Dear Guests,

It is with sincere pleasure that I wel-come you at the concert celebrating the cooperation between Japan and the

Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region. Tonight, you would not only have the opportunity to lis-ten to some marvelous music performed by Ignacy Jan Paderewski Philharmonic from Bydgoszcz, and conducted by maestro Mit-suyoshi Oikawa, but also to learn something about our Region itself. I assure you that it is a region worth visiting.

Tonight’s performer, Paweł Wakarecy, an extremely gifted young artist and a prize-winner in the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw last year, comes from our region and em-bodies its best qualities — energy and talent.

Since the day of Polish accession to the European Union, Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region has made a tremendous progress in every area — cultural, economic and social. Hopefully, this trend would continue on even greater scale and that is why we support the consolidation of our two biggest cities, Bydgoszcz and Toruń, into one metropolitan area of European importance. It is a unique project in that part of Europe.

Our highest ambition is to create excellent conditions for economic develop-ment. We spend every fourth zloty from our Regional Operational Programme to support such undertakings. The result of this strategy is, amongst others, the more frequent investments in our region by foreign enterprises. More than 192 thousand economic entities with 1,697 of foreign capital, are active in Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region. Many of these investors, such as Orion, Sharp, Sumitomo Chemicals etc., are from Japan.

We heard about the terrible earthquake and tsunami that had ravaged Japan in March this year causing so much suffering and destruction with great sadness. All the inhabitants of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region would like to express once more our most sincere condolences and sympathies with the people of Japan, as they strive against the aftermath of this unbelievable tragedy with so much courage. We would also like to dedicate this concert to our Japanese friends and in this way express our admiration for their incredible strength and community spirit.

I hope that you would enjoy the concert and visit Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region in the nearest future.

Piotr CałbeckiMarshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region

Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region

Kujawsko-Pomorskie is a region situated in mid-northern Poland, re-nowned for the beauty of its nature and Gothic architecture of its cities. The region has two capitals — Toruń and Bydgoszcz, connected in 2008 in BiT

City, where the administrative authorities are located. Apart from these cities, there are also other three cities of the great importance for the region — Włoclawek, Grudziądz and Inowrocław. All of these urban centres affect the dynamic develop-ment of the voivodeship.

The important asset of the region is its human and intellectual potential. We have 31 schools of higher education, including 3 universities: Nature and Technol-ogy University and Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, and the largest uni-versity centre in the northern Poland — Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

Kujawsko-Pomorskie region is also a crucial touristic centre which boasts cul-tural and natural richness — historical monuments, health-resorts, vast forests, clean rivers and lakes.

Bydgoszcz, which is the biggest regional city has to offer a variety of interest-ing sights. Midst of all it is worth mentioning Bydgoski Channel built in XVIIIth

Old granaries on thebrda river in Bydgoszcz

century, as well as the Venice of Bydgoszcz which consists of a complex of tenement houses from XIXth and XXth century and BRE Bank’s skyscrapers referring to the style of XVIIIth century granaries.

Toruń, which is the second capital of the voivodeship is fulfilled with gothic his-torical monuments. We can find here, most of all, a magnificent Old Town Com-plex which was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1997. There are also other captivating sites like The Town Hall, The blessed Virgin Mary Church, Cathedral Basilica of SS. Johns, St. Jacob’s Church, the Ruins of Teutonic Knights’ Castle or famous astronomer — Copernicus’s House.

The region includes also other intriguing attractions — Chełmno with ren-aissance Town Hall, numerous churches, city walls and towers; Golub-Dobrzyń with its splendid castle situated on the hill; Ciechocinek with a health-resort, brine deposits and Spa Park; and the village of Biskupin in which tourists can admire Archeological Reserve.

The real showcase of Kujawsko-Pomorskie region are also Bory Tucholskie, which are the second — after Białowieża Forest — largest forest complex in the country, as well as Brodnickie Lake District with over 100 lakes.

Church of St. John the Baptist andSt. John the Evangelist in Toruń

Mitsuyoshi Oikawa

Mitsuyoshi Oikawa is a perma-nent guest conductor of the China Philharmonic, Beijing and the

Film Symphony Orchestra of Shanghai.Born in Hokkaido in 1949, he started

playing piano at the age of five.When he was ten years old he had

a chance to be on a television show. This ex-perience inspired him to be a professional musician.

In 1967 Oikawa entered the Musical In-strument Department of Tokyo College of Music, as well as conductor course of Toho Gakuen School of Music.

