University of Silesia in Katowice

• 9.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m., 2.00–6.00 p.m. – Sound walks (patio of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice – Musical Education Centre, ul. Zacisze 3)

Sound walks – sound workshops that will result in the creation of short musical etudes using sounds recorded by the participants in Katowice. The recorded sounds will be used to produce a joint improvisation/concert and visualisations (pictures/photos in cooperation with Paweł Mędrek, PhD, DLitt, from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice and students: Aleksander Steblik and Paulina Radomska.

Anna Rumin

You don’t need to have any knowledge of music production to participate in the workshops! Basic computer skills and your own headphones are required. The workshop will consist of two parts:

• • • Introduction and sound walk: An introduction discussing the genre of musique concrète with examples. Field workshops involving a walk around the city and trying to capture interesting or characteristic sounds. The lecturer will discuss basic recording techniques using a mobile phone or portable recorder. Duration: approx. 2 hours.
    • Work in the studio: Selection, processing and categorization of recorded sounds (division into percussive, melodic, harmonic, etc.). Sounddesign – basics of working with sound in a professional DAW programme (Reaper).

You will work under the supervision of the teacher – creating a short musical etude using the recorded sounds. Duration: approx. 2 hours. The finale of the workshops will be short musical pieces created by the workshop participants and presented during the Sunday concert on 7 April at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.

The classes will be held by:

Przemysław Scheller, PhD – composer, sound designer and Assistant Professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He deals with instrumental, vocal, electronic music and interdisciplinary activities; creates sound installations, multimedia shows and mapping projections.

As a composer, he has collaborated with many bands in Poland and around the world. His compositions are performed at contemporary music festivals, and many of them have won awards at composition competitions.

Paweł Mendrek, PhD, DLitt – visual creator, filmmaker, educator and creative director with a multi-dimensional artistic practice. Head of the Department of Intermedia and Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice. His activities include drawing, photography, collage, publishing projects, set design activities, experiments using moving images and innovative film production. His wide experience opens the door to engaging in projects that explore film as an art form at various levels of perception.

The workshops are aimed at children, teenagers, adults and seniors. Registration required. Limit: 10 people per group.

• • • registration form at 9.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.,
    • registration form at 2.00 – 6.00 p.m.,
    • registration form at 9.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. (Wednesday!).

• 9.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. – Sound walks (patio of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice – Musical Education Centre, ul. Zacisze 3)

Sound walks – sound workshops that will result in the creation of short musical etudes using sounds recorded by the participants in Katowice. The recorded sounds will be used to produce a joint improvisation/concert and visualisations (pictures/photos in cooperation with Paweł Mędrek, PhD, DLitt, from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice and students: Aleksander Steblik and Paulina Radomska.

You don’t need to have any knowledge of music production to participate in the workshops! Basic computer skills and your own headphones are required. The workshop will consist of two parts:

• • • Introduction and sound walk: An introduction discussing the genre of musique concrète with examples. Field workshops involving a walk around the city and trying to capture interesting or characteristic sounds. The lecturer will discuss basic recording techniques using a mobile phone or portable recorder. Duration: approx. 2 hours.
    • Work in the studio: Selection, processing and categorization of recorded sounds (division into percussive, melodic, harmonic, etc.). Sounddesign – basics of working with sound in a professional DAW programme (Reaper).

You will work under the supervision of the teacher – creating a short musical etude using the recorded sounds. Duration: approx. 2 hours. The finale of the workshops will be short musical pieces created by the workshop participants and presented during the Sunday concert on 7 April at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.

The classes will be held by:

Przemysław Scheller, PhD – composer, sound designer and Assistant Professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He deals with instrumental, vocal, electronic music and interdisciplinary activities; creates sound installations, multimedia shows and mapping projections.

As a composer, he has collaborated with many bands in Poland and around the world. His compositions are performed at contemporary music festivals, and many of them have won awards at composition competitions.

