26.09.2025
Railway station in Dąbrowa Górnicza
A concert in the unique space of the revitalised railway station in Dąbrowa Górnicza. The event is a reference to a fact from the life of the festival’s patron, who travelled regularly by train from this station to Katowice between 1930 and 1937, when he studied at the then Silesian Conservatory of Music in Katowice.
- Prof. Julian Gembalski – piano
- Prof. Henryk Gembalski – improvising violin
Repertoire: improvisations on classical and jazz themes
Photo by Agnieszka Kasztalska
Prof. Henryk Gembalski, PhD (born 1957) – improvising violinist. Active on the professional music market since 1978. Co-founder and member of more than 60 ensembles from various musical areas: jazz, blues, rock, classical and improvised music. Winner of the international competitions “Jazz nad Odrą” (Wrocław, 1978) and “Złoty Smyczek” (Szczecin, 1986). He has played on more than 40 published records. In the 1990s he was involved in the world of theatre: he wrote music for 30 plays and performed in more than 350 performances. Creator of music for documentaries and TV programmes. He has performed in almost all of Europe and in China, Russia, the USA and Algeria. Lecturer at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and the Grażyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź. He practises improvised music inspired by various genres, attempting to combine their elements into a homogeneous and coherent musical language. He is interested in researching form in improvised music, and has published a book titled “Improwizowana forma otwarta – między wolnością a koniecznością” (Improvised open form – between freedom and necessity).
Prof. Julian Gembalski, PhD (born in 1950) – graduate of the State Higher School of Music in Katowice, where he studied organ performance with Henryk Klaja and at the Faculty of Composition and Theory (graduating with honours in both specialties in 1975). He completed a master course with Prof. Flor Peeters in Mechelen (Belgium) and further studies in Paris under the guidance of André Isoir and Michel Chapuis (organs) and Jean Saint-Arroman (musicology). He has an active artistic, scientific, and pedagogical career. He has performed concerts throughout Europe and the USA and has recorded for Polish Radio, (including the series “Anthology of Organs in Upper Silesia”, where he recorded the sound of 90 organs from the region) as well as for television. He has recorded around 40 CD albums, including seven in collaboration with soprano Elżbieta Grodzka-Łopuszyńska. He is a laureate of first prizes in piano improvisation competitions in Gdańsk and Nowa Ruda, as well as in organ improvisation in Weimar, and has received many other awards (including the “Orpheus” award at the 38th Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Wojciech Korfanty Award, the “Lux ex Silesia” award from the Archbishop of Katowice, and the “Silesian Emerald” award from the Evangelical-Augsburg Bishop. He was also honoured by Pope John Paul II with the “Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice” medal). He is the Honorary Silesian of the Year and the Honorary Citizen of the City of Sejny and the Bieruńsko-Lędziński District. He is the author of many works on the history of organs in Silesia, the protection and conservation of historic organs, and the designer of numerous instruments. He is a professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he teaches organ performance and heads the Department of Organ and Church Music. From 1996 to 2002, he served as the Rector of his alma mater. For many years, he has also been the Archdiocesan Organ and Organist Inspector. In 2004, he founded the first Organ Museum in Central and Eastern Europe.
