ATTENTION! Event postponed due to weather conditions! We invite you on 09.08 at 13:00.
In the musical setting of Ołowianka Island – outdoors, amidst the murmur of the Motława River and the summer light – the music of Fryderyk Chopin resounds. It is here, in the heart of Gdańsk, that masters and their students – professors and gifted students from the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music – come together to co-create a space of music, emotion, and beauty.
The concerts also feature outstanding pianists who are not formally affiliated with the university but are permanently connected to Gdańsk – artists with an established artistic position, educators, competition laureates, and creators of Gdańsk's musical environment. It is a meeting of generations, sensitivities, and experiences – united by a common love for Chopin's music.
This year's edition of the series has been entirely dedicated to the works of Chopin, a composer who has inspired pianists worldwide for generations. The programme will feature diverse and timeless works – from delicate nocturnes and lyrical mazurkas, through dramatic ballades and brilliant études, to powerful sonatas and preludes.
Every Sunday, in a charming spot called Przystanek Port Gdańsk „Pod Żaglami” (The Port of Gdańsk Stop „Under Sails”), concerts take place that connect the audience with music in a direct, intimate and authentic way. It’s a suggestion for both seasoned music lovers and for those out for a stroll who want to stop, listen and let the music tell its story.
Chopin under the Gdańsk sky – it's not just concerts.
To encounters with art that soothes and moves.
Two nocturnes on the Motława that stay in your memory.
You're welcome – sit down, listen, feel.
Chopin is for everyone – and always sounds exceptional.
Paul Rydel
Pianist and chamber musician, professor at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, associated with this university since his studies, which he completed under the guidance of outstanding pedagogues – Prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń and Prof. Waldemar Wojtal. During his studies, he developed his skills further during numerous masterclasses in Poland and abroad, working with artists such as Andrzej Jasiński, Kevin Kenner, Jean-Paul Sevilla, Andrzej Tatarski, as well as with outstanding chamber musicians: Jadwiga Kaliszewska, Marek Lubotsky, Henry Meyer, Marek Moś, and Maria Szwajger-Kułakowska.
He has won top prizes at leading national and international piano and chamber music competitions, including the 1st National F. Liszt Scholarship Competition in Wrocław (1991), the 3rd I.J. Paderewski National Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz (1994), the 1st Chamber Music Competition in Zakopane (1998, together with violinist Andrzej Kacprzak), as well as the Jury Prize at the prestigious Piano Competition in Bremen (1999).
Paweł Rydel maintains a busy concert schedule as both a soloist and a chamber musician. He has performed in numerous concert halls in Poland, Germany, Russia, Norway, Ukraine and Italy. His artistic interests focus on 19th- and 20th-century music, with particular emphasis on the works of Roman Maciejewski, Olivier Messiaen and Polish composers less frequently featured in concert programmes. He is one of the few Polish pianists to include in his repertoire, amongst other works, Feliks Nowowiejski’s Piano Concerto in D minor, Op. 60, „Slavonic”, as well as Wawrzyniec Żuławski’s Partita, Mazurkas, Sonatina and Etude. His interpretation of excerpts from Messiaen’s „Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus” served as the musical score for Joanna Malinowska’s film entitled. Twenty perspectives.
He has made numerous recordings, including the first recordings of the Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano by Witold Friemann and Stefan Kisielewski, as well as transcriptions of works by F. Chopin, J. Zarębski, I.J. Paderewski, K. Szymanowski and A. Zarzycki, performed as a duo with the clarinettist Karol Respondek.
From 2002 to 2005, he served as chairman and subsequently as a board member of the Gdańsk Music Lovers„ Association, which organises chamber concerts and festivals. For his contribution to the development of culture, he has been awarded, among others, the Bronze Cross of Merit, the ”Meritorious for Polish Culture’ badge and the Medal of the National Education Commission.
Piotr Czerwiński
Born in 2004 in Gdańsk. One of the most promising pianists of the younger generation, he has won over 40 prizes at national and international piano competitions. In 2025, he completed his bachelor’s degree at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk in the piano class of Dr Elżbieta Pasierowska and Dr Mikołaj Sikała. Prior to this, he studied at the Feliks Nowowiejski Primary and Secondary Music School in Gdańsk.
He has won top prizes at competitions in Szafarnia, Riga, Ustie nad Łabą, Żyrardów, Broumov, Kraków, Moscow, Verona and Łomianki. He has performed on stages across Poland and Europe, including in Riga (with the Riga String Quartet), the Rudolfinum in Prague, Budapest, Maglod, Mendigorria, Logroño, Pamplona, Vienna, Warsaw (the Royal Castle, Łazienki Park, the Chopin Museum), in Poznań, Słupsk, Łódź, Gdańsk, Stalowa Wola and Żelazowa Wola. He has taken part in numerous festivals, including „Poznań Music Spring”, the „Euro Chamber Music Festival”, „Pomeranian Musical Talents” and „Chopin on the Motława”.
For his achievements, he has received numerous scholarships, including from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (on multiple occasions), the „Young Poland” Programme (2020), the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, the Mayor of Gdańsk, the National Children’s Fund and the NSZZ „Solidarność” Scholarship Fund. He is regarded as a pianist of outstanding musical sensitivity, impressive technique and interpretative maturity.
