The Benedictine Music Summer is the outcome of the combination of two musical events
held at Tyniec Abbey: the Tyniec Organ Recitals, continued since 1972, and the Festival of
Music from European Benedictine Monasteries, inaugurated in 2008. The new formula of the
festival is intended as a unique synthesis of the most important and universal values,
encompassing the genius loci of Tyniec Hill and its millennium-long history, openness to
contemporary ideas and people’s needs, a broadly defined cultural heritage and the
Benedictine tradition. This year’s motto, ‘Seek after peace and pursue it’, are the words of St
Benedict, found in the Prologue to his Rule, showing the ultimate prospect that opens up
before a person entering the path of monastic life. Peace is the central Benedictine value and
its nature is dynamic: it is not something obvious and granted, but rather requires active
involvement, effort and persistence. By no means does this contradict its value – quite the
contrary, this is what makes it particularly desirable and welcome. For the first time, the
concerts in this project are going to be held outside Tyniec Abbey as well: at the Benedictine
Convent in Staniątki and the Shrine of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady of the
Tarnow Region, in Tuchów, formerly subject to the provostship of Tyniec Abbey.
Festival of Music from European Benedictine Monasteries
For centuries, Benedictine monasteries and convents have been places where culture
flourished, including music, which is an excellent medium for showing various forms of
peace – a value that is so desirable in our time. The festival will be an opportunity to hear
compositions that either used to or continue to resound in monastic interiors. A number of
choirs have been invited from various countries. The female Mediae Aetatis Sodalicium from
Rome and the male choir from St Florian will give us samples of the oldest type of church
music, invariably present in the Tyniec monastery – Gregorian chant, which, in a very natural
way, brings a sense of peace to anyone listening and joining in spiritually. The Polish
Organum Choir accompanied by the Ricercar Instrumental Ensemble is going to present an
anthology of Polish choral music, from monodies written in the Gregorian scales in the 11th
and 12th centuries, to vocal and vocal-and-instrumental polyphonies of the Renaissance and
Baroque periods, to the Cecilian music of the late 19th century, to works by contemporary
composers. The choral forms proposed during the festival will be complemented by a
performance of Cannamella, an ensemble focusing on the musical tradition of Benedictine
abbeys in their native Belgium, and a concert of Lorenzo Monteza OSB, a harpist-monk from
Monte Cassino Abbey, the monastery founded by St Benedict himself.
We trust that all the performances will retain their Benedictine character – after all, although
removed from the surroundings of their home monastery, they will take place in the former
library or the church at Tyniec Abbey, or at the church of the Benedictine Convent in
Staniątki.
Organ Recitals
In August, during four concerts forming the organ part of the festival, intended as four
presentations of the organ music of nearly five centuries, performed by virtuosos representing
various schools of European organ playing art, we are going to be dealing with music clearly
based on the major-minor system and written in scales that are contemporary mutations of the
well-tempered system.
The harmonic space delineated by those tonal interdependencies remains a predictable one,
based on a harmony that is close to our perception and its modifications in contemporary
works, one whose destination is consonance – i.e. the harmonic reality of peace, certainty and
safety, even if they are attained after longer sections, or sometimes only after the narration of
the whole form, considered dissonant in the context of traditional tonal harmony. These will
be pieces of clear, balanced, symmetrical – and therefore usually classical – form, whose
narration will provide a sense of equilibrium and strive for fulfilment (described as
dénouement or solution in musical terminology).
The programme proposed to the audience of the concerts is very rich, and above all very
diverse. Their binding medium is found in the work of the great Bach, in whose person the
components of ongoing improvement of composition skills, performing art and improvisation
that fill the festival programme find a true apogee. This is so because ‘everything both
gravitates toward and has its origin in Bach.’
The Organ Recitals will be held at the church of the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec and the
Shrine of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady of the Tarnow Region, in Tuchów.
