Honorary patronage of the project titled “Inclusive Contemporary Music – Concerts in Prison: Minister of Culture and National Heritage
Honorary patronage of the Honorary patronage of the project titled “Inclusive Contemporary Music – Concerts in Prison: Director General of the Prison Service
Graphics: Klaudia Borawiak
Film production: Izabela Smyk
Inclusive Contemporary Music – Concerts in Prison
We are launching a new project titled “Inclusive Contemporary Music – Concerts in Prison”, which has received funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the Accessible Culture programme, financed from the Culture Promotion Fund.
For the first time, the music of the distinguished American composer Morton Feldman will be performed in a prison setting. As part of the project, we will organize two four-hour concerts of the piece Crippled Symmetry (1983) at the Warsaw-Grochów Remand Prison. The event will be attended by over 200 incarcerated participants—women on one day and men on the other.
The concert will be performed by a trio consisting of Ewa Liebchen (flutes), Emilia Karolina Sitarz (keyboards), and Magdalena Kordylasińska-Pękala (percussion)—musicians long associated with the contemporary music scene and with the performance of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire.
Before the concert begins, we will meet with the participants for a short introduction. We will talk about Feldman’s music, its notation, and ways of listening to it. Participants will also be encouraged to create graphic scores—visual representations of their impressions and observations while listening to the music.
The project brings an artistic event to a place where contemporary music concerts do not normally take place. A prison is a demanding environment—with its own acoustics and the everyday sounds of institutional life—and the audience typically has little or no contact with this type of music. For many participants, this will be their first encounter with contemporary music performed live.
Selected fragments of the concerts will be recorded and made available online, and will also be shared through the prison’s internal radio system so they can be replayed for incarcerated listeners.
The project is implemented in cooperation with the Polish Prison Service, in particular with the Warsaw-Grochów Remand Prison and the District Inspectorate of the Prison Service in Warsaw.
Podcasts
Contemporary Inclusive Music – Concerts in Prison
Podcast 1
Author: Mariana Krill
A conversation about the role of culture and education in prisons, and why access to the arts should include people with limited access to culture, including those deprived of their liberty.
The podcast refers to the project Contemporary Inclusive Music – Concerts in Prison, carried out on 7–8 May 2026 at the Warsaw Grochów Remand Prison. As part of the project, four performances of Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetry were presented by Ewa Liebchen, Emilia Karolina Sitarz, and Magdalena Kordylasińska-Pękala. The concerts were accompanied by introductions to the composer’s work and by graphic score workshops for participants.
The project was implemented with funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the Accessible Culture programme, financed by the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund.
Produced by: Fundacja Dom Kultury, 2026
Project partners: Warsaw Grochów Remand Prison and the District Inspectorate of the Prison Service in Warsaw.
Contemporary Inclusive Music – Concerts in Prison
Podcast 2
Author: Mariana Krill
A conversation about the exceptional event of presenting Morton Feldman’s Crippled Symmetry in the year marking the centenary of the composer’s birth at the Warsaw Grochów Remand Prison. For the first time, Feldman’s music was performed in a Polish prison, where more than 200 incarcerated participants attended four concerts, discovering contemporary music and learning new ways of listening.
The podcast refers to the project Contemporary Inclusive Music – Concerts in Prison, carried out on 7–8 May 2026. The concerts were performed by Ewa Liebchen, Emilia Karolina Sitarz, and Magdalena Kordylasińska-Pękala. The events also included introductions to the composer’s work and graphic score workshops for participants.
The project was implemented with funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the Accessible Culture programme, financed by the Culture Promotion Fund – a state special-purpose fund.
Produced by: Fundacja Dom Kultury, 2026
Project partners: Warsaw Grochów Remand Prison and the District Inspectorate of the Prison Service in Warsaw.
The 2026 project was co-funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