Paweł Mendrek, PhD, DLitt – visual creator, filmmaker, educator and creative director with a multi-dimensional artistic practice. Head of the Department of Intermedia and Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice. His activities include drawing, photography, collage, publishing projects, set design activities, experiments using moving images and innovative film production. His wide experience opens the door to engaging in projects that explore film as an art form at various levels of perception.

The workshops are aimed at children, teenagers, adults and seniors. Registration required. Limit: 10 people per group.

• • • registration form at 9.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.,

• 9.30 a.m. – 2.15 p.m. – plenary session and scientific conference Sound and its path (Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Szabelski Auditorium, ul. Zacisze 3, Katowice)

An interdisciplinary event at which we will look at sound issues from various perspectives: sociological, psychological, physical, acoustic, musical and music therapeutic. The lectures will be an opportunity for research-related and practical reflections, and will be the beginning of a discussion about sound and its properties.

The conference will consist of two parts:

• • • Part I: 9.30 a.m. – 2.15 p.m. – plenary session: lectures by invited guests
    • Part II: 3.00-4.30 p.m. – panel discussion Let’s talk about sounds differently – panel with participants of the Deaf Culture, musicians and therapists, members of the foundation.

Lead: Sara Knapik-Szweda, PhD (moderator). Special guests of the lecture: Prof. Evan Ruud (University of Oslo and the Norwegian Academy of Music, Norway), Alexandra Ullsten, PhD (School of Health Sciences at Örebro University, Sweden), Prof. Bogusław Fugiel (August Chełkowski Institute of Physics, University of Silesia), Wojciech Stępień, PhD, DLitt (Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice) Ludwika Konieczna-Nowak, PhD, DLitt (Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice), Maria Zacharewicz-Chełkowska, PhD (Strefa Harmonii).

