12.11.2024 – Extraordinary Koncert, the 35th Anniversary of the Round Table and the first free elections, Gdansk

In the 1980s, Poland (...) was able without bloodshed (...) not only to liberate itself, but by the example of its courage to show the way to others.
Jan Nowak Jeziorański (meeting with students in 1993).

The quoted passage is our invitation to a one-of-a-kind musical event, the main character of which will be music telling the story of modern freedom. The concert will be preceded by a short film archive footage, providing the perfect backdrop for the proposed musical feast.

We invite you to an extraordinary Concert on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Round Table deliberations and the first free elections.

The Concert is held under the honorary patronage of President Lech Walesa and Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Mieczyslaw Struk.

In addition to promoting high musical culture and wide access to it, for the Solidarity Center Foundation, the organizer of the Concert, the most important task is the need to remind a wide audience of the Polish road to freedom, in this case the recollection of the history of the signing of the August Agreements of 1980, martial law 1981 -1983 and strikes of 1988, culminating in the “round table” as a symbol of opening a new road to peaceful revolution and the June elections of 1989, beginning a new stage in both Polish and European history.

The musical reflection of these three historical events will be three musical compositions, including two that will be performed for the first time in Gdansk - the city of freedom and Solidarity. These will be: Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Symphony No. 3 for soprano and orchestra by Elliot Goldenthal, and Symphony of Freedom, by Warsaw-based composer Jan Sanejko.
In its educational activities, the Solidarity Center Foundation has for many years been trying to use various forms of media to get young people interested in history. Combining cultural and historical heritage gives qualitatively very desirable results. The realization of the Concert of Classical Music is one such form of transmission, which aims to strengthen the positive reception and public awareness of the history of Solidarity and the regaining of freedom in 1989.