oto
foundation

about us

oto foundation was established in 2023 by four artists, activists, and cultural life organizers: Ania Karpowicz, Alicja Kieruzalska, Marta Piórkowska, and Agata Krystek.

Despite being a young non-governmental organization, the foundation organizes, represents, and supports valuable music projects, that have won numerous awards in the music industry and engage various audiences, e.g. the WarszeMuzik festival.

oto foundation aims to carry out projects based on narrative programming, which combines the highest level of artistic performances with engaging storytelling and social awareness of classical music.

An important objective of the oto foundation is the support of the artistic achievements of women, in particular female composers and performers in the field of classical and contemporary music, e.g. the Daughters project by Poldowski String Quartet or the TOVA project by Ania Karpowicz.

oto foundation ('oto' equals 'sound' in Japanese) directs its activities beyond Poland's borders, aiming to build long-term, fruitful, and reciprocal collaborations between institutions and artists operating in Europe and around the world, with a particular emphasis on Israel and Japan. The foundation's first and premiere overseas program is the droga dō, connecting Poland, Israel, and Japan through the refugee route of Polish Jews rescued in 1940 thanks to the commitment of Chiune Sugihara and Tadeusz Romer.

At the oto foundation, curators attach particular importance to contextual empathy, which enables the placing of musical events in non-obvious spaces that appeal to the audience's imagination while telling their own, non-musical stories. Thus, the foundation's planned projects include the first-ever site-specific music mission to Antarctica and a wandering concert series featuring Karol Szymanowski’s music in the Tatra mountains’ huts (see Szymanowski’s Mountain Trail).

Why are we programming narratively?

The results of audience research in Europe are relentless - the number of classical music audiences interested in participating in the 19th-century decorum and brought up to participate in traditional forms of musical presentation is steadily declining. Younger generations, who begin their conscious participation in cultural life, perceive classical music concerts as a form of conservative escapism suitable for older audiences. The Gen Z and Alpha generations, on the other hand, are very sensitive to current social issues, largely ready to engage and curious about new experiences.

Here, with its narrative-programmed projects, oto foundation not only brings new forms of participation in classical and contemporary music presentations to a group of music lovers and connoisseurs, but also acquires new, young, and committed listeners who attend classical music events not through a previously gained musical education, but through a moving and relevant context.

If you want to experience classical music rather than just listen to it, we invite you to follow our activities and participate in our events!

projects

WarszeMuzik

warszemuzik.org

The WarszeMuzik festival is developing under the wings of oto foundation and has been included in the laudation of the Polityka Passport Award in the classical music category for the initiator of the festival, Ania Karpowcz.

WarszeMuzik is Poland's only classical chamber music festival held in public space, in frames of which degraded urban areas – as the courtyards of old tenement houses on the site of the former Warsaw ghetto – become a deeply moving setting for the classical music repertoire and an independent actor playing an important role in the narratively programmed concerts.

WarszeMuzik presents the classical music of Polish Jews, with their most prominent representative, the Varsovian – Mieczysław Wajnberg. Unable to bring back to life a city that has perished, WarszeMuzik brings back its intangible heritage. Pieces by Tadeusz Kassern, Aleksander Tansman, or Andrzej Tchaikovsky evoke the history of Warsaw past and present. However, WarszeMuzik is not only a festival of archives; the music of the pre-war Northern Quarter can be heard in the broad context of 19th and 20th century classical music. Each year, a composer-in-residence creates a piece dedicated to the festival. The curators alternate between inviting composers from Poland (Agnieszka Stulgińska, Andrzej Karalow, Aleksandra Kaca), Israel (Aviya Kopelman, Yair Klartag) and UK (Matthew Shlomowitz).

The curators of WarszeMuzik are flutist Ania Karpowicz and pianist Marek Bracha, and the festival's coordinator is Radosław Wójcik.

Daughters

oto foundation supports the artistic development of the Poldowski String Quartet consisting of four outstanding musicians: Marta Piórkowska, Agata Krystek, Damian Kulakowski, and Mateusz Błaszczak.

