Lecture-concert “Women of Four Cultures – piano music by women composers from Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany” by Agata Hołdyk (University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland)
13 December @11.00-12.30 in C-405
Agata Hołdyk (PhD, adjunct of the Music Institute of the Silesian University in Katowice) is a prizewinner of many national and international competitions. She was awarded a 5th place in the 21st International Piano Competition in Marsala (Sicily), 1st place in the 3rd Silesian Piano Competition in Zabrze and 2nd place in the 6th M. Magin International Piano Competition in Paris (France). She is a grant holder of the Minister’s of Culture and Art Artistic Grant. Agata has received her piano and chamber education from eminent pianists and pedagogues, including mgr. Maria Wrobel-Zegalska, Prof. Andrzej Jasinski, Prof. Regina Strokosz-Michalak, Prof. Alexander Satz, and Prof. Jontscha Bayrov. She finished her postgraduate studies in the piano class of Prof. Andrzdej Jasinski. In 2015 she released her solo album “Clara & Robert Schumann – Piano Works” and is a member of jury at piano competitions in Poland and Germany. She continues playing concerts as a solo and chamber artist in Poland and abroad (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Ukraine).
The work of women in classical music is particularly close to Agata’s heart. Already during her studies she became interested in the work of Clara Schumann and her compositions in relation to the works of Robert Schumann and their common borrowing of musical themes. This was also the subject of her doctoral thesis.
Currently, she is expanding her circle of interest to include new female composers, contemporaries living and working in different countries and cultures. This has to do with the Transform 4 Europe project in which she is taking an active part because the University of Silesia, where she works, is one of the partners of the Transform 4 Europe project bringing together 7 universities of the European Union. Taking up international cooperation, she came up with the idea of creating a CD with recordings of piano works by women composers, which would be promoted in all universities of the alliance and more with which the University of Silesia cooperates. For this purpose, Agata chose 4 countries: Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany, where she found 5 female composers with whom she met either live or online. Agata asked them questions about their work, the need to compose, the circumstances under which they created their works, and about drawing their inspiration, the verve to create.
Female composers – not so long ago unthinkable, a profession attributed rather to the male sex – are now entering more and more confidently and brightly in the firmament of contemporary composers, being, as it were, “journalists” of the surrounding reality, illustrating what surrounds their communities and in their culture.
In her lecture, Agata presents some of the piano works of female composers: Lea Grabral, Piret Rips Laul, Naila Galiamova, Zita Bružaitė, Dagmara Jack and Clara Schumann. The lecture is in English and open for everyone interested in the topic!