• • • Prof. Even Ruud is a professor emeritus at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Academy of Music. Piano teacher, musicologist, music therapist, psychologist. His work highlights a multidisciplinary perspective that draws on music psychology, music ethnography, music therapy, and music education.
    • Alexandra Ullsten, PhD serves as a clinical music and art therapist at the Central Hospital of Karlstad, Värmland, Sweden. As a researcher, she is associated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Örebro in Sweden. In 2010, she pioneered the implementation of music therapy for newborns in the Swedish healthcare system. She is the principal researcher of the ongoing SWEpap research project, examining the effectiveness of combining parents’ pain management through live singing of lullabies, skin-to-skin contact, and breastfeeding compared with standard care during painful procedures in infants. She is also a member of the international research network Pain in Early Life (PEARL).
    • Prof. Bogusław Fugiel, employee of the USil Institute of Physics. Researcher, educator, science communicator. He completed his studies in physics at the University of Silesia in Katowice, obtaining a master’s degree with distinction. His habilitation thesis concerned phase transitions and nonlinear effects in hydrogen-bonded ferroelectrics, and for the results of this research he was awarded the Team Award by the Minister of National Education.
    • Wojciech Stępień, PhD, DLitt, composer, musicologist and music theorist, author of books. He works as an assistant professor at the Department of Composition and Music Theory of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. Fulbright scholarship holder at the Herb Alpert School of Music, University of California Los Angeles. His research interests focus on the works of Edward Grieg, Einojuhani Rautavaary and contemporary American LGBTQ+ composers. In addition to his scientific activities, he is an active composer.
    • Ludwika Konieczna-Nowak, PhD, DLitt, Assoc. Prof., music therapist, head of the Department of Music Therapy at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, author of articles and monographs on various areas of music therapy practice and research, interested in the relationship between aesthetic experience and therapeutic effect and music therapy work supporting people with the experience of relational trauma.
    • Maria Chełkowska-Zacharewicz, PhD, psychologist, researcher in the field of music psychology with particular emphasis on emotions in music and the psychological flexibility of musicians. Implementer of grants on the psychological flexibility of musicians financed by the National Science Centre. Author of scientific and popular science publications and conference speeches. Author of the blog psychologiamuzyki.pl.
    • Simon Procter, PhD, musician, music therapist, musical sociologist, researcher. In Nordoff Robbins in the UK is responsible for educational and research activities. He is a lecturer at the Department of Music Therapy at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and a Member of the Management Board of the National Center for Early Music in Great Britain.  His current work focuses on developing musical and social skills that therapists and musicians use during musical activities, e.g. while conducting music therapy.
    • Anna Konopacka, MA, certified music therapist, graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where she currently holds the position of a lecturer at the Department of Music Therapy. Associated with the Special School Complex No. 42 in Zabrze, where she works as a music therapist with children with hearing deficits and intellectual disabilities.
    • Agnieszka Sepioło, MA, research assistant at the Department of Music Therapy of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, certified music therapist and certified music therapy supervisor. The most important scope of her interests is the impact of music therapy activities on patients with hearing deficits, intellectual and motor disabilities, as well as technological possibilities used in the music therapy process.
    • Joanna Nawojska-Angerman (Migawka Foundation), pianist, vocalist, author of lyrics and music, educator, pedagogue and art therapist. She shared the music and studio stage with, among others, Mikromusic, Kwiat Jabłoni, Ralph Kamiński and Jazz Band Młynarski-Masecki. Member of the Migawka Foundation, within which she has been developing creative musical classes for the deaf and hard of hearing people for years.
    • Katarzyna Szymura (Migamy PJM), educator, teaching assistant, Polish Sign Language (PJM) lecturer, founder of the Migamy PJM language school, which conducts workshops and courses for public administration employees, medical institutions, educational institutions and students. She lost her hearing in early childhood. She is the child of hearing parents and was brought up with emphasis on speaking Polish correctly in terms of inflection, but despite this, the world of the Deaf has always been and is close to her.
    • Krzysztof Wostal (Transgresja Foundation), teacher, trainer, social activist, founder and president of the Transgresja Foundation. Since 2000, he has been working in the training and education industry, conducting specialized trainings for people with disabilities. Currently, he is a member of the Council of Founders of the Polish Foundation for the Hard of Hearing, a member of the Audit Committee of the GKS Katowice Disabled Fans Club Association and the President of the Management Board of the Transgresja Foundation.
    • Grzegorz Płonka, pianist, musician, composer, photographer, born prematurely, diagnosed as an autistic child. When he was 14, it turned out that the cause of his isolation was not autism but profound hearing loss. He got hearing aids and started learning to speak. But above all, it turned out that behind his deafness… there was a great musical talent. Grzegorz achieved a high level of playing, and Krzesimir Dębski said that his compositions were ‘at the level of some of my students’. Grzegorz won the ‘Ślimakowe Rytmy’ music festival and became the ‘Man Without Barriers 2016’.
    • Anna Michalska, deaf mother of three Kodak children, primary education teacher, sign language teacher. A teacher at the Special School Complex No. 42 in Zabrze, a therapist at the In Corpore Diagnostics and Therapy Center in Katowice and a volunteer of the In Corpore Foundation. Project leader of the Deaf Moms Club of the Między Uszami Foundation. A member of the Silesian Automobile Deaf Club in Katowice (she was on the board for several years), associated with the pastoral community of the Deaf in the Archdiocese of Katowice, as a family life advisor. She runs the ‘Migająca Ania’ fanpage and has posted several songs for children on YouTube ‘Mig Ania’. She cooperated with the television program ‘Meetings in the world of silence’ in the field of translating songs in sign language.

Detailed event programme:

• • • 9.30-9.45 a.m. – Beginning of the meeting, welcoming guests.
    • 9.45-11.45 a.m. – Plenary session:
      • prof. Evan Ruud – Music and Health – a comprehensive overview,
      • Alexandra Ullsten, PhD – O parent where art thou? Family-integrated music therapy for neonatal procedural support,
    • 11.45 a.m. – 12.00 p.m. – coffee break
    • 12.00-2.15 p.m. – guest speeches:
      • prof. Bogusław Fugiel – Quantum combo, or the improvisations of Schrodinger’s cat,
      • Wojciech Stępień, PhD, DLitt – Sound and timbre – selected issues,
      • Ludwika Konieczna-Nowak, PhD, DLitt, Assoc. Prof. – I don’t want to hear it. The role of music and music therapy in the lives of teenagers,
      • Maria Zacharewicz-Chełkowska, PhD – Everything is in my soul: about the relationship between music and emotions,
    • 2.15–3.00 p.m. – lunch break
    • 3.00-4.30 p.m. – panel discussion Let’s talk about sounds differently: Anna Konopacka, Agnieszka Sepioło, Joanna Nawojska-Angerman, Katarzyna Szymura, Krzysztof Wostal, Grzegorz Płonka, Anna Michalska, Simon Procter, PhD.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 120 people.

