In New York

The Museum of Modern Art and
the Polish Cultural Institute
present:

FILMS BY POLANSKI, SKOLIMOWSKI, AND KIJOWICZ
WITH MUSIC BY KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA

AS PART OF JAZZ SCORE – MoMA's CELEBRATION OF THE BEST ORIGINAL JAZZ SCORES FOR FILM
FROM THE 1950s TO THE PRESENT

Byl Jazz
Zygmunt Malanowicz in Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962)

MAY 17, 22, 2008

The Museum of Modern Art
The Roy and Niuta Titus theaters
11 West 53th Street, New York, NY 10019
Admission: $10, $8 seniors, $6 students. Tickets can be purchased in MoMA lobby or at the Film and Media Desk.
More information: www.moma.org, 212.708.9400

The Museum of Modern Art’s Jazz Score (April 16 – September 15), includes a broad representation of Polish films, many featuring the music of KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA, among other films with music by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonius Monk, Toru Takemitsu, and Wynton Marsalis; two live performances – one of them of Komeda’s music by Tomasz Stanko – and an international gallery exhibition that features Polish posters for films with jazz scores, among many other artifacts.

Masterpieces with scores by Krzysztof Komeda – two classic features: KNIFE IN THE WATER by Roman Polanski and LE DEPART, anexuberant New Wave film by Jerzy Skolimowski, as well as brilliant shorts by Polanski, THE FAT AND THE LEAN, and Miroslaw Kijowicz, the animated BANNER (May 17 & 22), are included among the more than 100 films presented in MoMA’s Jazz Score, which offers such classics as Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows with music by Miles Davis and Antonioni’s Blow-Up with music by Herbie Hancock. Polish films in this series, in addition to those with music by Komeda, include Polanski’s Repulsion with music by Chico Hamilton and the first experimental film by Zbigniew Rybczynski, Plamuz with music by Zbigniew Namyslowski (August 1, 3 ,7 ,9).

The Jazz Score series also includes a selection of Polish film posters in the international exhibition and a Concert Tribute to Krzysztof Komeda by the Tomasz Stanko Quartet with special guest Billy Harper celebrating the film music of Komeda, who helped establish Eastern Europe’s underground jazz scene in the late 1950s and who went on to write the haunting scores for some 40 films, including Rosemary’s Baby.

"The introduction of contemporary jazz to film scoring in the mid-twentieth century brought fresh forms of sophistication and innovation to world cinema. Until the 1950s, jazz had primarily been used in film as atmospheric or incidental music or during show-stopping musical numbers. Jazz Score celebrates the groundbreaking collaborations between filmmakers, composers, and musicians who, by experimenting with new forms and techniques, have radically transformed both art forms – jazz and the cinema – from the 1950s to the present day". (Josh Siegel, curator of Jazz Score)

>>> POLISH FILMS - DETAILED PROGRAM
>>> KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA

>>> TOMASZ STANKO CONCERT OF MUSIC BY KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA
>>> POLISH JAZZ FILM POSTERS
>>> JAZZ SCORE FULL PROGRAM

The Museum of Modern Art and
the Polish Cultural Institute
present:

THE TOMASZ STANKO QUARTET
WITH SPECIAL GUEST BILLY HARPER
A CONCERT TRIBUTE TO KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA

AS PART OF JAZZ SCORE – MoMA's CELEBRATION OF THE BEST ORIGINAL JAZZ SCORES FOR FILM
FROM THE 1950s TO THE PRESENT

Tomasz Stanko, photo: Andrzej Tyszko

MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008, 7:30 PM

The Museum of Modern Art
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1
11 West 53th Street, New York, NY 10019
Admission: $15, $12 students, seniors & MoMA members. More information: www.moma.org, 212.708.9400

Stanko remains a defiant individualist, a romantic predator of song who … has clinched not just his own place in jazz history but also that of his Polish peers and predecessors – Brian Morton, The Nation, 2005

The trumpet tone … catapults you into reflection – Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 2002

A Concert Tribute to Krzysztof Komeda celebrates the film music of a composer who helped establish Eastern Europe’s underground jazz scene in the late 1950s and who went on to write the haunting scores for some 40 films, including Rosemary’s Baby.