The Benedictine Music Summer
Tyniec, Staniątki, Tuchów
Ticket reservations, information: tel. (+48) 12 68 85 450, 12 68 85 452,
recepcja@bik.benedyktyni.pl
Festival of Music from European Benedictine Monasteries
3 July 2010, 4.00 p.m.
MEDIAE AETATIS SODALICIUM, Gregorian chant choir, Italy
Church at the Benedictine Convent in Staniątki
4 July 2010, 4.15 p.m.
MEDIAE AETATIS SODALICIUM, Gregorian chant choir, Italy
Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Benedictine Institute of Culture To Protect the Good, Sala Petrus
The Gregorian chant choir Mediae Aetatis Sodalicium, based in Bologna, was formed in
1991 by the Mediae Aetatis Sodalicium Association. The singers are graduates of various
Italian universities, with degrees in humanities. The winner of the International Music
Competition in Rome (1997) and the Guido Arezzo Polyphonic Competition (the monody
section, 2005), the ensemble has performed in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Japan,
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, in addition to its native Italy.
Comprising female voices only, the choir aspires to combine its own interpretation with the
performing concepts and style developed by Eugene Cardine OSB, a French monk, Choir
Master at the Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes, and professor at the Pontifical Institute of
Sacred Music in Rome, who – through years of in-depth research of the oldest notations and
manuscripts – revolutionized the interpretation of the Gregorian chant, ever since referred to
as ‘Gregorian semiology’.
The Singers
Roberta Binotti, Maria Cristina Bonello, Anna Pia Capurso, Bruna Caruso, Carla Cesari, Dina
Cucchiaro, Federica Di Leonardo, Carmen Petcu, Francesca Provezza, Anna Maria Rais,
Cinzia Romeo.
The Director
Nino Albarosa is a former Professor of Music Palaeography at the University of Udine and a
Gregorian chant teacher at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. His scholarly
interests focus on monodic notation and the rules of interpretation of Gregorian singing, i.e.
subjects he studied under Eugene Cardine.
Professor Albarosa conducts Gregorian chant workshops in Italy and abroad. He has
published a number of articles on the notation of Gregorian chant. He has been President of
the Italian Musicological Society twice, a member (since the foundation) and two-time
Secretary of the International Association of Gregorian Chant Studies, currently heading its
Italian section. He is also the editor-in-chief of the research periodical Studi Gregoriani. Since
1991, he has been the musical director of the Gregorian choir Mediae Aetatis Sodalicium.
10 July 2010, 4.00 p.m.
Lorenzo Montenz OSB, harp, Italy
Church at the Benedictine Convent in Staniątki
11 July 2010, 4.15 p.m.
Lorenzo Montenz OSB, harp, Italy
Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Benedictine Institute of Culture To Protect the Good, Sala Petrus
Lorenzo Montenz OSB, a Benedictine monk from Monte Cassino Abbey, started his musical
studies very early on, achieving the highest mark and obtaining a diploma with honours in the
harp class at the G. Nicolini Conservatory in Piacenza. Subsequently, he perfected his skills at
the Guildhall School of Music in London and the National Academy of St Cecilia in Rome.
He has given concerts with orchestras directed by the greatest conductors of our time and
been invited to perform with the Italian Youth Orchestra, the San Remo Symphony Orchestra,
the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Milan, and the Symphony Orchestra of the National
Academy of St Cecilia.
Following his graduation with honours from the State University of Milan, in 2004 he became
the Director of the State Library at Monte Cassino, and Professor of the History of the Book
at the University of Cassino, two functions he still holds and manages to combine with his
activities as a concert performer and teacher.
17 July 2010, 4.00 p.m.
SCHOLA FLORIANA, Austria
Church at the Benedictine Convent in Staniątki
18 July 2010, 4.15 p.m.
SCHOLA FLORIANA, Austria
Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Benedictine Institute of Culture To Protect the Good, Sala Petrus
Schola Floriana, formed in 1999, is unique among the choirs of the Austrian town of St.
Florian. It consists of twelve men of different ages, directed by Regens Chori Matthias
Giesen. The choir’s main emphasis is on Gregorian chant, the earliest form of Christian
sacred music, with a view to preserving it as the oldest cultural artefact of the Church.
Their special interest is the alternatim technique, i.e. choral singing alternated with pieces of
organ music. In addition to Gregorian chant, Schola Floriana performs compositions written
for several male voices.