All events will be translated into Polish sign language, and speeches in English will be simultaneously translated into Polish.

• 4.45–6.15 p.m. – Sound and its path: workshops In search of harmony: cultivating kindness and attentive awareness on stage (Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Chamber Hall I)

As part of the Sound and its Path Conference, we invite students of music therapy, art therapy, musicians and instrumentalists to specialized workshops.

During the classes, we will look at the emotions, thoughts and behaviors that arise around performing and being on stage. Using simple and effective techniques, we’ll explore how mindfulness and self-kindness can be powerful tools for dealing with performance anxiety. Move towards harmony in your performance.

The classes will be held by Maria Zacharewicz-Chełkowska, PhD. She is a psychologist, researcher in the field of music psychology with particular emphasis on emotions in music and the psychological flexibility of musicians. In recent years, she has been particularly interested in the use of acceptance and commitment training/therapy (ACT) in working with musicians. Implementer of grants on the psychological flexibility of musicians financed by the National Science Centre. Author of scientific and popular science publications and conference speeches. Author of the psychologiamuzyki.pl blog, originator and owner of the Strefa Harmonii project, under which she supports musicians in developing mental resilience and mental flexibility by conducting individual consultations.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 25 people.

• 4.45–6.15 p.m. – Sound and its path: workshops Parents as Nurturing Resources: A Family Integrated Approach to Music Therapy for Neonatal Procedural Support (Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. Chamber Hall II)

As part of the Sound and its Path Conference, we invite students of music therapy, art therapy, musicians and instrumentalists to specialized workshops.

Acceptance and involvement of parents as active partners in supporting the newborn during pain situations, including live singing, is still rare in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and healthcare settings around the world. The degree to which a parent is emotionally available and stable is important for the infant in times of pain as well as for future painful experiences. A calm parent is able to notice and interpret the infant’s behavior, respond appropriately to signals of anxiety, soothe, regulate and share the infant’s states. Live singing has been shown to enhance parents’ intuitive communication skills, and parents who are encouraged to sing with their infant gradually gain confidence in vocal communication with their infant in a short period of time. In this workshop we will discuss and analyze the available scientific evidence and put this knowledge into practice. Participants will receive practical experience of working with singing as procedural support for hospitalized infants and their parents.

The classes will be held by Alexandra Ullsten, PhD. Alexandra Ullsten, PhD serves as a clinical music and art therapist at the Central Hospital of Karlstad, Värmland, Sweden. As a researcher, she is associated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Örebro in Sweden. In 2010, she pioneered the implementation of music therapy for newborns in the Swedish healthcare system. She is the principal researcher of the ongoing SWEpap research project, examining the effectiveness of combining parents’ pain management through live singing of lullabies, skin-to-skin contact, and breastfeeding compared with standard care during painful procedures in infants. She is also a member of the international research network Pain in Early Life (PEARL).

Workshops will be held in English. Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 25 people.

• 9.00–10.30 a.m. – Study visit to the Municipal Hospital in Ruda Śląska (Municipal Hospital in Ruda Śląska, Neonatology Department)

Visitation and music therapy sessions with prematurely born children and their families in the neonatal department at the Municipal Hospital in Ruda Śląska.

The event will be held by:

Alexandra Ullsten, PhD who serves as a clinical music and art therapist at the Central Hospital of Karlstad, Värmland, Sweden. As a researcher, she is associated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Örebro in Sweden. In 2010, she pioneered the implementation of music therapy for newborns in the Swedish healthcare system. She is the principal researcher of the ongoing SWEpap research project, examining the effectiveness of combining parents’ pain management through live singing of lullabies, skin-to-skin contact, and breastfeeding compared with standard care during painful procedures in infants. She is also a member of the international research network Pain in Early Life (PEARL).

