About CD: 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is now ten years that the Pro Musica Bona Foundation, one of the few public benefit organisations that aims to help musically talented young people, has been making its mark in Kraków.

The Foundation was established in 2010 following the initiative of Stefan Wojtas, a pianist, teacher and long-term Director of the Władysław Żeleński State Secondary Music School in Kraków, who decided to devote his time, energy, experience and contacts to the primary goal of supporting music adepts in the Małopolska region to the greatest extent possible. He managed to encourage a group of people with whom he created a small but ambitious group of enthusiasts, determined to act selflessly and effectively. For years, the President of Foundation was Bożena Breksa, a pianist and former student of Stefan Wojtas, who with her professionalism and high culture shaped the Foundation’s activities. To this day. two vice-presidents continue her work: Agnieszka Draus, who is rosponsible for the programme content and image of the Foundation as well as its schedule of activities, and Klementyna Górka, who supervises finances and reporting. The Programme Committee for these ten years included pianist Łukasz Dębski, violinist Katarzyna Balas and music theoretician Magdalena Silberring. Olga Łazarska, Joanna Król, Joanna Wojtas, Stanisław Pawlik and many other musicians, teachers of music schools in Kraków, among others, offered their advice and counsel.

Over the course of the decade, dozens of concerts and charitable cultural events have been organised: musical tales for children, educational concerts, opera galas, rhytm seminars, teacher training courses, pre-Christmas meetings and other similar special events,all of which have been organised in order to be able to finance at least part of the needs of the Foundation’s beneficiares. And these needs are manifold: from purchasing instruments or accesories related to them, thorough music scores to paying for participation in courses, competitions and festivals in Poland and abroad.

The Foundation has also cooperated with severals influential institutions and organisations, such as the Wieliczka Salt Mine, the Lions Club Kraków Stare Miasto, the Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Centre in Lusławice, the Centre for Jewish Culture in Kraków, the Foundation for the AGH Univerisity of Science and Technology, the Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Our concerts in reowned venues in Kraków and beyond, such as the Julius Słowacki Theatre, the ICE Congress Centre and the Cancert Hall in Lusławice, will long be remembered by both our scholarship holders and the continually enthusiastic audience.

We are proud to present you with two-CD album, which is actually a summary of ten years of the Pro Musica Bona Foundation. We offer you two parts. The first part, WCZORAJ/YESTERDAY, contains composition interpreted by the most important names of the young generation on the Polish music market. Artists such as Szymon Nehring, Krzysztof Książek, Jakub Kuszlik and Rozalia Kierc – the best Polish pianists, Aleksandra Kuls – a violinist who is said to be a worthy succesor to her master Kaja Danczowska, Łukasz Dyczko – the European musician of 2017, the flute sorceress Natalia Jarząbek, perseverance and success. And they started in our Foundation… The second part. DZIŚ/TODAY, shows our currently most talented sudents, who are – we are convinced – also the cultural future of our region. We ask you to remember such names as Moliszewska and Prokopowicz (pianists), Siudak (flute), Chmielewski (violin) and Jaworski (guitar), and finally Staszel (violin) and Balas (cello) and the percussion duo Marimbazzi.

We would like to thank most sincerely the Directors and people representing the Institutions, without whom the release of the album WCZORAJ/YESTERDAY would not have been possible. The following institutions have granted us permission to use recordings:

Ms Małgorzata Polańska and Mr Lech Tołwiński, owners of DUX Recors

Ms Katarzyna Meinssner, Director of the Institute of Music and Dance

Mr Stanisław Leszczyński, Director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute

Mr Andrzej Gize, Director of the Ludwig van Beethoven Association

Please stay with us! Support us, listen to our students and support high culture. And you will be repaid in the most beautiful way of possible, as illustrated by the album you are holding in your hand. “For art”, as Karol Szymanowski wrote, “is the eternal overcoming of everything that is infirm, flawed and immature, a search for ever more perfect form, ever fuller expression”

Pro Musica Bona Foundation Team