The ensemble has given concerts in numerous churches and monasteries in Austria and
abroad. In 2010, apart from the concerts in Poland, it is due to go on a tour of Israel.
24 July 2010, 4.00 p.m.
CANNAMELLA, chamber music ensemble, Belgium
Church at the Benedictine Convent in Staniątki
25 July 2010, godz.16.15
CANNAMELLA, chamber music ensemble, Belgium
Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Benedictine Institute of Culture To Protect the Good, Sala Petrus
The ensemble Cannamella was founded in 2004 by Aline Hopchet and derived its name
from an Old Italian word for a piece of liquorice, but also for a small reed pipe. This fact
nicely characterizes the four to seven-headed ensemble based on recorders and double reed
instruments. Cannamella performs the lesser known repertoire from the 16th , 17th and early
18th centuries. Original programmes, seasoned with freshness and enthusiasm, are the
ingredients for the musicians’ passion.
Cannamella started off with the projects The Vision of Delight (Ayres and masks at the
English court) and Quanto dolce è quell’ardore (Italian virtuosity in Baroque). The
programmes Blom-hofken van Cupido (Cupid’s flowered garden) and Cantiones Natalitiae
highlight the charms of 17th-century music from Flemish regions. Time and again, the artists
gratefully find their inspiration in archive research and in the contacts with audiences and
organizers, for embarking on yet another musical adventure.
Aline Hopchet, recorder, baroque oboe
Aline Hopchet studied the recorder with Geert Van Gele. In 1997 she obtained a master’s
diploma in recorder with Bart Spanhove at the Lemmens Institute in Louvain. After that she
studied with Marion Verbruggen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1993 the
double-reed instruments ‘virus’ became her passion. She studied with Ku Ebbinge at the same
Conservatory. She completed her studies with Paul Dombrecht (Royal Conservatory of
Brussels) and received her master’s diploma in baroque oboe there in 2009.
She was a founding member of the Zefiro Torna ensemble (CD Mermaphilia, Eufoda) for
seven years. She has participated in various group projects such as Le Concert Spirituel
(Hervé Niquet), Elyma (Gabriel Garrido), Oboefollia (Paul Dombrecht), Le Grand Caroussel
(Bruxelles 2000), or Thésée by Lully conducted by William Christie.
In 2004 she formed her own ensemble Cannamella. Her passion for the flageolet (a small
19th- century recorder) resulted in the foundation of another ensemble, Les Pantalons, aiming
to bring this ball and drawing-room music back to life, together with pieces on typical 19th
century instruments: the flageolet, the cornet à pistons, the violin and the square piano.
Aline Hopchet teaches the recorder at the Institut Supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie
(IMEP) and the Music Academies of Zaventem and Lokeren. She is also a member of the
educational staff of the Brussels Musical Instruments Museum (MIM).
31 July 2010, 4.00 p.m.
ORGANUM Academic Choir, Poland
Marek Stefański, organ, Poland
Church at the Benedictine Convent in Staniątki
1 August 2010, 4.15 p.m.
ORGANUM Academic Choir, Poland
RICERCAR Instrumental Ensemble, Poland
Marek Stefański, organ, Poland
Church at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
The Organum Academic Choir was formed in 1969 on the initiative of the Krakow organist
and pedagogue Bogusław Grzybek, who continues to be its conductor and artistic director.
The choir operates under the patronage of the Krakow chapter of the Club of Catholic
Intelligentsia.
Their repertoire includes vocal-and-instrumental classical music, patriotic songs, and also
Christmas carols. In addition to early music, they perform works by contemporary composers,
such as Górecki, Koszewski, Krenz, Nikodemowicz, Penderecki, Szeligowski, Twardowski,
Wiechowicz, and in particular Krakow’s own Juliusz Łuciuk, who has dedicated a number of
compositions to the choir. For 6 years now they have been performing together with the
Ricercar Instrumental Ensemble, extending their repertoire with oratory music (Bach,
Beethoven, Händel, Mozart, Vivaldi). The choir also collaborates with Polish Philharmonic
institutions, the Lviv Philharmonic, the Krakow Opera, the Warsaw Chamber Opera, several
theatres in Krakow, and also a number of Polish and foreign ensembles on an exchange basis.