In August 1975 he took the international conductor course at Nice Conservatoire and was highly remarked.

He was back in France in October of the same year to continue his study at L’Ecole Normal de Musique de Paris under Pierre Dervaux, while attending the Conducting and Piano Department at Schola Cantorum.

In 1976 he was on an international conductor course under Maestro Otmar Suit-ner, who granted much recognition to Oikawa’s talent.

Back in Japan in 1977, Oikawa began to work with Sapporo Symphony Orches-tra by recommendation of Maestro Hiroyuki Iwaki.

From 1978 he had Maestro Seiji Ozawa as his instructor. In this year Oikawa was sent to USA as one of the first exchange students of the Sapporo City Art and Culture Development Foundation.

In 1982 he was selected to be an artist trainee by Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and went to Munich, West Germany.

Upon return to Japan, he made his debut in August 1983 with the Tokyo Sym-phony Orchestra.

This was followed by works with Shinsei Nihon Symphony Orchestra, Gunma Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Sympho-ny Orchestra and Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra for concert, recording and broadcast.

Notorious for performing with the best orchestras all over the world last year he has also conducted Toruń Symphony Orchestra during the concert organized to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region in Brussels.

Paweł Wakarecy

Paweł Wakarecy was born in 1987 in Toruń, Poland. He is studying at the Bydgoszcz Music Academy in the custody of prof. Katarzyna Popowa- -Zydroń at the moment, constantly developing his pianist skills.

Paweł Wakarecy has won several prizes and distinctions at numerous national and international youth piano competitions in Poland. In 2007, he was a laureate of special prizes at the Paderewski International Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz and in 2009 — a finalist of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt. In 2010 he was the finalist at the XVI International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and was awarded as the best Polish pianist in this worldwide known contest.

Due to his great achievements in the field of music and his contribution to re-gion promotion he was repeatedly a scholarship holder sponsored by the Prime Minister, Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship Marshal, and the Mayors of the Cities of Toruń and Bydgoszcz.

Paweł Wakarecy performed concerts in many Polish cities and abroad — in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Bulgaria, France, Switzerland, Italy, China, Japan. Ad-ditionally, he performs regularly as a soloist with the Toruń Symphony Orchestra

He has also collaborated with Polish philharmonic orchestras performing un-der well-known polish conductors, such as Antoni Wit, Tadeusz Wojciechowski, Zygmunt Rychert, Jerzy Salwarowski, Łukasz Borowicz, Piotr Sułkowski and Wo-jciech Rodek.

Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra’s origins date back to the thirties and the Civic Symphony Orchestra existing at that time in Bydgoszcz. In the past, the Orchestra was directed by: Robert Sa-

tanowski, Zbigniew Chwedczuk, Witold Krzemieński, Antoni Wit, Tomasz Bu-gaj, Mieczysław Nowakowski, Jerzy Salwarowski, Michael Zilm, Roman Kofman as well as Marek Pijarowski and Eugene Tzigane — working with the Orchestra on a permanent basis. Since 2002, the position of the conductor of the Ignacy Jan Pa-derewski State Philharmonic Orchestra has been held by Tadeusz Wojciechowski.

The Orchestra has achieved a strong position which is proved by numerous con-certs with participation of such famous conductors as Ernst Ansermet, Roberto Benzi, Riccardo Chailly, Juozas Domarkas, Jerzy Katlewicz, Kazimierz Kord, Jan Krenz, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kurt Redel, Witold Rowicki, Jerzy Semkow, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Saulius Sondeckis, Leopold Stokowski, Tadeusz Strugała, Carlo Zecchi, among others, and conducting composers — Aram Chaczaturian, Ben-jamin Britten, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski.

The Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra’s performances in the Czech Re-public, Slovakia, Italy, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Cyprus, Scotland, Hungary won recognition from the critics and earned applause from the audience. The orchestra performed during domestic and international mu-sic festivals earning reputation as one of the best orchestras in Poland.

Programme of the concertPomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mitsuyoshi OikawaPianist Paweł WakarecyWednesday, 12 October 2011 in the Theatre Saint-Michel in Brusselso Mikhail Glinka, Overture “Ruslan and L yudmila”o Fryderyk Chopin, Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, op. 21o Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64

Information Office of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie RegionAvenue de Tervueren 84, 1040 Brussels · phone +32 2 734 12 17

e-mail brussels@kujawsko-pomorskie.pl · www.mojregion.eu

The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund within the Regional Operational Programmefor Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship for the years 2007–2013 and the budget of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship

www.mojregion.eu