The Section of Accordion and Contemporary Music Interpretation established in February 2020 is an academic organizational unit operating within the Institute of Instrumental Music.

The activity of the Section is a continuation of the previously conducted teaching activity of the accordion class  based on affiliation with the Department of Wind Instruments and Accordion (1972-2015) and later with the Department of Piano, Organ and Accordion (2016-2019).

The name of the unit reflects the range of artistic, teaching and research activities of its members. It is also substantively associated with solo and chamber accordion literature, which is largely based on the music of our time. Hence, in terms of interpretative issues of the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, extensive collaboration is forecast with such units as the Department of Composition, the Department of Eurhythmics and Piano Improvisation, the Section of Music Creation, Perception and Notation, and the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the Academy of Music in Poznań. Musicians of other specialties, interested in the issues of contemporary music, also announced their participation in the works of the Section.

 

Accordion Class Teachers:

prof. dr hab. Teresa Adamowicz-Kaszuba
prof. dr hab. Jerzy Kaszuba
dr Michał Gajda

Department’s Members:

prof. dr hab. Teresa Adamowicz-Kaszuba – Head (accordion)
dr Michał Gajda (accordion)
prof. dr hab. Janusz Stalmierski (composition)
prof. dr hab. Ewa Murawska (flute)
prof. dr hab. Katarzyna Stroińska-Sierant (composition, jazz piano)
prof. AMP dr hab. Grażyna Czerwińska (piano, chamber music)
prof. AMP dr hab. Kinga Ceynowa (eurhythmics)

Collaborating Educators:

prof. dr hab. Jerzy Kaszuba (accordion)
dr Julia Wolańska-Gajda (piano, chamber music: piano and accordion duo)
mgr Jarosław Buczkowski (jazz accordion)
mgr Piotr Paszkiewicz (conductor of the AkoPoznań orchestra, graduate of the Poznań accordion class)
mgr Grzegorz Uran (accordion, composition)
mgr Hubert Lutka (accordion repairer)

 

The tasks of the Department are implemented in particular through:

• organizing and conducting research and artistic activities as part of a long-term research project entitled “Accordion Playing in the 21st Century. Instrumentarium, Literature, Performance, History of the Discipline”
• profiling the topics of Academic and Artistic Conferences and program of Intercollegiate Accordion Music Concerts within the International Accordion Days “AkoPoznań” organized every October (lectures, seminars, workshops, exhibitions), May workshops and “Mornings with Accordion Music”, concerts from the cycle “Accordion at the Academy”
• initiating and organizing research work, sessions and concerts addressed to the whole academic community of the Academy, concerning broadly understood musical culture of the 20th and 21st centuries, e.g. profiling the topics of subsequent editions of Academic Forums with reference to the program of the International Festival of Contemporary Music “Poznań Music Spring”; concerts from the cycle “Laureates of Music Competitions”, “Our Future”, etc.
• preparing and introducing students to research work and artistic activity; coordinating the work of students’ Accordion Artistic and Academic Club
• developing artistic and academic contacts with accordion centers in Poland and abroad and activating the accordion community in the music schools of first and second degree at the regional and national level.

 

The AkoPoznań Accordion Orchestra

The AkoPoznań Accordion Orchestra was founded in 2022, on the initiative of the Section, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the accordion class and prof. Teresa Adamowicz-Kaszuba’s artistic and teaching activity. Its inaugural concert was held in Aula Nova in October 25, 2022, as part of the 11th International Accordion Days. The orchestra was conducted by Piotr Paszkiewicz, student of dr hab. Jakuba Chrenowicz’s conducting class, prof. AMP and graduate of Prof. Jerzy Kaszuba’s accordion class.

The ensemble is composed of teachers, students and graduates of the accordion class of the Poznań Academy. It regularly appears on the stages of Aula Nova and the ZAMEK Culture Centre, and its repertoire includes works commissioned by the ensemble from such composers as Barbara Kaszuba and Grzegorz Uran as well as arrangements by Piotr Paszkiewicz and Paweł Sławiński.

In 2020, the AkoPoznań Orchestra notably contributed to the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the accordion class at the Poznań Academy. The event was awarded with a Golden Diploma at the 2023 Muzyczne Orły International Competition organized by the Łódź Philharmonic and the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz University of Music in Łódź.

In 2024, the orchestra premiered Ad Parnasum by Leonardo Rizzo, winner of the Composition Competition for works for an accordion orchestra at the AkoPoznań International Accordion Days.

May 2025 brought the First Prize at the International Accordion Competition in Pula, Croatia.