About CD: The material for this recording is based on our repertoire prepared for all stages of “Salieri-Zinetti” Chamber Music Competition. The pieces from this CD represent different music styles and the idea for this was to show the full range of our music interest. As a result of our long preparations, we succeeded in winning the 1st prize ex equo at the prestigious Chamber Music Competition in Italy “Salieri – Zinetti”. This competition took place on 4-9 September in two beautiful Italian cities, Verona and Mantua. It consisted of four stages. The first stage consisted of an online competition. Each band sent an audio recording containing any number of songs which were to last about 30 minutes. Of the 68 entries, the jury decided to invite 44 teams from 20 countries around the world. The second stage took place in Italy at the Palazzo Giuliari – Università degli Studi di Verona. Each team performed the same repertoire which they reported online to the competition, but this time directly before the jury. The jury decided to invite 16 teams to the next stage. 

The third stage – semi-final, took place in the Auditorium “Monteverdi” Conservatorio di Musica “L. Campiani” di Mantova. All bands performed a new repertoire that lasted 30 minutes. After these auditions, the jury decided to invite 7 teams to the final stage of the competition. The fourth stage the finale, took place in the Auditorium “Montemezzi” Conservatorio di Musica “F.E. Dall’Abaco” di Verona. The finalists were again obliged to perform a new repertoire which also lasted about 30 minutes. 

The Laureates’ concert was held in Via Cà Nova Delaini – Lazise, where all four of the rewarded bands performed. As winners of the First Prize of the ex aequo “Primo Premio ex aequo” we received the award of 5000 € and the honor of performing three gigs in concert halls in Italy. They will take place over the next year. We also received a special prize, which is a professional recording by a film crew of one of these three concerts. It is also worth noting that we were the youngest team in the whole competition, because only the upper age limit of 35 was established, so we had the pleasure to compete with the best professional bands from around the world, mainly students and professional musicians who were graduates of all sorts of music schools. The next challenge was the logistics before each stage of the competition, travelling back and forth with instruments divided in 30 pieces, all together around 320 kg. Carrying instruments to long distances and playing in various locations was also a big challenge. Additionally, in the eighteen-year history of this competition, we are the first team from Poland who managed to win the first prize. 

We would also like to thank our professor, Mr Leon Olejniczak, who devoted a lot of time to us and thanks to him we have succeeded in achieving such a great success.