Sara Knapik-Szweda, PhD – doctor of social sciences, certified music therapist, certified supervisor, tutor and assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the USil Institute of Pedagogy. She is a clinician and researcher. Currently, she works in two hospitals, with premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, using a family-centered therapy approach (she was one of the first music therapists to introduce music therapy for premature babies in Poland). Her research and clinical interests include humanistic approaches, Family-Centered Music Therapy, and Resources-oriented Music Therapy.

Event for medical personnel only.

• 11.30 a.m. – 2.00 p.m. – Workshops Sound is among us – exploration of sounds in the community (Katowice, outdoor activities)

On 4 April, as part of Sound Week, the Mobile Music Center will be located on the Market Square in Katowice – a mobile and outdoor music stage run by the Nordoff Robbins Poland Foundation. A group of music therapists and music therapy students from the Academy of Music in Katowice will invite participants to spontaneously play, sing and dance to music. A wide selection of instruments and songs of various styles will allow players to find the right place for themselves in the band.

Musical experience is not necessary to join us in playing. In accordance with the equal opportunities policy, the meeting will be open to various social groups, including people with disabilities. Regardless of musical skills, age and fitness, anyone can become part of a musical team: discover their possibilities, new musical styles and build a sense of team in the society we create together.

As part of the musical meeting, we will host the Silesian Education and Rehabilitation Center Arteria WTZ.

The event will be held by Dominika Dopierała – musician and certified music therapist, founder and president of the Nordoff Robbins Poland Foundation, working under constant supervision. A graduate of the Royal College of Music and master’s studies at the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre in London.

For ten years, Dominika has been gaining experience in music therapy work with various social and age groups: people with disabilities, with refugee experience and adults in mental health and homelessness crisis. In 2016, Dominika founded the Nordoff Robbins Poland Foundation supporting the development of the field of music therapy in Poland. She runs open music sessions, which are an opportunity for meetings of unrelated social groups. Dominika strives to popularise active music-making as an applied art – performed every day and available to many.

Nordoff Robbins Poland Foundation uses music therapy as a path to social change. Thanks to music, it enriches the cultural life of local communities and people with disabilities. Accessible music therapy events are created for people of various ages, abilities and musical experience. Spontaneously playing and singing, event participants meet in a jointly created music band.

Music therapists Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins believed that playing together allows musicians to explore their personal possibilities and feel part of a larger band. Continuing this idea, the foundation team supports social integration through collective music creation. During open music therapy events, it strives to build a sense of social unity that underlies local and global changes.

The classes have neither participant nor age limits.

• 5.30–6.30 p.m. – Concert of the Bytom Singing Collective MAY YOU BE HAPPY (SpinPLACE, ul. Bankowa 5, Cafe room, Katowice)

When words fail, there are sounds that can express all emotions. The happiest and the most difficult ones – regardless of the language barrier. We live in times when intercultural dialogue is becoming an indispensable tool for rearranging the world. Today, traditional singing takes on completely new contexts. It is now – more than ever – that we would like to have the power to act. Singing has always had a purpose. It warded off illness, brought rain, gave vent to hidden emotions, diversified long winter evenings and brought relief at work.

Today – for us – singing also has its purpose. And even though we differ in contexts, circumstances or realities, the longing for the roots, for harmony, and for the solace that songs bring brings us closer to each other. We tell universal stories of daughters, mothers, sisters and ancestors, drawing on intergenerational wisdom.

The Bytom Singing Collective is a group of nearly 30 women from the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis, who have been exploring the secrets of traditional singing together for 3 years. In everyday life, they differ in almost everything – profession, interests, age, experience, musical predispositions and temperament. On stage, they are united by harmony.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 60 people.

• 6.30–8.00 p.m. – Traditional singing workshops OJ VESNA KRASNA! (spinPLACE, ul. Bankowa 5, attic room, Katowice)

Breathing, whispers, sighs, grunts and calls… simply – sounds. They will become the material on which we will weave archaic melodies together.

