent. I am delighted that we have been writing this beautiful history together in Dąbrowa Górnicza.
The jubilee Michał Spisak International Music Competition will be inaugurated by the world famous composer and conductor, Maestro Krzysztof Penderecki, who will be performing in front of the audience at the Zagłębie Palace of Culture in Dąbrowa Górnicza, together with the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.
At the previous editions we were visited by the “Amadeus” Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Agnieszka Duczmal, the “Sinfonia Varsovia” Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jerzy Maksymiuk, Ewa Strusińska and Maciej Tworek, the Zabrze Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sławomir Chrzanowski and the Silesian Philharmonic Choir. Outstanding violinists, Prof. Konstanty Andrzej Kulka and Kaja Danczowska and the accordion virtuoso, Marcin Wyrostek, performed on Dąbrowa Górnicza stage. New compositions were created for the purposes of the competition.
We were witnesses to the world and Poland’s premieres of compositions by Zdzisław Szostak, Jan Wincenty Hawel and Józef Świder. Excellent Polish composers, directors of philharmonics and artistic institutions and rectors of academies of music from the whole of Poland accepted the invitation to the honorary committee of the competition. The jury was comprised of the best instrumentalists in Poland and abroad. In 2011, during the ceremony of granting Michał Spisak the title of the “Honorary Citizen of Dąbrowa Górnicza”, we were visited by an outstanding composer, Spisak’s friend from his youth – Wojciech Kilar. On the initiative of the Municipal Office, the film “Michał Spisak. Listy rozproszone” (“Michał Spisak. Scattered letters”), directed by Violetta Rotter-Kozera, was made. Prof. Leon Markiewicz wrote a monograph on the artist, and the Polish Olympic Committee granted Michał Spisak posthumously the Gold Medal for “Merits to the Polish Olympic Movement”.
All this contributes to the fact that memory of the composer continues to be alive and his music is still listened to. I am happy and extremely proud that it is Dąbrowa Górnicza that has its contribution to the development of Polish culture.
Zbigniew Podraza President of Dąbrowa Górnicza City
