ORKIESTRA MUZYKI NOWEJ (NEW MUSIC ORCHESTRA)
was founded in 1996 at the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice on the initiative of Aleksander Lasoń, with the aim of promoting 20th-century classics and works by contemporary composers. Lecturers and graduates of the Academy provide the core of the ensemble. Other musicians who cooperate with the ensemble include the Akademos Quartet and the Silesian Quartet.
The Orchestra works primarily under the direction of Szymon Bywalec. Since 1999 it has regularly been invited to appear at the Warsaw Autumn Festival under the baton of eminent conductors, partnering Polish and foreign soloists. During the 2005 Warsaw Autumn, the OMN performed Pierre Boulez’s Répons in celebration of the composer’s 85th birthday. On that occasion it was conducted by François-Xavier Roth, and supported by soloists of the Courtcircuit ensemble and IRCAM’s sound engineers. The following year under the direction of Jean Derroyer, the Orchestra presented Boulez’s Dérive 2 (later playing the work again at the Paris Conservatoire).
Since 2001, the OMN has co-hosted the New Music Festival in Bytom. Between 2002 and 2006, it has participated in the Förderpreise für Polen programme, aimed at promoting the work of the young generation of Polish composers and financed by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation in Munich.
The Orchestra’s achievements include a number of world and Polish premieres of many works, some of which were composed especially for the ensemble. Alongside the latest compositions, the orchestra has recorded many works by contemporary Polish composers for the Polish Radio. In 2000, Jerzy Kornowicz’s Interwoven Figures, performed under the baton of Aleksander Lasoń for Polish Radio Channel 2, received a distinction at the International Rostrum of Composers in Amsterdam. This was followed by two similar accolades for Paweł Szymański’s Four Songs to Words by Trakl (featuring Urszula Kryger, 2007) and Lidia Zielińska’s Conrad’s Seven Islands (2010), both conducted by Szymon Bywalec.
In 2003, the Orchestra’s CD with works by Bolesław Szabelski, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Eugeniusz Knapik, Aleksander Lasoń and Marcel Chyrzyński (published by PWM Editions and Dux) was nominated for the 2003 Fryderyk Award in the Album of the Year – Contemporary Music category. In 2009, a CD with the music of Weronika Ratusińska (also on Dux) received the Pizzicato Supersonic Award in Luxembourg.
Recently, the Orchestra has cooperated with the Melos-Ethos Ensemble in Slovakia and the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain in France. Together with soloist Jakob Kullberg, it has performed and recorded the cello concertos of Scandinavian composers Per Nørgård, Arne Nordheim and Kaija Saariaho. It has also participated in the European project Re:New Music promoting new music as well as European Krzysztof Penderecki Music Centre programme Young composers pay homage to Chopin, recording 3 CDs with the works of Weronika Ratusińska, Stanisław Bromboszcz and Paweł Hendrich. Since 2009, OMN’s projects have been sponsored by Pro Novum Ltd., a company based in Katowice.