Tomasz Stanko, a Polish trumpeter and composer, and Billy Harper, an American tenor saxophonist, are considered two of the most acclaimed jazz improvisers in the world. Stanko also leads his quartet in performing his own jazz compositions for the Polish cinema. For Stanko, as for other artists living in Communist Poland, jazz represented “freedom, Western culture, a different way of life.” It was performed clandestinely in cellars and at dance parties in cities like Lodz, where students like Roman Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski turned the city’s now-legendary film school into a hotbed of artistic experimentation and political dissent. As a prelude to this special concert, two of Komeda’s best scores can be heard when Polanski’s Knife in the Water and Skolimowski’s Le Départ are screened. Komeda’s scores presented in the film series also include two shorts: Polanski’s The Fat and the Leanand Kijowicz’s animated Banner. The Tomasz Stanko Quartet includes Marcin Wasilewski, piano, Slawomir Kurkiewicz, bass, and Michal Miskiewicz, drums.

This is one of two concerts featured in the Jazz Score series; the other on June 14 features Martial Solal, legendary jazz pianist and composer, whose 40 film scores include Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1959).

The Museum of Modern Art’s Jazz Score (April 16 – September 15), includes a broad representation of Polish films, many featuring the music of Krzysztof Komeda, among other films with music by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonius Monk, Toru Takemitssu, and Wynton Marsalis; two live performances; and an international gallery exhibition that features Polish posters for films with jazz scores, among many other artifacts.

"The introduction of contemporary jazz to film scoring in the mid-twentieth century brought fresh forms of sophistication and innovation to world cinema. Until the 1950s, jazz had primarily been used in film as atmospheric or incidental music or during show-stopping musical numbers. Jazz Score celebrates the groundbreaking collaborations between filmmakers, composers, and musicians who, by experimenting with new forms and techniques, have radically transformed both art forms – jazz and the cinema – from the 1950s to the present day". (Josh Siegel, curator of Jazz Score)

>>> KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA
>>> TOMASZ STANKO QUARTET

>>> POLISH FILMS – DETAILED PROGRAM
>>> POLISH JAZZ FILM POSTERS
>>> JAZZ SCORE FULL PROGRAM

ECM and the Polish Cultural Institute
present

MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO
(formerly Simple Acoustic Trio)

U.S. TOUR
celebrating the release of their ECM album January

Part of the group’s secret is the patient ease with which they intertwine impressionistic music and
powerful pulses. – The Guardian (UK)

MAY 20–25, 2008
U.S. Tour: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Los Angeles

NEW YORK CITY, Birdland
Tuesday, May 20, 6:00 PM

PHILADELPHIA, Chris’ Jazz Café
Thursday, May 22, 9:00 PM

BALTIMORE, An Die Musik Live!
Friday, May 23, 8:00 & 9:30 PM

ANN ARBOR, The Firefly
Saturday, May 24, 8:00 PM

LOS ANGELES, Jazz Bakery
Sunday, May 25, 8:00 & 9:30 PM

The Marcin Wasilewski Trio will celebrate the release of their latest ECM album January. The album, which received enthusiastic reviews, including The New York Times Critic’s Choice: New CD’s, is a strong musical statement from a still-young band with a long history already behind it, and an album with an exceptionally wide-ranging program – all of it played with assurance, purpose and focus. The album and the Trio’s concerts reconfirm that the trio of Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz is one of the most outstanding contemporary jazz groups. Their friend and mentor, trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, has said, “In the entire history of Polish jazz we’ve never had a band like this one. They just keep getting better and better.”

