About the School
The Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music Schools Complex in Białystok has a rich history dating back to 1936. Today, it comprises four schools: both primary and secondary levels of the State Music School (PSM) and the General Music School (OSM). The institution plays an active role in the region’s artistic life, regularly showcasing students’ achievements and collaborating with music institutions both in Poland and abroad, including in Slovenia and Norway.
Its artistic profile is reflected in a wide variety of ensembles, with the symphony orchestra standing out for its high artistic standards. Other ensembles include an accordion orchestra, children’s choir, women’s choir, mixed choir, a 70-piece primary-level string orchestra, a primary-level wind orchestra, and a big band.
The school regularly organises national and international festivals and competitions, such as the Finalis Wind Instrument Competition, the Frankiewicz Sisters Piano Festival, the Guitar Podlasie Festival, the Białystok Festival of Young Organists, and the Białystok in Rhythm Percussion Festival.
Since 2014, the school has been housed in a fully modernised building, equipped with new instruments and facilities tailored to the needs of this continually evolving institution.
About the Orchestra
The school’s symphony orchestra is its largest performing ensemble. Over the years, it has collaborated with many distinguished conductors, including Jerzy Śródkowski, Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Mieczysław Szymański – who led the ensemble for 24 years – and Roman Zieliński, who conducted it for 17 years. Since September 2009, the orchestra has been under the direction of Kazimierz Dąbrowski.
Thanks to its extensive instrumentation, the ensemble is able to perform major works from the symphonic repertoire, including Boléro and Alborada del gracioso by Maurice Ravel, Bizet’s L’Arlésienne, and Exodus by Wojciech Kilar.
Each year, the orchestra plays a central role in the school’s anniversary celebrations and the annual concert series Spring of Artistic Youth. In recent years, its repertoire has expanded to include large-scale oratorio works, performed in collaboration with the school choir and other choirs and cultural institutions in Białystok. These have included Karol Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, John Rutter’s Magnificat and Mass of the Children, Miłosz Bembinow’s Amor Vincit, Res Tua, and New Objects in Q, as well as Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man and Requiem.
Notable highlights include the world premiere of The Missing Link, a ballet by Anna Maria Huszcza created in collaboration with the Non-Public Dance School in Białystok, and a series of annual staged productions, such as the musicals Pinocchio by Szymon Godziemba-Trytek and Alice in Wonderland by Anna Maria Huszcza, the operetta Krakowiacy i Górale (The Cracovians and the Highlanders) by Jan Stefani, and Mozartiada directed by Rafał Supiński.
In recent years, the orchestra has also performed on international tours to Norway and Slovenia. In 2021, it marked a milestone in its history by performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 during its jubilee concert, conducted by Jerzy Maksymiuk.