European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

World Premiere of Elżbieta Sikora's II Concerto for Organ and Orchestra

Jun. 27, 2022

On June 3, the Łódź Philharmonic, led by Paweł Przytocki, performed the world premiere of Elżbieta Sikora's newest work – II Concerto for organ and orchestra.

Elżbieta Sikora is one of the most important Polish composers of her generation. Although she has been living in France since 1981, she is still artistically associated with Poland through her collaboration with PWM Edition. From the beginning of her career, Sikora has been particularly interested in electroacoustic music, but she is also keen on writing music for traditional ensembles. This can be heard in her latest work, II Concerto for organ and orchestra, performed by Mari Fukumoto as soloist. Fukumoto is a Japanese organist and graduate of, among others, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, and winner of important competitions, including the 7th International Organ Competition Musashino-Tokyo and the accompanying competition of the 62nd International Organ Week in Nuremberg. Read Elżbieta Sikora's expanded biography here.

The Łódź Philharmonic is a proud owner of two independent instruments: a Baroque organ and a Romantic organ, built in 2013–2014. The construction of both instruments was the largest organ project in Poland in recent years and a unique event on a global scale: the concert hall of the Łódź Philharmonic is the only building for music in the world with two completely independent instruments, and the only secular concert hall in Europe that has a Baroque instrument – adapted to work with early music ensembles. The Baroque organ, modeled on the one Johann Sebastian Bach used to play – occupies the middle part of the wall behind the stage. It is flanked by a bipartite Romantic organ with a portable console, which enables ideal coordination with the orchestra from any desired place on the stage. The organs were built by a consortium of two companies: Rieger Orgelbau GmbH from Austria and Wegscheider Orgelbau from Germany. The conceptual plan for the construction of both organs was devised by Professor Ludger Lohmann, a distinguished authority on organ music, a musician, and musicologist. Thus, Łódź Philharmonic was indeed the ideal venue for the premiere of Elżbieta Sikora's II Concerto for organ and orchestra.

Listen to a Musical Postcard featuring Elżbieta Sikora here:

(Muzyczne wizytówki #84 | Elżbieta Sikora)


To learn more about Elżbieta Sikora, visit: pwm.com.pl.

Elżbieta Sikora
Il Concerto
for organ and orchestra

News