Violence often speaks in the name of love, goodness and truth. The Study of Violence listens closely to that language and turns it into musical material. Moving between philosophical lecture, music and performance, the piece brings together the philosopher’s voice, the cello and electronics into a single dramaturgy. The spoken word is treated as sound: it is shaped rhythmically, broken into fragments and transformed. The starting point is Augustine’s maxim “Love, and do what you will”, and the question of whether love really guarantees goodness. From there, the work looks at systemic violence, mechanisms of exclusion, and the ways ideas of love, goodness and absolute truth can be turned into tools of oppression.

The composition was commissioned under the “Composing Commissions” programme of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage. It marks the next stage of a long-standing collaboration between Torzewski and Majewski, who have been combining concerts with philosophical talks in the lecture-concert format developed by the Koherencje Foundation. For Kawecki, who teaches composition at the Guildhall School, it continues his work on composition as a documentary form.

The programme also includes Kawecki’s Shreds (2020) for cello and electronics. It was the first piece he wrote entirely during lockdown, built from samples and sounds recorded at home, and it won the Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble Prize at the “Synchronised” International Composition Competition.

15 November 2026 (Sunday), 5 pm
Silk Street Music Hall, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DT
Free admission

PERFORMERS
Antoni Torzewski – philosopher
Antoni Majewski – cello
Michał Kawecki – electronics

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Michał Kawecki is a Polish composer and pianist based in London. He lectures in composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. His work develops the field of documentary composition, exploring mental health, trauma, memory and cultural identity, often in the context of emigration. He has collaborated with Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Centre, Kings Place and the London Contemporary Music Festival, among others.

Antoni Torzewski is a philosopher of religion, an assistant professor at Kazimierz Wielki University and a lecturer at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. He is principal investigator of a National Science Centre grant on the philosophy of Gianni Vattimo, and one strand of his research is the violence inherent in religion and metaphysical thinking. He is president of the Koherencje Foundation, which combines music and philosophy in lecture-concerts.

Antoni Majewski is a cellist, chamber musician and curator. His work focuses on performance as a direct dialogue with the audience, which led him to create spoken concerts that change how listeners relate to the music and the performer. Since 2026 he has been a member of NeoQuartet, one of Poland’s leading string quartets specialising in contemporary music.

Organiser: Koherencje Foundation

Find out more: https://koherencje.pl/projekty/the-study-of-violence/