[The Trio] have developed a sound full of subtlety, finesse and understated beauty – All About Jazz

Wasilewski is an excellent pianist influenced by Keith Jarrett – The New York Times

The tour is presented with generous support from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.

>>> TOUR DETAILS
>>> MORE ABOUT MARCIN WASILEWSKI TRIO
>>> JANUARY & REVIEWS

Bachanalia Chamber Orchestra and
the Polish Cultural Institute
present:

ALEKSANDER TANSMAN
TRIPTYCH FOR STRINGS

IN A GALA CONCERT
HONORING THE STATE OF ISRAEL’S 60th ANNIVERSARY

AND FEATURING TRADITIONAL ORCHESTRAL AND KLEZMER WORKS BY
COMPOSERS WHO DRAW UPON JEWISH AND ISRAELI TRADITIONS

BACHANALIA ORCHESTRA

Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 8:00 PM

Merkin Concert Hall
129 West 67th Street, New York, NY, 10023
Tickets:$35, $18 seniors & students, tel. 212.501.3330 or www.kaufman-center.org

In a gala celebration of the 60th anniversary of Israel’s statehood, Bachanalia presents a concert of works by composers whose ties to Jewish and Israeli traditions have influenced their music, including Aleksander Tansman (1897-1986), who, while returning to his Jewish heritage, continued to be inspired by Polish music. The program will also feature works by Andre Hajdu, Igor Tkachenko, Naomi Shemer, and Naftali Herz Imber, and a selection of Klezmer tunes. Bachanalia, launched in 1988 as a chamber orchestra of international competition winners is committed both to Bach and to musical diversity.

Aleksander Tansman’s Triptych for Strings will open Bachanalia’s concert. Born in Poland in 1897 to a Jewish upper middle class family with strong connections to the European musical elite, Tansman began playing piano at the age of five and began composing by the age of eight. His career took him around the world and he would become renowned as one of the best composers that Poland ever produced. Tansman wrote his Triptych for String Quartet in 1930 and later arranged it for string orchestra. The piece, composed in Paris, was commissioned by the American patron Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge, to whom the work is also dedicated.

Tansman’s music, primarily belonging to the realm of neoclassicism, is enriched by a plurality of influences and models, including jazz and folk dances. The composer also draws heavily upon his Polish and Jewish heritage as well as French musical influences. Tansman’s extensive output includes compositions for the stage, orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs in several languages. His style is characterized by clarity of form, lyrical expression, and the use of rich and varied instrumental colors.

The concert is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. A State Agency.

>>> THE PROGRAM & MUSICIAN ROSTER
>>> MORE ON ALEKSANDER TANSMAN
>>> MORE ON BACHANALIA

The Museum of Modern Art and
the Polish Cultural Institute
present:

A SELECTION OF POLISH JAZZ FILM POSTERS

AS PART OF JAZZ SCORE – MoMA's CELEBRATION OF THE BEST ORIGINAL JAZZ SCORES FOR FILM
FROM THE 1950s TO THE PRESENT

Byl Jazz

Lech Majewski, a poster for Feliks Falk's And All That Jazz (1981)

APRIL 16 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The Museum of Modern Art
The Roy and Niuta Titus 1 and 2 lobbies
11 West 53th Street, New York, NY 10019
Wed.-Mon.: 10:30 AM - 5:30 PM, Fri.: 10:30 AM - 8:00 PM. Closed on Tuesday.
Admission: free with film tickets; MoMA's admission: $20, $16 seniors, $12 students (includes MoMA galleries and films),
Free on Fridays, 4:00-8:00 PM. More information: www.moma.org, 212.708.9400

The Museum of Modern Art’s Jazz Score includes a broad representation of Polish films, many featuring the music of KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA, among other FILMS with music by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonius Monk, Toru Takemitsu, and Wynton Marsalis; two live performances – one of them being A CONCERT Tribute to Krzysztof Komeda by the Tomasz Stanko Quartet with special guest Billy Harper – and an international gallery exhibition that features POLISH POSTERS for films with jazz scores, among many other artifacts.