An encounter with wild songs from Poland and Ukraine will become an excuse to find a natural, open voice within yourself. We will try to learn to use it consciously, singing with our diaphragm, head, ears and even feet. With the help of ritual songs, we will try not only to evoke the approaching spring, bring happiness, abundance and prosperity, but also to enrich our own musical imagination.

During the classes, we will focus on the participants’ own sound, but also on the collective sound. We will try to find an outlet for the sounds and emotions that you carry deep inside.

The Bytom Singing Collective is a group of nearly 30 women from the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis, who have been exploring the secrets of traditional singing together for 3 years. In everyday life, they differ in almost everything – profession, interests, age, experience, musical predispositions and temperament. On stage, they are united by harmony.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 30 people.

• 2.30–4.00 p.m. – Workshops for seniors Acoustic self-care (Kato Science Corner, ul. Młyńska 2, Katowice)

Aristotle already wrote that music was a gift from the gods, something extraordinary, because it served to soothe the soul. As Friedrich Nietzsche argues, life without music would be a mistake.

The first practicing representative of the medical art, Asclepius, learned – as we learn from mythology – the amazing secret of music to such an extent that he was able to heal patients with even a few sounds.

Therefore, exposure to music has the potential to influence human well-being, and what is most often emphasized is its impact on emotional experiences, which are manifested in the physiological, behavioral and neural activity areas. What is particularly interesting is that it can also influence the listener’s health functioning.  . In this context, it is worth mentioning the research of the creator of psychoneuroimmunology, Robert Ader, proving a strong connection between the treatment of somatic diseases and the perception of music; in these studies, the main focus was on its importance for stimulating immune mechanisms (increased immunoglobulin type A, reduced cortisol levels).

The workshops are addressed to active seniors and are part of the understanding of the reception of acoustic music, which will be embodied in physical activities, which will additionally strengthen the value of stimulating the well-being of participants.

We recommend casual clothing that facilitates simple physical activity, tailored to the needs of people over the age of 55. We invite people who prefer listening to music and physical activity to join us on a journey through the world of sounds that will resonate in our body.

The classes will be held by:

Prof. Katarzyna Krasoń – Professor of the University of Silesia and Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, representing Department of Music Therapy, creative pedagogue, musician, literary expert, deals with issues of aesthetic expression and art therapy. Her research interests include contact with art: literature, music, theatre and film, mainly in the expressive and therapeutic dimension. Researches the pedagogical potential of intersemiotic translation and spatial visualization in development support. She has published 25 scientific monographs.

Kacper Trela – musician, actor, vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, music therapist, music instructor, composer and arranger. He works as a music therapist at the Child Development Center in Tarnowskie Góry. Occasionally he cooperates with the Krakow Biblical Theatre. In 2022, he was responsible for the arrangement of songs and musical direction in the staging of the show entitled ‘Jonasz’ at the Cultural Center in Nysa. In 2023, he played the role of Gabriel in the musical show ‘Mother Mary’ at Spodek in Katowice.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 14 people.

• 5.30–7.00 p.m. – Workshops Acoustic self-care (Kato Science Corner, ul. Młyńska 2, Katowice)

Achieving a state of deep relaxation is quite rare. During the day we are constantly aroused, exposed to a lot of stimuli, in constant motion and with a head full of tasks to do, often worried about the future.

If this description reflects your experience, we invite you to a relaxing journey with music. The aim of our meeting is to rest, calm down the multitude of thoughts, reduce physical and mental tension and general mobilization of the body and achieve inner peace. To reach this state, we will use proven relaxation techniques, visualization and music that can influence us subtly and deeply.

We invite adults to the workshop. Please bring your own mat with you. A contraindication to participating in the workshop is mental illness.

The classes will be held by:

Jagoda Plackowska – certified music therapist, trainer, violinist, graduated with a master’s degree in Music Therapy at the Academy of Music in Katowice and the Meritum Trainers School in Katowice. On a daily basis, she works as a music therapist in a hospice, in an orphanage, and in a special kindergarten.

