This year is crazy and unique in every way. Who could have predicted in January that the world would look completely different in the summer?
After the massive cancellation of almost all concerts and performances - even those in 2021 - it was almost a utopia to hope to organise the Krzyżowa-Music 2020 Festival. Nevertheless, thanks to the extraordinary courage of Matthias von Hülsen and Viviane Hagner, the professionalism of the festival team and the staff of the Krzyżowa Foundation, as well as the great support of the company CENTOGENE, this has become possible.
The 2020 edition was very extraordinary: suddenly we all realised that we had become more mature. Each of us had enough time to reflect and ask questions that had never been answered before.
Krzyżowa-Music has always been more than just a chamber music festival for me. In my life, which revolves like a kaleidoscope - travel - concert - hotel - travel - concert - hotel, these last two weeks of August seem idyllic, and even remind me a little of the school time, which we musicians often lack in our everyday lives.
These are not only rehearsals and concerts, but also a common life, eating, playing football and table tennis, dancing, celebrating - all this creates a unique atmosphere which allows us to develop new friendships, break all boundaries and discuss very important topics in a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.
Therefore, this year's symposiums, which I have been running for 3 years with great pleasure, were exciting and full of content. The idea of the symposiums is not only to teach history, but also to draw conclusions from the past in order to find analogies to our times.
The theme of the first symposium was "40 years of the Solidarity". For me, it was particularly important that, thanks to the knowledge of what happened in Poland 40 years ago, which was given to us by Dr Tomasz Skonieczny from European Academy in Krzyżowa Foundation, we should build a bridge to what is happening today in Belarus, look at the situation there and show our solidarity with people who are fighting for freedom and humanistic values.
The second symposium was devoted to the theme "Coronavirus and the world of music". It was important to realise together that since the beginning of the pandemic, we have all found ourselves in a completely different reality, where success is no longer measured by the number of listeners, tickets sold and clicks. This period is not only an obvious challenge but also an opportunity to find new ways to create positive change, with many opportunities and potential. It is also an opportunity to get even more involved in society as an artist.
No one knows what will happen next. But one thing is certain - if all difficulties and threats have been overcome with such passion, commitment and openness as this year in Krzyżowa, then we can look to the future with optimism!
* Alexey Stadler is one of the finest young cellists of his generation and winner of the TONALi Grand Prix in Hamburg.Alexey Stadler performs with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Münchner Symphoniker, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Riga Sinfonietta, Nordic Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under renowned conductors such as Dmitri Kitajenko, Robert Trevino, Valery Gergiev and Marek Janowski.
