10th edition of Sacrum-Profanum Festival in 2012
Sacrum-Profanum Festival originated in 2003 as a small, local initiative that presented secular and sacred music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the third edition, the festival’s interests moved towards presenting music of the 19th and 20th centuries. Since 2008, the festival features contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Sacrum-Profanum Festival has now grown into an internationally acclaimed event, having been recognised by, amongst others, a prestigious British monthly “Gramophone” as one of the most interesting festivals of classical music.
Each year the festival’s programme focuses on works of composers from different countries. The previous editions presented Russian music (2005), French (2006), American (2007), German (2008), British (2009), Nordic (2010), American again (2011) and Polish (2012) in tremendous performances of the best contemporary music artists, such as Kronos Quartet, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, musikFabrik. In 2007 the festival opened to jazz music, hosting great performances of Miles Davis by Tomasz Stanko and George Gershwin by Leszek Mozdzer.
8th edition of Sacrum-Profanum Festival in 2010
The leading trend of the festival is to present contemporary music of classical composers in reinterpretations or remixes of young alternative musicians, mainly jazz and electronic music. There are also special collaborations of alternative music with orchestral accompaniment.
Various places are adapted as venues for the festival’s concerts – from the Krakow Philharmonic Hall, through the Oskar Schindler Factory and the Museum of Municipal Engineering, to the factory halls of steel mill in Nowa Huta. Sacrum-Profanum Festival, apart from the series of concerts, has now opened up to other areas of art, such as opera, exhibitions and installations, but also meetings, discussions and workshops supplementing the main themes.
Sacrum-Profanum Festival 2017
Each year, Sacrum-Profanum Festival takes place in September. The exact dates and programme of this year’s edition are yet to be released.