I had the enormous pleasure of working with proMODERN. They are an exciting, talented and thoroughly professional group of educated opera singers singing in an ensemble, which is extremely rare.
proMODERN are a seriously exciting group. There are obvious parallels with James Weeks’s Exaudi or Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices but proMODERN’s sound is all their own – lean, sinewy and infinitely agile. A collective of soloists with an enormous technical toy-box, the group is surely a composer’s dream, offering limitless possibilities.
In its activity proMODERN demonstrates a powerful example of musical and organizational talents of its members, which include: exceptional musicality, passion in creativity, excellent artistic workshop and diligence.
proMODERN delivers bright timbre and agility and the ability to place chords with tremendous precision. I look forward to hearing much more from this splendid group.
The singers of proMODERN explore the boundaries between the individuality of each of them and the need to build a musical community. They are something more than just a vocal ensemble, something different from a group of soloists: they are explorers and seekers of singing techniques as means of expression.
Why did Stimmung have to wait as long as half a century for its Polish performers? There is no doubt it is difficult and, as we can see, proMODERN was the first group with enough ambition to take on the challenge.
They succeeded excellently.
proMODERN singers are highly skilled individuals and also expert at performing as a team. The singing is remarkably precise: every chord seems perfectly weighted and balanced.
Musicians proved themselves to be excellent interpreters of the 20th century Classic's masterpieces. The performing artistry, knowledge of numerous vocal techniques and, above all, their profound engagement and enthusiasm in taking new artistic challanges, provides a bright and long stage future to proMODERN sextet.
The vocal artistry, brilliant interpretations and group’s enthusiasm are reasons why proMODERN is a fantastic ambassador of the Polish Culture.
In over 10 years of its existence, proMODERN has become a synonym for the best performances of vocal music. During this time the vocal sextet released four award-winning albums of their own and recorded music for two others, making many first-time recordings. They performed the world premieres of several dozen compositions, collaborating with leading Polish orchestras, including NOSPR at the Warsaw Autumn festival, NFM Philharmonic and the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra, recording television recitals for Polish National Television and radio concerts for Polish Radio, performing in concert at festivals and at the invitation of leading cultural centres, including most of Poland’s philharmonics and several major international festivals.
proMODERN has won as many as five of the Polish music industry’s Fryderyk awards: in 2015 for the debut album Where Are You: Pieces from Warsaw, in the Choral, Oratorio and Opera Music Album of the Year category and for Best Recording of Polish Music; in 2018 for their second album, proMODERN Shakespired, in the Contemporary Music Album of the Year category and for Best Recording of Polish Music, and in 2020 for their most recent project, Comfort Zone, in the Contemporary Music Album of the Year category. Philip Lawson’s piece, which the legendary artist had composed as a commission specially for the group, already had 20,000 streams on Spotify in just two weeks! proMODERN was nominated for the Coryphaeus of Polish Music Award 2018 in the Discovery of the Year category for their performance of Stimmung by Karlheinz Stockhausen during the KODY Festival in Lublin. proMODERN’s version of this monumental piece of contemporary music, released as an album by Polish Radio, was nominated for a Fryderyk 2020 award. In the same year, at the invitation of the Polish ambassadors in Rome and the Vatican, the group performed in concert during papal celebrations in Italy.
The group was founded by leading vocal soloists who shared a passion and skill for interpreting the most demanding works by present-day composers. proMODERN collaborates with leading composers, musicians and orchestras. The group works on repertoire inaccessible to other performers, from pieces by European classics like Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, Arvo Pärt and Louis Andriessen, through the greatest Polish composers like Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski and Andrzej Panufnik, to works commissioned specially for them from composers including Zygmunt Krauze and Paweł Łukaszewski, as well as taking part in unique projects with Krzysztof Herdzin and Krzesimir Dębski, among others. The group is greatly appreciated in the music community for their original interpretations, garnering excellent international reviews, including rave reviews from the British magazine Gramophone. The ensemble cooperates closely with Warsaw National Philharmonic and became Artist-in-residence at Philharmonic in Szczecin for the 2023/2024 season.
Marta Czarkowska
SOPRANO
Katarzyna Bienias
SOPRANO
Anna Krawczuk
MEZZO-SOPRANO
Aleksander Rewiński
TENOR
Krzysztof Chalimoniuk
BARITONE
Piotr Pieron
BASS,
artistic director