Outstanding Korean Violinist Bomsori Kim as the Ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz's Creativity

She performs on the most famous musical stages: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, BBC Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall, and in Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus. In February 2021, she signed an exclusive contract with the prestigious record label Deutsche Grammophon. Since that year, Bomsori Kim has held the honorable title of ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz's creativity, as she performs and promotes the music of this most important Polish composer worldwide.

The violinist's connection with the personality and music of Grażyna Bacewicz is not only through the instrument and her ties to the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, in which the composer participated in 1935 and received an honorary diploma, and later chaired its jury. Bomsori Kim also won the second prize in its 15th edition in 2016. They are also united by courage and perseverance in striving for artistic excellence.

As noted by the director - editor-in-chief of the Polish Music Publishing House, Dr. Daniel Cichy: The love and respect that Bomsori Kim has for the creativity of Grażyna Bacewicz is evident in every phrase that the Korean artist reveals to the audience. I am convinced that the outstanding Polish composer, violinist, pianist, and writer would be delighted by the finesse of the timbre of Bomsori's instrument, her artistic maturity, emotional sensitivity, and undeniable virtuosity. We are pleased that the creativity of Grażyna Bacewicz is performed by such a phenomenally talented artist and serves as a role model for future generations of musicians.

Grażyna Bacewicz, now regarded as the greatest Polish composer and an outstanding figure in 20th-century music, built her musical position with true determination, linking her career as a violinist with her work as a composer. She quickly became one of the most prominent representatives of the neoclassical trend in music, only to later reform her style and give it a highly individual expression.

Born in 1909, like many other artists from Central Europe, she had to grapple with the political realities of her time – she witnessed, among other things, two world wars and the Stalinist regime. She studied at the Warsaw Conservatory under Kazimierz Sikorski (composition), Józef Jarzębski (violin), and Józef Turczyński (piano). Despite the dismissive attitude of the musical community towards women composing music at that time – its representatives initially saw her primarily as a violinist, often treating her creative ambitions as whims. Meanwhile, Bacewicz, disregarding this, created and performed her works, gaining increasing respect and recognition. In her memoirs, which she put to paper in the story 'Did the Classmate Not Get in the Way?', there are many references to the belittlement of her compositional work by some of her classmates from Sikorski's class.

– Did the Classmate Not Get in the Way?
– What does the classmate wish for? This is not the University. This is a composition class, please, classmate.
(...) The remarks of my colleagues: Szałowski, Palestra, and Neuteich, I let pass by. I did not care about their barbs. (To be honest, I cannot explain why I did not care about them, because I should have).
The jibes and comments about me did not last too long. At most three weeks.
The first to stop was Neuteich. Later, the other two followed.
Did they get used to me? Did they stop considering me someone out of place? Partly yes. But the main reason lay elsewhere. Unconsciously – because not by design – I adopted an attitude that must have settled them. Simply put, I did not show any interest in their snide remarks.

Grażyna Bacewicz,
Life in Words and Images, PWM 2024

The creative and artistic activity of Grażyna Bacewicz was marked by numerous successes. She performed in Europe with recitals and concerts conducted by outstanding conductors. In both fields, she won awards, and her music – valued by conductors and performers – was increasingly present at concerts and festivals both domestically and abroad.

Today, Bacewicz's creativity is experiencing a renaissance. In her concerts, sonatas, symphonies, and smaller works, we find extremely interesting sound solutions. Excellent recordings are appearing (including from the BBC Symphony Orchestra), and her works are being continuously performed, in 2024 for instance at Wigmore Hall in London, Philharmonie de Paris, SR Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, and Bozar in Brussels. Bacewicz's works also reflect the era in which she lived, characterized by a retreat from extravagant romanticism, a search for beauty in classical form, but also an avoidance of worn-out patterns. The strong, disciplined, consistent, yet femininely sensitive musical language and rich compositional imagination reflect the personality of the creator.

