Held under the motto "Joy & Devotion," the event is in its third year. All the concerts take place at London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields.
The festival features three acclaimed British choirs, The Brabant Ensemble, The Carice Singers and The Epiphoni Consort.
The opening concert on Tuesday by The Brabant Ensemble, conducted by Stephen Rice, will focus on music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, including works by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (1665-1734) and Mikołaj Zieleński (1560-1620).
Their pieces will be interwoven with contemporary works including a meditation on the "Kyrie" melody from Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices composed by Roxanna Panufnik in 2014.
The concert on November 10, entitled "Maryja," will feature a selection of music by composers such as Roman Padlewski, Andrzej Panufnik, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Krzysztof Penderecki. The Carice Singers will be conducted by George Parris.
The festival will close with a concert on November 11 by The Epiphoni Consort, conducted by Tim Reader, featuring a programme of Polish choral classics, celebrating Christ’s Passion and Resurrection.
Presented by the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute under the artistic direction of leading Polish composer and conductor Paweł Łukaszewski, the Joy & Devotion Festival aims to bring the rich treasures of Polish music to the UK as part of the institute’s mission to share "gems of Polish culture" with international audiences, officials said.
(mk/gs)