Piotr Połaniecki – musician, drummer. It holds workshop participants in the cuddle of the rhythm while ensuring immersion in relaxing sounds.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 16 people.

• 6.30 p.m. – Interferencje exhibition premiere (Mirrors Hall, Silesian Philharmonic, ul. Sokolska 2, Katowice)

The artistic works displayed at the exhibition were created by creators associated with the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice. The exhibition touches on what is most important in another person: his interior and the feelings accompanying him, his sensitivity and tenderness. Last fall, in one place, during the conductor auditions during the 11th G. Fitelberg International Conductors’ Competition in Katowice, the sensitivities of visual artists and musicians met. The currently presented artistic works are a visual insight into the diversity of creative attitudes, sensitivities and artistic experiences of people using the broadly understood language of visual arts.

After the opening at 7 p.m., there is a concert featuring Jakub Jakowicz, soloist performing during the 11th G. Fitelberg International Conductors’ Competition in Katowice.  Tickets for the concert are available at the box office or on the Philharmonic’s website.

The event is available for people of all ages. There is no need to reserve seats.

The exhibition will be open from 6 April to 12 May during the working hours of the Silesian Philharmonic.

• 7.00–9.00 p.m. – concert BRAHMS | BRUCH | ELSNER | Jakowicz | Runtz | Symphony Orchestra (Cpmcert Hall, Silesian Philharmonic, ul. Sokolska 2, Katowice)

Concert with the participation of the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dawid Runtz and soloist Jakub Jakowicz. Concert programme:

• • • Józef Elsner – Overture to the opera Leszek the White
    • Max Bruch – Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
    • Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

Lead: Jakub Jakowicz – violin, Dawid Runtz – conductor, Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

The event is available for people of all ages.

Registration for the event is required via the form. (to be published) Limit: 10 people.

• 10.00–11.30 a.m., 12.00–1.30 p.m. – Workshop Weekend meeting with acoustics – learning and fun – workshops (spinPLACE, ul. Bankowa 5, Katowice, Conference room A.09, ground floor)

Have you ever wondered how sound is created, why we hear, or why some people hear better and others worse? Or maybe you are curious about the construction of unusual instruments that can imitate the sounds of thunder or the sound of sea waves? During the classes, we will be happy to answer all your questions. We will divide the classes into two parts. The first – theoretical one, where you will learn everything about how sound is created and propagated. Practical part, during which we will build simple instruments that you can take home with you. We will end the classes with a spectacular show. We are waiting for you.

The classes will be held by:

Aneta Szczygielska-Łaciak, PhD – Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia. She has been involved in promoting physics and science for many years. Graduated in physics at the University of Silesia. After graduation, she started working at the Physics Didactics Laboratory at the University of Silesia where she organised many popular science events including competitions, teacher trainings, conferences, lectures and workshops for students at all levels of education. She enjoys teaching physics to children in a fun way.

Marcin Łaciak, PhD – Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia. He has been involved in promoting physics and science for many years. Graduated in physics at the University of Silesia. After graduation, he started working at the IMPiZŚ combining physics with medicine. Afterwards, he started working at the Physics Didactics Laboratory at the University of Silesia where he co-organised many popular science events including competitions, teacher trainings, conferences, lectures and workshops for students at all levels of education. He enjoys working with young people and children.

Registration required.

• • • registration form at 10.00–11.30 a.m. (limit: 20 children),
    • registration form at 12.00–1.30 p.m. (limit: 25 participants),

• 10.00–11.30 a.m. – Workshop Expressive forms to prevent job burnout (spinPLACE, ul. Bankowa 5, Katowice, Conference room A.08, ground floor)

This will be a meeting during which we will learn together how to prevent job burnout and look for our own strategies for dealing with stress using body, breath and voice work.

We will work with the body, on its relaxation, on mindfulness of breathing. Together we will create space for the voice – we will look for it, get to know it and explore it in order to work with it with greater awareness. The body, voice and breath are our work tools that we will take care of during classes. We invite teachers, therapists and people who want to expressively take care of their mental and physical well-being.