The ensemble began its activity recently with a debut at the WarszeMuzik festival in 2023, but has already received enthusiastic reviews and won the 3rd prize at the Virtuoso International Music Awards in London. As one of two young European string quartets, the Poldowski String Quartet was selected to participate in masterclasses with the world's leading Belcea Quartet.

In 2025, the quartet's first album will be released. Under the title Daughters the audiences will be able to hear the works of the ensemble's patron, an extraordinary musical personality, and Henryk Wieniawski's daughter – Irene Poldowski. Another daughter of a legendary Polish composer and an excellent composer herself is Roxanna Panufnik, the daughter of Sir Andrzej Panufnik, whose works for string quartet and piano will be included in the second part of the phonographical project.

Polish classical music has many outstanding female figures in its history, and it so happens that two of them are daughters of two legendary Polish composers: Henryk Wieniawski and Sir Andrzej Panufnik. Irene Poldowski and Roxanna Panufnik are bonded by their Polish origins, their strong ties to the UK, and their success in stepping out of their Fathers' shadows through the expression of their own, great artistic personalities.

TOVA

tovaproject.art

oto foundation is the producer of the TOVA cyber flute recital. TOVA was released during the pandemic time in the form of videoclips at the invitation of the Columbia University Music Department in New York, represented by one of the most eminent living composers, Georg Friedrich Haas. TOVA was supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and the visual identity of the project was nominated for the Polish Graphic Design Awards 2021. The concert version of TOVA has been performed at many new music festivals, e.g. in Germany, Norway, and Poland. TOVA's album premiere is scheduled for 14 June 2024.

TOVA recital is a result of close cooperation between the flutist Ania Karpowicz and young composers: Marta Śniady, Nina Fukuoka, Aleksandra Kaca, and Teoniki Rożynek. Each of the artists, taking up the topic of searching for the sources of one’s identity, has put her personal experiences into the works and interpretations, which – as it happened – are experiences of women.

TOVA is also a joint search of the soloist and composers into the sound values of the flute – both acoustic values, related to the development of modern performance techniques, as well as electronic values, related to various techniques of processing live and recorded sound.

Szymanowski na szlaku

oto foundation is the co-producer of the Szymanowski’s Mountain Trail, a project proceeded in close cooperation with the Sound Collective Foundation. The French horn player Lukasz Lacny is the initiator of the initiative.

‘[mountain huts] are social duty-free zones where - if only for two-quarters of an hour – everyone becomes equal: those coming up from below and those coming down from above’ (Łukasz Gorczyca, dwutygodnik, 2024)

Polish Tatras’ folklore and its nature influenced Karol Szymanowski’s music profoundly. Hereby Szymanowski – one of the greatest Polish composers – abandons prestigious concert halls and returns to his source of inspiration – the mountain trail. Chamber music, practiced in the format of home music-making for centuries, will soon be hosted in the PTTK Murowaniec mountain hut. Classical music adapted for experimental chamber ensemble will sound in concert both for music lovers, engaged musicologists, and the local community of climbers and tourists. The concert at the hut will make Szymanowski’s songs sound even closer, and more accessible.

The artistic supervision over the premiere will be provided by Ania Karpowicz and Lukasz Lacny, the soloist will be Maniucha Bikont, a vocalist deeply involved in the ethnic voice practice, and the arrangement of Szymanowski's songs will be done by the acclaimed and versatile composer Nikola Kołodziejczyk.

our mission

The main aim of the oto foundation is to support the development of art, culture, and social initiatives through the organization of various artistic events, workshops, and educational programs in the field of classical and contemporary music.

Our mission

Our mission is to positively impact society by popularizing the values of culture and art. We are committed to enhancing musical culture through the realization of events that enable audiences to participate in diverse ways of classical and contemporary music presentations, with a particular focus on disseminating works of Polish artists.

Through our contribution and involvement, we want to support and promote valuable artistic activities in the area of classical and contemporary music, but also from different disciplines of art (literature, theatre, film, visual arts, performance, new media) contributing to the dissemination of modern forms of musical and sound presentations that are sensitive to historical, social and cultural contexts.

