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The Philharmonic for Young Music-Lovers

Warsaw Philharmonic has for many years been concerned with the musical education of the youngest generation of listeners. Each season, we include in our concert schedules events specially designed for children.

The famous Sunday Meetings with Aunt Jadzia have already become a legend - they have been held in Warsaw Philharmonic Hall for nearly 50 years. Aunt Jadzia - Jadwiga Mackiewicz - prepares a number of varied concert programmes which introduce children to the secrets of music. She talks, among others, about composers, musical genres, various instruments. She invites well-known, popular musicians to participate in these concerts so as to guarantee the highest performance standards and thus - to shape the taste of future philharmonic audiences from the youngest age. She hosted such artists as Konstanty A. Kulka, Janusz Olejniczak and Jadwiga Rappé. Each programme includes the so-called ‘Virtuoso's Corner', a performance by extremely gifted children, many of whom later become celebrated artists, to mention only Karol Radziwonowicz and Stanisław Drzewiecki.

The new cycle Mornings for Little Music Lovers, first included in the Philharmonic's programme last season, performs a similar function. The meetings take place on Sundays, alternating with Aunt Jadzia's concerts. This new cycle was created in response to the huge demand for concerts for children: tickets for Aunt Jadzia's concerts are sold out on the first day of sales, and most of the seats are booked by subscription). The Mornings are conducted by various presenters - musicologists and music theorists with special predispositions to work with children. The cycle also features excellent artists and talented youth.

Mornings for Little Music Lovers are an extended (longer) form of Meetings with Music. The latter are educational concerts held at primary and secondary schools (junior high and colleges), and also occasionally in kindergartens. Every month they reach more than 200 schools. The complete cycle consists of 10 meetings, whicvh gives a total of 2000 concerts each school year (!) These are held in 8 provinces (voivodships) of Poland: Mazovia, Ermland-Masuren, Podlasie, Świętokrzyskie, the Subcarpathian, and the provinces of Białystok, Lublin and Łódź. Each concert at school takes one lesson unit, that is, 45 minutes. The performing artists are professional musicians, employees of the Grand Theatre - National Opera, Warsaw Philharmonic, Warsaw Chamber Opera and other music institutions.

Meetings with Music are, for many children, the only opportunity for direct contact with musical art, and for this reason they are of great importance to Warsaw Philharmonic, where they are believed to be equally important as the Philharmonic's traditional activity. The organiser of these concerts is the Warsaw Philharmonic Department of Concerts for Children and Young Audiences, phone: 22 55 17 136, 22 55 17 137, e mail: filh edu@filharmonia.pl