Organum has been a permanent participant and a many-time winner of various festivals,
reviews and competitions, and has a considerable quantity of recordings to its credit. Every
two years, in the last ten days of April, the choir organizes the festival called The Grzegorz
Gerwazy Gorczycki Music Days.
The Organum Academic Choir has given concerts in nearly all European countries and in the
USA. Several performances for John Paul II at the Vatican are their most cherished
experience.
The Ricercar Instrumental Ensemble was formed in 1990 as an extension of the Organum
Academic Choir, on Bogusław Grzybek’s initiative. Composed of young musicians from the
Conservatory and Academy of Music in Krakow, it performs on its own and with choral
ensembles, mostly with Organum. In its relatively short career, the ensemble has participated
in a number of prestigious concerts in Poland and abroad.
Marek Stefański is one of the most active Polish organists. Born in 1969 in Rzeszow, he
graduated with honours from Krakow’s Academy of Music (1994) where he studied the organ
under Professor Joachim Grubich.
He started his concert career in his early years at the Academy of Music, going on two tours
of most European Countries with the Organum Academic Choir, as a solo organist.
Successful participation in several international festivals of organ and sacred music as well as
a number of awards (e.g. first prize in the Forum Europeen d’Art Sacre) opened him doors to
most Polish and foreign festivals of organ music.
Between 1996 and 2007, he was the permanent organist at St Mary’s Basilica in Krakow,
which he continues to collaborate with. Since 1999, he has worked at the Chair of Organ at
the Academy of Music in Krakow, where he also heads the Organ Class in the Church Music
Institute. In 2007, he defended his doctoral dissertation on improvisation styles in organ music
between the 18th and 20th centuries.
Marek Stefański has performed in most European countries, both Americas and Israel. He is
invited to give concerts on a regular basis in Russia, a country where he has become one of
the best-known foreign organists. He has made a great contribution to the dissemination of
Polish organ music, particularly 20th-century compositions, which he performs alongside the
art of organ improvisation. He has been responsible for the world premieres of works by some
contemporary Polish composers and the first Polish performances of pieces by French
composers, which were recorded for archival purposes. He has also made a large number of
recordings for the Polish Radio, Polish Television, some foreign broadcasting companies and
Polish record labels (DUX, Musicon), and Art Bene in Moscow.
Following his 2006 nomination for the recording industry’s Fryderyk award, Stefański
became a member of the Polish Phonographic Academy. In addition to his solo concert
career, he collaborates with a number of choirs, eminent vocalists and instrumentalists, and
has received numerous awards and commendations.
Marek Stefański is the founder and artistic director of the Evenings of Organ and Chambers
Music at the Rzeszow Cathedral and Churches, and also the artistic director of the Summer
Organ Concerts at the Basilica in Krosno.
7 August 2010, 8 p.m.
Barock Tune, Poland
Shrine of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady of the Tarnow Region, in Tuchów
8 August 2010, 4.15 p.m.
Barock Tune, Poland
Church at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Barock Tune:
Benedykt Matusik and Wacław Mulak, piccolo trumpets
Tomasz Sobaniec, timpani
Jan Mroczek, organ
The members of Barock Tune are all on the staff of the Academy of Music in Krakow. The
ensemble has participated in the Tyniec Organ Recitals a number of times (1996, 1998, 2000)
and also in the 14th Week of Christian Culture in Bielsko-Biala, the Summer Organ Concerts
(Bielsko-Biala), and the Podgórze Cultural Autumn (Krakow). Together with the organist A.
