FMF Krakow, 10th Anniversary Program just announced and it’s spectacular!

Only some of the events prepared for the 10th edition of Krakow Film Music Festival are: a selection of the most beautiful music composed by Abel Korzeniowski (A Single Man and Nocturnal Animals), Howard Shore, who returns to the Festival with his music composed for The Lord of the Rings, the beloved score for Star Wars by John Williams, two mega-productions: Neverending Story and Titanic with live music, as well as a giant birthday dancefloor with the legendary DJ and Academy Award-winning composer, Giorgio Moroder – these are only .

“Join us for the celebrations of FMF’s 10th anniversary. It is going to be a great and magnificent journey through the world of cinema and music, and I do hope you will experience it with us”, said Izabela Helbin, director of the Krakow Festival Office, organiser of the Festival.

This year’s celebration of cinema and music will start on the 17th of May 2017 at ICE Kraków Congress Centre, with a monograph concert of Abel Korzeniowski – friend of the festival and one of the most famous Polish composers creating music for the American Dream Factory, nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award for his scores to Tom Ford’s A Single Man and Madonna’s W.E. Korzeniowski will join us at the FMF for the second time – during the 6th edition of the festival in 2013, his pieces were heard during the official RMF Classic Anniversary Gala. The composer has emphasised many times that he holds Krakow – his home city – very dear, as this is where he was brought up and educated as a musician, first as a cellist, and then as a composer under Krzysztof Penderecki. During the inauguration evening of the 10th FMF we are going to hear the greatest hits from his collection of scores for film. Apart from W.E. and A Single Man, we will also enjoy Carlo Carlei’s Romeo and Juliet, Randy Moore’s Escape from Tomorrow, as well as the popular themes from Penny Dreadful and the music from Tom Ford’s latest motion picture, the BAFTA-nominated Nocturnal Animals. The audience gathered in the Auditorium Hall at ICE Kraków will witness the artist personally leading the Beethoven Academy Orchestra. The composer will also be invited for “All Is Film Music” – the festival’s anniversary gala at TAURON Arena Krakow, where he will perform his suite from Penny Dreadful.

On the second day of the festival – the 18th of May 2017 – during the world’s first screening of Neverending Story with live music, we will be joined by the German composer and saxophone player Klaus Doldinger. Perceived by many cinephiles as legendary, the German family fantasy film released in 1984 was the most expensive project carried out outside of the United States and USSR, as well as one of the greatest successes of German cinematography of all time. “The mysterious and magical film and the legendary scene showing the flight of the 11-year old Bastian Balthazar Bux on the back of a giant dragon brings back the memories of VHS tapes, beautiful music and the emotions, which they experienced together with the characters in the film among people, who are in their thirties and forties now. This makes it an inter-generational link between the adults and the youngest audiences. This event will also serve as a perfect opportunity to return to this legendary soundtrack, which was arranged for orchestra for the very first time”, said Robert Piaskowski, FMF’s artistic director. “Never-Ending Story” by Giorgio Moroder, one of Limahl’s greatest hits is the main theme of the international version of this film. The remaining themes were composed by Klaus Doldinger, who will come to the FMF as a performer, playing saxophone for our audiences. He will be accompanied by German drummer Curt Cress, as well as the musicians of Sinfonietta Cracovia and Cracow Singers. The concert will be conducted by German conductor and composer Christian Schumann.

Friday at the Festival – the 19th of May 2017 – will be opened by an atmospheric piano concert, filled with well-known themes from European films. In the evening, the audience gathered in ICE Kraków’s Theatre Hall will listen to the second instalment of the Cinematic Piano series, inaugurated last year by Polish pianist, Aleksander Dębicz. The title of the series of film recitals comes from his début album, which encompasses 12 of his cinema-inspired piano improvisations. This year we are going to be taken to the intimate world of film music by French pianist and composer Jean-Michel Bernard, author of numerous soundtracks, including films such as Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep and Sophie Lellouche’s Paris Manhattan. Bernard joined us during the last year’s edition of the Festival – he was a member of the FMF Young Talent Award jury and led a composing workshop for young creators at the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice. The idea of featuring his refined film improvisations for the second instalment of the Cinematic Piano series came up there, and now it will finally come to fruition.

