Thomas Simaku - Concerto for Orchestra World Premiere

Thomas Simaku's Concerto for Orchestra, the winning work of the International Competition for Lutos?awski's 100th Birthday, received its world premiere at the final concert of the 2013 Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music on 28th September, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafa? Janiak.

Concerto for Orchestra was selected from 160 anonymous submissions from 37 different countries, by a jury which included composers Luca Francesconi (Italy), Magnus Lindberg (Finland), Steven Stucky (USA) and Tadeusz Wielecki - artistic director of the Warsaw Autumn Festival. The award ceremony took place before the concert, which was broadcast live on Polish national radio. Thomas Simaku has described his concerto as an 'imaginary journey where ancient and modern aspects of utterance, musical or otherwise, interconnect and complement each other', thus creating 'a network of relationships between various idiomatic aspects of the musical language'. In homage to Lutos?awski, Simaku quotes a chord from Jeux Venitiens, entrusted to the ethereal sound of the vibraphone, which the Polish Radio described as a 'moving and significant gesture'. More information about the programme of the final concert can be found at the following link: http://www.polskieradio.pl/8/688/Artykul/940549,Taniec-smierci-i-gry-z-Lutoslawskim