English
繁體
简体
Kraków Festival Office, Poland
This is my first time in Kraków. It is the second largest city in Poland. Most people may learn about and come to Kraków because of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (German Nazi concentration camp and extermination camp) nearby, which is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Actually, Kraków is one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural and artistic life. It’s also the UNESCO City of Literature. The organization I work in—Kraków Festival Office (KBF) organizes most of the major cultural events of local and national scope. There are totally 14 key festivals/ events held by the Office annually, covering a wide variety arts form including early music, opera, film music, contemporary music, theatre, literature and visual art, etc. During my 3-month stay here, I will be involving in four festivals: Sacrum Profanum, a week-long contemporary music festival; Film Music Festival, a 4-day event to celebrate the music created for motion pictures; Unsound, a 8-day festival of progressive music; and Conrad Festival, a week of events dedicated to literature. Working in both Programe Planning and Literary Departments, I experienced a very fruitful time here. I’ve been working for the festivals’ artists coordination, festival guide preparation, licensing liaison for movie clips and artists interview arrangement, etc.
Sacrum Profanum
Sacrum Profanum (14-20 September) presents the newest music and is aimed at blurring the line between contemporary music, often treated as difficult and incomprehensible, and the developments of entertainment and the experimental scene. I’m very excited to involve in the concerts with many great artists including Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can-All Stars and Laurie Anderson, etc. All concerts in the Festival were full house and received waves of applause from audience. I found some of the audience specially made their trip from other cities or countries for this festival. It is also recommended by prestigious music magazines and won Polish awards.
Kon-Tiki: The Ocean Voyage Film Music Festival
Closely after Sacrum Profanum is the Film Music Festival (25-28 September), the main programme of this year’s edition includes four concert productions: the Polish-Norwegian co-production Kon-Tiki: The Ocean Voyage; the cult songs written for the James Bond series; the winner of 5 Oscars – Gladiator – live in concert with Hans Zimmer‘s music; and finally the International Film Music Gala for the 100th anniversary of the ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) performing music from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Inception, Brokeback Mountain, Anna Karenina, Harry Potter and many others. Apart from main concerts, there are master classes held by professionals and leading experts to transfer knowledge to young artists planning a career in the international market of music and film. The classes are devoted to various aspects of music and its backdrop, topics include manufacturing, business, marketing and legal in film music industry.
It has been a wonderful experience for me to go through and work in the two festivals which are totally different in artistic orientation, target audience and marketing strategies. I’ve made friends with colleagues and volunteers and shared our experience in cultural fields. I can’t wait for October when two more festivals, Unsound and Conrad Festival will be happening. I’m very looking forward to it!