Poznań

In 1970, Witold Lutosławski accepted an invitation to the 10th Poznań Musical Spring, to lead the concert bringing the festival to a close. That was his second monographic concert in Poland, after an appearance at the Warsaw Philharmonic two years earlier. It was repeated for the youngsters of the Pro Sinfonika movement, propagating music among children and youngsters from schools in the Greater Poland region, and that contact led to close, enduring ties with the movement. From then on, Pro Sinfonika was his principal link with Poznań. In October 1972, he became an honorary member of that organisation, and in March the following year he came to Poznań to deliver a lecture to Pro Sinfonika’s ‘Music University’ and to take part in a meeting with pupils of Secondary School No. 4. As one of those pupils, I was fortunate to lead both those meetings.

Lutosławski was also a guest in Poznań at a worldwide seminar organised by the International Society for Music Education organised by Pro Sinfonika in 1978. He opened the seminar with the inaugural lecture and then the youngsters sang songs that he had written exactly thirty years before.