Bomsori Kim and NFM Wrocław Philharmonic

For many years, Grażyna Bacewicz was the first performer of her violin works – both chamber and concert pieces. She often performed them in a duo with her brother Kiejstut. On February 3, 1950, together with the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Wacław Krzemiński, she performed the Rhapsody for violin and orchestra with a virtuosic solo part and a perfectly conceived form. The piece, after more than seventy years and in a new performance arrangement by Bomsori Kim, will be performed again on March 7, 2025, at 19:00 at the National Forum of Music named after W. Lutosławski in Wrocław during one of the anniversary concerts celebrating the eightieth anniversary of the Polish Music Publishing House. The solo part will be performed by the Korean artist, accompanied by the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra – one of the best orchestral ensembles in Poland, with which the soloist had the opportunity to collaborate during the recording of her first album Violin on Stage in 2021, released by Deutsche Grammophon. The musicians that evening will be conducted by British conductor Duncan Ward. The Rhapsody for violin and orchestra is the first of the yet unpublished works by Grażyna Bacewicz, which, in the form of manuscripts, can be found in the collections of the National Library in Warsaw, being revived for concert performance by the Polish Music Publishing House. Further works will be successively published by the publishing house.

The program of the Wrocław concert featuring Bomsori will also include Karol Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35. The artist will play on the Guarneri del Gesù violin 'ex-Moller' (Cremona, ca. 1725), loaned to her by the Samsung Foundation of Culture in Seoul and The Stradivari Society in Chicago, Illinois.

Sounds of Poland. Bacewicz

The life and music of Grażyna Bacewicz will also be highlighted in a short film about the composer, in which her Ambassador plays the main role. In the film production, this artist born in South Korea and a graduate of the National University in Seoul and Juilliard School in New York follows in the footsteps of the Polish composer, discovering, among other things, archival recordings of her participation, gathering separate notes and comments contained in the score, and meeting with her closest family.

I am honored to be the ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz's creativity. Her music is extremely expressive and full of passion, and discovering her creativity is an inspiring journey for me. While working on the film and concerts, I had the opportunity to feel her artistic vision even more deeply, and I know that this journey will be rich in new discoveries. I feel a strong connection with Bacewicz – her determination and independence resonate very closely with me, and her compositions allow me to fully express myself as a violinist and artist – confesses Bomsori Kim.

The production is directed by Jakub Piątek, who debuted in 2023 at the Sundance Independent Film Festival in the United States with the feature documentary Pianoforte, presented in cinemas in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland. The film was appreciated by Polish and international audiences and film critics, as evidenced by awards such as the Polish Film Award 'Eagle' for the documentary film and the International Emmy Award (2024) in the Arts Performing category.

The film dedicated to the composer is being produced as part of the project 'Sounds of Poland. Bacewicz' by the Polish Music Publishing House, which continues the publishing house's long-standing activities in promoting Polish music worldwide. This project has been co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the 'Inspiring Culture' program.

We will successively present further events featuring Bomsori Kim promoting the music of Grażyna Bacewicz. We encourage you to follow PWM: on the website and on social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X) and Bomsori Kim: on the website and social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X).

The Polish Music Publishing House has been a cultural institution since 1945, specializing in publishing sheet music and books in the fields of classical music, jazz, and film music. The wide publishing offer includes works of early and contemporary music, Polish and world repertoire, scores for amateurs and specialists, publications of a pedagogical, scientific, and popular nature, and an extensive catalog of book and lexicographic publications. PWM is one of the most important music institutions in Poland, promoting the creativity of domestic composers among foreign partners. It also represents leading foreign publishers in the country. Responding to the expectations of the contemporary audience, in 2019 PWM expanded its activities to include a new record label – ANAKLASIS. As the publisher of 'Ruch Muzyczny', the publishing house creates a space for artistic dialogue and scientific reflection, exchange of ideas, and shaping aesthetic awareness. Meanwhile, the resources collected since the beginning of the institution's activities in its archives are made available in the Polish Music Library – a digital database collecting often unique sheet music and iconographic materials. PWM initiates educational activities, being the main organizer of popular Music Education Days. As part of the project 'Heritage of Polish Music', the publishing house secures the musical heritage of the partition period and conducts activities that bring closer the creativity and artistic activities of that time, including through the Music Editing Course and the latest series of podcasts 'DNA of Polish Music'. More at www.pwm.com.pl.