Leamington Music Festival Weekend: “Focus on Poland”

Friday 25 September to Sunday 27 September

Royal Pump Rooms and Polish Centre, Leamington Spa

2026 marks 20 years of Leamington Music and we will be pushing the musical boat out in celebration. We begin with an extra Festival Weekend which is a “Focus on Poland”, featuring Polish and British-Polish artists and offering some exciting discoveries including the world première of a brand new commission for Leamington Music.

With such a significant Polish community in Leamington Spa and wider Warwickshire, we are delighted to be working with Leamington’s Polish Centre and to have this opportunity to forge new connections with the residents of our town. We hope that this Festival will mean members of the Polish community can see Polish culture brought positively to the fore in the town while introducing wider audiences to the richness and diversity of Polish music and heritage.  

Across 7 exciting events, the Polish and British-Polish artists in residence for the weekend are: the Ćwiżewicz Brothers violin duo, Łukasz Krupiński piano, Krystyna Osostowicz violin (leader of the Brodsky Quartet), and the Royal String Quartet from Warsaw.

The concerts will feature music by Polish composers – Chopin, Szymanowski, Penderecki, Lutosławski, Górecki, Wieniawski, Grażyna Bacewicz, Twardowski, Paweł Mykietyn, and Michał Ćwiżewicz – sitting comfortably with music by Mozart, Ravel, Franck, Schumann, and Britten, and the world première of a new work by composer Daria Kwiatkowska commissioned specially for the event, for a veritable feast of music over 3 days.

We will learn about “The Genius of Chopin” in an illustrated talk from Professor John Rink (Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge) and sample Polish folk music, too, from Karolina Węgrzyn and her band.

But music shall not be the only thing we feast upon – audiences will also experience Polish culture through food tasting and hospitality activities, creating opportunities for cultural exchange, conversation, and shared experiences.

Leamington Music’s Artistic Director, Helen Beecroft, says “This Festival has been made to bring in both established concert audiences and people who may be engaging with classical music in this kind of setting for the first time, and we very much look forward to welcoming everyone there for this exciting mix of cultures in our town”.

The Festival is generously supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, London, Leamington Town Council, and Steinway & Sons, for which Leamington Music is immensely grateful.

Tickets are available on https://www.leamingtonmusic.org/focus-on-poland-festival-weekend/ or by calling 0333 666 3366.

For further information, comment and photographs, please contact Helen Beecroft on 01926 774395 and helen@leamingtonmusic.org