Some 25 categories are included in the music industry awards, taking in pop and jazz as well as 11 classical music categories. Acclaimed vocalists Julia Marcell and Ania Rusowicz have garnered the most nominations, with 7 apiece.
Marcell is a singer-songwriter and pianist currently based in Germany, whose second studio album, entitled June, was a great success. Matrioszka, the first single from the album, has been nominated for Best Song of 2011.
Ania Rusowicz is the daughter of Ada Rusowicz, one of the legends of 1960s Polish pop music, and her songs show a fascination with the style of her mother, likewse with Janis Joplin and The Doors.
The nominees in the classical music category include soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, whose debut CD was released by Decca, as well as composer Pawel Mykietyn and the Royal String Quartet.
The award ceremony is scheduled for 26 April, but, as in previous years, the Golden Fryderyk Awards for outstanding services to musical culture have already been announced. They will go to composer Wojciech Kilar, trumpeter Tomasz Stańko and photographer and journalist Marek Karewicz.
Born in 1932, Kilar was one of the founders of the Polish school of avant-garde music in the early 1960s. He then started to use a simplified musical idiom and turned to tradition, looking for inspiration in folk music and religion. The folk music of the Tatra mountains inspired Kilar in such works as Kościelec 1909, Grey Mist, Orawa and Krzesany, his most popular orchestral piece, performed with much success all over the world. Kilar has written soundtracks to over 150 films, collaborating with leading Polish directors such as Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Wajda, and Krzysztof Zanussi, as well as with such household names as Francis F. Coppola (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Jane Campion (The Portrait of a Lady) and Roman Polański (Death and the Maiden, The Pianist).
Tomasz Stańko is universally hailed as one of the world’s top jazz trumpeters. He has recorded 37 albums and has also composed film soundtracks and incidental music for the theatre.
Marek Karewicz has achieved a great deal in documenting the history of Polish jazz in photographs. A photo artist and cameraman by profession, he has also designed covers to some 1, 500 jazz records. (mk)