Newman, they performed during the 23rd International Festival of Music in Old Krakow
(1998), 8th Rzeszow Music Festival (1999), 22nd Stary Sacz Festival of Early Music (2000),
Early Music in Cieszyn/Tesin (2000), 6th Musica Sacra Christian Music Panorama (Skoczów
2001), 7th July Organ Sundays – Jawiszowice – Brzeszcze (2001), 11th Organ Music Days in
Lublin (2002), 7th Summer Music Festival in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (2002), Music in the
Old Monastery – Lodz – Łagiewniki (2002), 8th International Festival of Organ an Chamber
Music in Jędrzejów (2002), 9th International Festival of Organ an Chamber Music in
Trzebnica (2002), 2nd International Festival of Organ an Chamber Music in Skierniewice
(2002), 16th Bystra Organ Recitals (2002), 3rd Festival of Organ Music – Zakopane 2003
(Ludźmierz), 21st Kartuzy Summer Organ Concerts (2003), International Festival of Summer
Organ Concerts (Krakow – Skałka 2004), Music and Architecture International Festival in
Torun (2004), 14th International Festival of Chamber and Organ Music – Wygiełzów –
Lipowiec (Libiąż 2004), 5th Organ Autumn Festival in Bieruń-Lędziny County (2004), and
the 16th International Festival of Sacred Music (Warsaw 2006).
14 August 2010, 8.30 p.m.
Sylvain Pluyant, organ, France
Church at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
15 August 2010, 8.00 p.m.
Sylvain Pluyant, organ, France
Shrine of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady of the Tarnow Region, in Tuchów
Sylvain Pluyaut is an artist adept in all the aspects of the organ art – interpretation,
harmonization, accompaniment, improvisation and ensemble performance – through years of
study and professional experience.
In September 2005, he began teaching organ at the Regional Conservatory in Dijon. His
commitment and passion for this work soon made his organ class the most numerous one in
all of Burgundy (30 students in 2008/2009). Last year he also started teaching classes for
church organists in Moscow.
Sylvain Pluyaut, who studied under M. Chapuis, P. Pincemaille and T. Escaïch, is an entirely
independent organist, performing solo concerts, accompanying choirs (music director at the
Dijon Cathedral, Ensemble Vocal Joseph Samson, Arsys) and soloists (T. Caens, CaensCazalet-Becquet trio), and also participating in symphonic concerts.
21 August 2010, 8.00 p.m
Agata Berki Brodňanská, Slovakia
Shrine of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady of the Tarnow Region, in Tuchów
22 August 2010, 4.15 p.m.
Agata Berki Brodňanská, Slovakia
Church at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Agáta Berki Brodňanská attended the music school in Dolny Kubin and subsequently
studied organ and piano at the Conservatory in Zilina between 2000 and 2004. In June 2009,
she obtained a master’s degree in organ performance from the Academy of Performing Arts
Music in Bratislava, under Professor J. V. Michalko. She has perfected her skills in a number
of master courses conducted by eminent figures of organ art, such as: B. van Oosten
(Netherlands); J. Guillou, O. Latry (France); P. Planyavsky, W. Reisinger (Austria); J. Tůma,
K. Klugarová (Czech Republic), or M. Melcová (Slovakia). She has taken part in the Laudate
Dominum Weeks of Church Music at St Pölten (2007, 2009).
Brodňanská has given successful performances in organ music competitions in the Czech
town of Opava (2002, 2006), and a number of festivals, among these the Advent Concertos in
Revuca (2005) the Music Autumn in Dolny Kubin (2006), and the Organ Days in Piestany
(2009). In recent years, she has been active in Slovakia’s cultural life, performing solo recitals
in Bratislava, Zilina, Kosice, Martin and Poprad, as well as in Austria.
28 August 2010, 8.00 p.m
Stephane d’Oultremont, Belgium
Shrine of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lady of the Tarnow Region, in Tuchów
29 August 2010, 4.15 p.m.
Stephane d’Oultremont, Belgium
Church at the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec
Stéphane d'Oultremont OSB has been a monk at the Benedictine Abbey of Maredsous since
1989. He completed his organ music studies at l'Institut Supérieur de Musique et de
Pédagogie de Namur in Belgium, and perfected his virtuoso skills under Jean Ferrard at the
Royal Conservatory in Brussels. He has also participated in a number of master courses
conducted by Jean Boyer and Bernard Foccroulle. At present, he is the titular organist at
Maredsous Abbey.