– This is the fulfillment of the choir’s dreams and mine. I have led this ensemble for three years, but I have been conducting choirs for 20 years. Yet today is the most important day of my conducting life. Legnica Cantat is an exceptional, prestigious tournament. Winning the Grand Prix here is truly the fulfillment of a dream. Our choir is made up of true singing enthusiasts, completely obsessed with it, said an emotional Marek Gandecki.

On Saturday evening, Marek Gandecki accepted the award—the Ruby Lute named after Jerzy Liban of Legnica—from Tadeusz Krzakowski, the city’s mayor.

During the Cantat gala, the Mayor of Legnica thanked the tournament participants for making Legnica the most music-filled place in Poland over the past weekend. “I am enormously pleased by the very positive opinions about the Legnica event, the city’s hospitality and its charms that I heard today. It is a little sad that the 46th Cantat is already behind us. But this is, after all, the beginning of the 47th edition, so today, in music-filled Legnica, we say: see you next year,” said Tadeusz Krzakowski.

The tournament jury, chaired by Prof. Stanisław Krawczyński, after hearing eleven choirs, awarded:

  • Silver Diploma – third place – the Award of the Director of the Legnica Cultural Centre and a cash prize of PLN 2,000 to the “La Musica” Choir from Secondary School No. 16 named after Fryderyk Chopin in Lublin, conducted by (Zdzisław Ohara)
  • Gold Diploma – second place – the Award of the Mayor of Legnica and a cash prize of PLN 3,000 to the “441 Hz” Chamber Choir from Gdańsk, conducted by Anna Wilczewska)
  • Gold Diploma – first place – the Henryk Karliński Award and a cash prize of PLN 5,000 to the Sigma Women’s Vocal Ensemble of the Faculty of Conducting, Jazz and Music Education at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, conducted by (Magdalena Filipska)
  • The Main Board of the Polish Association of Choirs and Orchestras’ award for the best performance of a work by a Polish composer went to the Sigma Women’s Vocal Ensemble of the Faculty of Conducting, Jazz and Music Education at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, conducted by Magdalena Filipska, for Szymon Godziemba-Trytek’s “O vos omnes”
  • The Gold Diploma and Grand Prix—the Main Award for the best choir in the Legnica Cantat 46 Tournament—the Ruby Lute named after Jerzy Liban of Legnica (a traveling trophy), a cash prize of PLN 10,000 and participation in next year’s Tournament as a special guest went to the Chamber Choir of the Academy of Music in Poznań, conducted by Marek Gandecki.

The jury also granted the choir’s conductor a special award in the form of an invitation to serve on the jury of next year’s Legnica Cantat.

UM Legnica/ii