Download foundation's statutes (Polish)

team

Ania Karpowicz

aniakarpowicz@otofundacja.org

Flutist, curator, activist. Graduate of the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and the G. and K. Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź. Prizewinner of the 2020 Polityka's Passport Awards in the category of classical music. Participant in the Fellowship Programme at the European Music Council 2022-2024.

Founder of the Hashtag Ensemble. Co-directs the ensemble by programming events, giving concerts, and engaging in improvisational and educational initiatives. She co-manages the Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Centre in Warsaw.

As a curator, Ania Karpowicz specializes in classical and contemporary music projects carried out in collaboration with local communities. In 2017, she initiated the WarszeMuzik festival held in the courtyards of old tenement houses remaining in the former Warsaw ghetto area. She is also the co-founder of the Mieczyslaw Wajnberg Institute, est. in 2020.

Alicja Kieruzalska

alicjakieruzalska@otofundacja.org

Bassoonist, music producer, pedagogue. Graduate of the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart and the University of Music in Warsaw.

As a chamber and orchestra musician, she has given concerts in most European countries, the United States, China, Japan, and Egypt. Since 2010 she has been the first bassoonist of the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic.

Founder, initiator, and member of one of the ensembles of the National Forum of Music: the LutosAir Quintet, one of the most active and versatile wind ensembles in Poland during the last 10 years.

For the past eight years, she has co-organized the Zielona Góra Brass Festival: CORNO – Brass Music Festival, an event that combines concerts, lectures, and instrumental workshops for dozens of students from all over the world.

She graduated from the Course of Merit Editor at the Polish Association of Book Publishers. She lectures at the Academy of Music in Poznań.

Marta Piórkowska

martapiorkowska@otofundacja.org

Violinist, chamber musician, pedagogue. Graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, winner of numerous violin competitions.

For many years she has been involved in chamber music, especially close to contemporary music. In 2014-2020 she was the 2nd violinist of the Nostadema quartet, with which she premiered numerous works by Polish composers. In 2022, she recorded an album with pianist Wojciech Świętoński featuring the works of Stanisław Wisłocki, which was nominated for the Fryderyk Award.

Since 2016, Marta Piórkowska has been a member of the Hashtag Ensemble, which specializes in new music. In 2023, she joined the ensemble's Creative Group, programming and producing various artistic events.

Since 2022, she has co-founded the Poldowski String Quartet, of which she is the primarius. She is involved in educational activities aimed at popularising contemporary music among children and youth, e.g. Hashtag Ensemble’s Young Academy at the Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Centre in Warsaw.

Since 2013, he has been teaching violin classes at the Karol Szymanowski Music School in Warsaw.

Agata Krystek

agatakrystek@otofundacja.org

Violinist, music producer. A graduate of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in Prof. Jan Stanienda's violin class. Winner of violin competitions in Poland and abroad.

In 2019 she was a member of the Symphony Orchestra of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, with which she toured the USA performing at Carnegie Hall in the same year. She is a member of the Chopin Chamber University Orchestra, with which she toured Chicago in 2023. In 2020 she joined the programme of the NFM Orchestra Academy in Wrocław.

Since 2021 she has been associated with the Jerzy Semkow Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra in Warsaw. In 2022, she began a regular collaboration with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Warsaw, with which she had the opportunity to perform at the Expo in Dubai, in Spain, and in the USA.

Agata Krystek is active artistically both as a chamber musician and as an orchestral musician. Since 2023 she is a member of the Poldowski String Quartet, playing the 2nd violin. Since 2024 she has been associated with the Hashtag Lab Contemporary Music Centre engaging in the production of musical events.

contact

oto foundation
kontakt@otofundacja.org
+48 505 335 175

KRS: 0001082839
NIP: 1133122659
REGON: 52754766700000
ul. Stalowa 27 lok. 3
03-425 Warsaw, Poland

Address for correspondence:
oto fundacja
ul. Kaliny Jędrusik 1 lok. 8
01-748 Warsaw, Poland