The gallery exhibition of Jazz Score celebrates the sophistication and innovation that postwar jazz has brought to the art of live-action and animated films. Jazz continues to have a dramatic impact on the visual design of film trailers and the graphics of film promotion.

Among international works, a wide selection of Polish posters is presented: for Knife In the Water byJan Lenica, for There Was Jazz by Lech Majewski, for Blow-Up by Waldemar Swierzy, Innocent Sorcerers byWojciech Fangor, Dilemma byMaciej Hibner, Black Orpheus byAnna Huskowska, Taxi Driver byAndrzej Klimowski, Elevator to the Gallows by Roman Cieslewicz, and Barrier by Leszek Holdanowicz.

Among the more than 100 films one can see masterpieces by Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski and Miroslaw Kijowicz with music by Krzysztof Komeda. A Polanski film with music by Chico Hamilton and a film by Zbigniew Rybczynski with music by Zbigniew Namyslowski will also be screened.

>>> MORE ON THE EXHIBITION
>>> TOMASZ STANKO CONCERT OF MUSIC BY KRZYSZTOF KOMEDA
>>> POLISH FILMS – DETAILED PROGRAM
>>> JAZZ SCORE FULL PROGRAM

Art in General and
the Polish Cultural Institute
present:

ANNA MOLSKA

artist-in-residence
at
Art in General

molska
Anna Molska, Jesus Loves Me, stills from video

MARCH 1 - APRIL 30, 2008

Eastern European Residency Exchange Exhibition
APRIL 17 - MAY 31, 2008

Art in General
79 Walker Street, New York, NY 10013-3523
tel. (212) 219-0473
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 12—6pm

Even as an art student under the legendary Grzegorz Kowalski at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts, Anna Molska already reveals exceptional maturity, individuality, and craftsmanship in her application of digital video and perfectly integrated soundtrack to such classical subjects as the nude or the landscape. She combines technical skill with an ability to cast a spell – and break it. Her strategy involves playing a game with the viewer, whom she seduces by inducing a state of aesthetic satisfaction with a perfect form and then, suddenly breaks this convention and brings us back to a reality that is by definition imperfect, or just reveals a certain self-irony.

From the start she has brought a feminist critique to the two great patriarchal archetypes of woman: as saint or sinner. In 2006, she won an Honorable Mention in the Samsung Art Master Competition in Warsaw for the film Jesus Loves Me, its title a song by Cocorosie, which Molska sings with the devotion of a pious child, but internalizing the good girl / bad girl polarity by gradually distorting digitally the child’s face into that of a creepily sinister alter ego. In the same competition the following year she won Second Prize for her film Tanagrama, taking as its starting point Kowalski’s earlier Manipulable Composition (in which he invited viewers to re-configure its geometric elements). In this complex, masterly work, she merges video-performance, choreography, a dialogue, and the tension between corporeality and abstraction into a film having clear associations with the Russian avant-garde and demonstrating her characteristic mastery of the soundtrack.

Anna Molska’s residency is part of Art in General’s Eastern European Residency Exchange, which gives artists the opportunity to create a new work in a new context and to meet and interact with art communities in Eastern Europe and New York City. Anna Molska’s residency at Art in General is made possible thanks to the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.

>>>MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

St. Ann’s Warehouse,
in association with
the Polish Cultural Institute,
presents

TR WARSZAWA

MACBETH

directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna

U.S. Premiere

JUNE 17-23, 25-29, 2008, 9:00 PM

St. Ann’s Warehouse/Tobacco Warehouse
Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, Dumbo, Brooklyn
38 Water Street, Brooklyn NY 11201
Tickets: $35 (reserved seating), $100 (VIP donor seating)
group, student and rush tickets will be available
Tel. 718.254.8779 or www.stannswarehouse.org

The best international theater New York still needs to see. – the Village Voice

St. Ann’s Warehouse in association with the Polish Cultural Institute presents TR Warszawa, one of Poland’s most vital theater companies on its return to St. Ann’s Warehouse with the U.S. premiere of Macbeth, directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna.

