The fourth edition of the Katowice Kultura Natura Festival will take place on 11–20 May 2018. Although this musical celebration is still in its fledgling stage, echoes of the exceptional concerts in the city of Katowice have already been reverberating around the world of music. First-class performers, an excellent concert hall, a conceptual programme and wonderful hospitality have become hallmarks of the event. Katowice – since 2015 is a UNESCO Creative City of Music. It is here, every year, that the most important festivals of alternative, electronic, jazz and blues music are held. It is in Katowice that the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra with its new seat and suspendous concert hall, famous for its remarkable acoustics, has its home. The programme of the fourth edition of the Katowice Kultura Natura Festival is remarkably rich. The concerts have one aim in common: ensuring the best possible standard to the presentation of the works, inviting only the most outstanding representatives of the art of performance in their particular field. As with earlier editions, the programme of the Festival is open to all periods and genres, with Katowice hosting world-famous musicians who will treat the audience to finest performances. The leading theme of the fourth edition of the Katowice Kultura Natura Festival is Childhood. This year, the Festival will have famous Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and its Artistic Director Lionel Bringuier. They will give two concerts, on Saturday the 19th of May and on Sunday the 20th. During the Sunday concert, the Orchestra will play with Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the best pianists in the world, who will also give a solo recital on Friday the 8th of May. On Monday the 14th of May, during the Festival’s Liederabend concert, we will hear world-famous tenor Ian Bostridge. Following the previous years’ tradition, the Festival will also present chamber music. On Tuesday the 15th of May, we will host the French Quatuor Ebène, one of the world’s most eminent string quartets. The Festival programme also includes two subscription concerts by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Liebreich, Artistic Director of the Festival: the opening concert on the 11th of May and the Thursday concert on the 17th. The Thursday concert will feature the already famous Requiem by Tigran Mansurian. The recording of this piece by Alexander Liebreich and RIAS Kammerchor, another guest of the Festival, has been nominated for the GRAMMY Award this year and won the International Classical Music Award. The outstanding RIAS Kammerchor, well-known to the Festival audience, will appear in a concert on Wednesday the 16th of May. The Festival could not miss early music. On Saturday the 12th of May, we will hear {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna in a concert featuring cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Further highlights of the fourth edition of the Festival, including the jazz concert, will be announced soon. For more information, go to kulturanatura.eu