The workshops will be held by Sara Knapik-Szweda, PhD – doctor of social sciences, certified music therapist, certified supervisor, tutor and assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, at the USil Institute of Pedagogy. She is a clinician and researcher. Currently, she works in two hospitals, with premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, using a family-centered therapy approach (she was one of the first music therapists to introduce music therapy for premature babies in Poland). Her research and clinical interests include humanistic approaches, Family-Centered Music Therapy, and Resources-oriented Music Therapy. 

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 20 people.

• 6.00–7.30 p.m. – Zoja Mikhailova’s relaxation concert Art for human well-being (Silesian Museum Bathhouse, Katowice Culture Zone, ul. Tadeusza Dobrowolskiego 1, Katowice)

The concert will take place in the specially arranged Bathhouse of the Silesian Museum. It will be preceded by a short lecture on the impact of sound on humans and mental health prevention. The aim of the concert is to relax the body and mind. 

Please bring a sleeping pad and blanket to ensure your complete comfort while listening.

Zoia Michailova is a Ukrainian composer of works for exhibitions, theatre performances, performances and video art, also known as a DJ under the pseudonym Facheroia . After moving to Warsaw in 2014, she started cooperation with leading representatives of the dance and visual environment. She often works collectively, and since 2017 she has been a co-founder of Kem, a Warsaw-based queer-feminist collective whose activities focus on the intersection of choreography, performance, sound and activist-social practices. Since 2022, she has been collaborating as a composer and music producer with the Center for Inclusive Art/Teatr 21, which is the first social cultural institution in Warsaw entirely dedicated to the work of artists with disabilities. Although she prefers to stay mostly out of the spotlight, Zoi has created her own unique style, most often displayed in synergy with dance, theater and video. In her musical works, she largely exposes alienation and ethereality, as well as the moving boundaries between timbre and rhythm. Her soundscapes often consist of choral singularities, drone sounds, samples recorded in amsr close-ups, or delicate pulses broken by a rising electronic blast.

Partners of the event: Tauron, Volvo, Euro Kas, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice, City of Katowice, European City of Science Katowice 2024.

Soundscape Foundation is a Silesian foundation whose main goal is to create platforms for cooperation between creative communities and to popularise culture. The field of interest is sound – a scientific approach to it, its use in music, visual arts and public space. Organisation of workshop meetings in the field of music and new media art, located at the intersection of the worlds of technology and music, presenting a completely new perspective on the experience of music, stimulating curiosity and the willingness to look for non-obvious solutions.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 50 people.

• 2.00–3.30 p.m. – My city of sound concert (Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, ul. Zacisze 3, Katowice, concert hall)

The basis of the concert programme will be compositions created by participants of Tuesday and Wednesday workshops held by Przemysław Scheller, PhD during Sound Week. Electroacoustic compositions by composers associated with the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice will serve as a counterpoint to the work of the Residents of the City of Science.

The main theme is the soundscape of Katowice. Depending on the artists’ individual sensitivity, it may take the form of an objective presentation of the world around us, or a subjective concentration on a selected sounding element.

The songs, created from self-made field recordings and then processed using modern sound technologies, will be presented accompanied by a visual installation created by artists associated with the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice, with lead of Paweł Mędrek, PhD, DLitt. 

Before the concert, we invite you to the exhibition Interferences created by the artists of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice – Judyta Bernaś, PhD, DLitt; Sybilla Skałuba, PhD, DLitt; Artur Masternak, PhD and Paulina Tarara, MA. The exhibition is available in the Silesian Philharmonic Hall.

Agnieszka Nowok-Zych, PhD is a graduate of music theory at the Academy of Music in Katowice and cultural studies (cultural theory) at the University of Silesia. Currently she works as a lecturer (assistant) at her alma mater.  She works with Polish Radio Katowice, Programme II of Polish Radio and ‘Ruch Muzyczny’. Associated with important cultural events in Poland. Secretary of Karol Szymanowski Musical Society.

Registration for the event is required via the form. Limit: 150 people.