Early Music - Persona Grata
The Festival began in 1998 with the aim of creating in Poland a platform for performers specializing in a historically informed approach to the performed repertoire.
The festival's name itself presents its main motto. The term "persona grata" in Latin means "welcome person," so the entire festival name can be translated as "Early Music – [a] Welcome Person." Music welcomed by everyone, from listeners in large cities to residents of small towns and villages, because Persona Grata is inherently an unusual festival – a traveling one.
2002 - Festival archive
The creators of the festival are the founders and leaders of the Arte dei Suonatori orchestra – Ewa and Aureliusz Goliński, and the editor-in-chief of the CANOR magazine, Cezary Zych.
Here's how they describe its main principles:
" Early Music ...
...for us who engage with it and listen to it every day, is not solely and simply the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, or Romantic periods, but a symbol of one of the greatest revolutions in the cultural life of the second half of the twentieth century. It is also a deep conviction that the essence of performing music is the continuous, courageous discovery of its diversity, colors, nuances, spiritual content, and hidden messages, and then passing these discoveries on, incorporating them into the life of today's world, turning them into an essential part of the present (...).
2000 - Festival archive
Early music has proven to be music full of life, joy, and energy, without losing its ability to lead us into a realm of reflection, contemplation, and silence. It is both easy and difficult. We hear the past in it, but we also hear the rhythm of our times. For some, a beautiful trinket; for others, something much more important. In today's world, early music is simply...
... Persona Grata "
The collaboration with Cezary Zych spanned the years 1999-2009.
2005 - Festival archive
During this time, 326 concerts took place in over 20 locations. A significant portion of them were recorded and broadcast by local radio stations (primarily Radio Merkury Poznań), as well as by Polish Radio Program 2. Arte dei Suonatori performed with outstanding musicians specializing in historical performance, mainly from abroad, and the most important collaborations were transformed into recording projects.
Since 2010, the function of artistic director has been taken over by Aureliusz Goliński.
The initial assumptions of the Festival remain unchanged, and its reach expands to numerous new towns. In the years 2010 – 2019, 99 concerts took place in almost 20 locations.
The year 2020 – cultural life moved online, no one knew when or if artistic life would ever return to its former state.
Fortunately, it is gradually returning, and performers and audiences appreciate live contact, here and now, more than ever. In the years 2021 – 2024, 35 concerts took place in 16 locations. Increasingly, the Arte dei Suonatori ensemble recruits musicians from Poland, and Polish soloists present their exceptional artistry.
A complete calendar with the presented repertoire and the names of the performers of the Early Music Festival - Persona Grata concerts from 1998 to 2024 is currently in preparation.