Macbeth boldly reinvents the classic for the twenty-first century. With huge cinematic sweep, the production takes multi-media theater to the limit. A dramatic two-story set, video walls, special effects, an extraordinary, layered soundscape, and a deep well of acting tradition transform Shakespeare's web of intimacy, politics and the supernatural into a contemporary living film.

St. Ann’s Warehouse will create an outdoor theater in the Civil War-era Tobacco Warehouse, located in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, across the street from St. Ann’s Warehouse. This historic site’s romantic, open air and column-free structure is well-suited to St. Ann’s visionary programming, at the gateway to the Brooklyn Waterfront.

Macbeth will be performed in Polish with English supertitles.

Presented with support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, and the City of Warsaw. Additional support provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation. Special Thanks to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

>>>MORE ON MACKBETH >>>MORE ON TR WARSZAWA

>>>MORE ON GRZEGORZ JARZYNA

The Museum of Modern Art and
the Polish Cultural Institute
present:

ROMAN POLANSKI, REPULSION
(music by Chico Hamilton)
ZBIGNIEW RYBCZYNSKI, PLAMUZ
(music by Zbigniew Namyslowski)

AS PART OF JAZZ SCORE – MoMA's CELEBRATION OF THE BEST ORIGINAL JAZZ SCORES FOR FILM
FROM THE 1950s TO THE PRESENT

Zbigniew Rybczynski, Plamuz (1973)

AUGUST 1, 3, 7, 9, 2008

The Museum of Modern Art’s Jazz Score (April 16 – September 15), includes a broad representation of Polish films, many featuring the music of Krzysztof Komeda, among other films with music by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Modern Jazz Quartet, Thelonius Monk, Toru Takemitsu, and Wynton Marsalis; two live performances – one of them of Komeda’s music by Tomasz Stanko – and an international gallery exhibition that features Polish posters for films with jazz scores, among many other artifacts

After a celebration of music by Krzysztof Komeda through films and a concert tribute by Tomasz Stanko in May, Polanski’s Repulsion with music by Chico Hamilton and the first experimental film by Zbigniew Rybczynski, Plamuz with music by Zbigniew Namyslowski, will be screened among the more than 100 films presented in MoMA’s Jazz Score – which offers such classics as Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows with music by Miles Davis and Antonioni’s Blow-Up with music by Herbie Hancock.

"The introduction of contemporary jazz to film scoring in the mid-twentieth century brought fresh forms of sophistication and innovation to world cinema. Until the 1950s, jazz had primarily been used in film as atmospheric or incidental music or during show-stopping musical numbers. In the postwar period, however, jazz was fully integrated into the onscreen drama for the first time, becoming an essential aspect of many films’ very structure and aesthetic. Jazz Score celebrates the groundbreaking collaborations between filmmakers, composers, and musicians who, by experimenting with new forms and techniques, have radically transformed both art forms – jazz and the cinema – from the 1950s to the present day". (Josh Siegel, curator of Jazz Score)

>>> POLISH FILMS – DETAILED PROGRAM

>>> POLISH JAZZ FILM POSTERS
>>> JAZZ SCORE FULL PROGRAM

The Polish Book Institute,
Polish Cultural Institute in London,
Polish Cultural Institute in New York,
and W.A.B. Publishing House in Warsaw
announce the
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
Award

The FOUND IN TRANSLATION AWARD, established on October 15, 2007, is to be given annually to the translator or translators of the best translation of a work of Polish literature into English that was published as a book in the preceding calendar year.

Candidates for the Award can be nominated by private persons as well institutions in Poland and abroad. The deadline for sending nominations is January 31 of each year, by midnight.

>>> FOUND IN TRANSLATION AWARD DETAILS