What do artists like Prince, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Daft Punk, Kylie Minogue, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Bonnie Tyler and Britney Spears have in common? All of them had the pleasure to collaborate with the father of EDM – Electronic Dance Music, laureate of three Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and four Grammy® Awards – Giorgio Moroder. To date, the artist gathered over a hundred gold and platinum albums, and in 2004 he was induced to the Dance Music Hall of Fame. The characteristic sound of his electronic music can be heard in many Hollywood productions, and his creations influenced the development of many music genres, such as new wave and techno. Moroder will be a DJ during the festival dance party, which will be organised in the open-air space of the former railway station at Jana Nowaka Jeziorańskiego Square. “The music created by Giorgio Moroder succeeded everywhere the disco phenomenon appeared. In Krakow, the outstanding artist is going to take us on a journey to the world of electronic music, dance and classic sounds of the four decades of film music, with soundtracks for Top Gun, Midnight Express, Scarface, Flashdance, and Neverending Story, but apart from music known from cinema, we are also going to hear hits made famous by David Bowie, Cher, Kylie Minogue and Daft Punk. This time, the party will be conducted by the master himself – Giorgio Moroder”, Piaskowski announced.
On Saturday, the 20th of May we are going to see the heart of the festival – the anniversary gala at TAURON Arena Krakow titled All Is Film Music. “FMF has always been a celebration of ersity of forms, genres and styles, as well as a meeting of the representatives of the film industry with the audience of thousands. Everything is possible and permitted at our festival, which is why the anniversary gala will feature not only the sentimental returns of great composers, but will also serve as a perfect opportunity to discover the music from hit TV series of the recent seasons”, Piaskowski summed up. During the gala, we are going to hear all kinds of music that helped us develop FMF’s brand throughout the last decade: suites from legendary films and TV series, specially arranged for this evening by masterful conductors. Two Oscar-winning composers – Howard Shore and Jan A. P. Kaczmarek – will take us in a sentimental journey back in time to remind us about the most beautiful events from the festival’s history. They will present the award-winning themes, and the music from The Lord of the Rings will sound once again, serving as the closing piece for the first ten years of FMF’s history, taking us back to the very first edition of the festival in 2008, during which the audience in Poland could listen to Howard Shore’s musical interpretation of Tolkien’s world live. All pieces will be performed by the Beethoven Academy Orchestra and Pro Musica Mundi Choir, led by the friend and ambassador of the FMF, Diego Navarro. More guests will be joining us for the festival – we will announce their names in the upcoming week, also in RMF Classic.

At noon sharp on Sunday, the 21st of May we are going to once again celebrate the festival tradition by listening to the performance of the FMF Youth Orchestra led by Monika Bachowska. The ensemble brought to life by FMF’s organisers features the most talented students of music schools in Krakow. The young musicians will face a daunting task, as this year they will present the legendary soundtrack to the most famous space opera in the world, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film’s première – George Lucas’ Star Wars – in front of the audience gathered at ICE Kraków Congress Centre. The FMF Youth Orchestra Plays Star Wars concert is organised in collaboration with the FIMUCITÉ – Tenerife International Film Music Festival. The FMF Youth Orchestra will play music from Star Wars once again at the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice on the 23rd of May, and in September the very same concert will be repeated in the Canary Islands by local orchestra. It is worth mentioning that the creation of arrangements for orchestra was overseen by John Williams himself.

The finale of the anniversary edition of the FMF on Sunday, the 21st of May will feature a spectacular show: Titanic Live in Concert – a screening of James Cameron’s super-production, Titanic, with the Oscar-winning soundtrack by James Horner performed live. The story of one of the most tragic catastrophes of the past century is one of the only three films in the history of cinema which managed to win eleven Academy Awards. “The choice of this title, which is an important part of the history of Hollywood, is also a tribute to James Horner, one of the most prominent composers of film music, who died tragically in a plane crash in June of 2015. He was one of the most popular film composers of the past three decades, known for his soundtracks to over a hundred films and laureate of two Oscars. For many years, the composer wanted to visit Poland, and he was supposed to be the guest of this year’s edition of the FMF, but his premature death put an end to these plans. By presenting the music that brought him the greatest fame we want to symbolically refer to his dream”, said Robert Piaskowski about the reasons for choosing the Titanic for the finale of the FMF. Horner’s music to James Cameron’s film was illustrated by music in the late-Romantic style, enriched – at the director’s request – by electronically generated sounds and folk instruments, including bagpipes, harmonica and accordion, characteristic of Celtic peoples – predecessors of the Scots, Welsh, Irish and Britons. The orchestration was overseen by Don Davis, known to the audience of the FMF for his music to The Matrix trilogy. The TAURON Arena Krakow will sound with the symphonic version of the soundtrack – Sinfonietta Cracovia will be led by Swiss conductor Ludwig Wicki. The presentation of Cameron’s super-production will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the film’s première.

The festival attractions will not be limited only to music and cinema. The 10th edition of the FMF will be traditionally full of accompanying events, such as Master Class workshops and meetings taking place as part of the Audiovisual Forum. Like every year, we are also going to present the festival’s distinctions – the Young Talent Award and the FMF Ambassador statuettes, as well as the Wojciech Kilar Award, established by mayors of Krakow and Katowice and given to the creators of film music, who uphold the ethics and traditions of music composition. The statuette will be awarded for the third time. In the previous two editions, it was won by Oscar-winning composers: Elliot Goldenthal and Alexandre Desplat.

The Krakow Film Music Festival is organised by the City of Krakow, the Krakow Festival Office and RMF Classic