programming board

The Festival Artistic Director is prof. Michał Paweł Markowski (UJ) - literary critic, essayist, columnist, Jagiellonian University professor, Head of the Department of International Polish Studies, Director of Arts Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Lecturer at Harvard and Northwestern Universities between 2002-2004. Author of many books on philosophy and literature, such as: "Anatomia ciekawości" (“The Anatomy of Curiosity”), “Występek. Eseje o pisaniu i czytaniu“ (“Misdeed. Essays on writing and reading”), “Czarny nurt. Gombrowicz, świat, literatura “ (“Black current. Gombrowicz, the world, literature”), “Nieobliczalne” (“Unpredictable”), “Polska literatura nowoczesna. Leśmian, Schulz, Witkacy“ (“Polish modern literature. Leśman, Schulz, Witkacy”). Winner of the Kościeliski Award and the Aleksander Brückner Award. He has translated the works of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derridy, Julia Kristeva, Emmanuel Lévinas, Jean-François Lyotard, Richard Rorty, Marcel Proust. For three years he presented programs on literature on public television.

Programme director – Piotr Mucharski (Tygodnik Powszechny) - deputy editor of “Tygodnik Powszechny” (a weekly). Author of the TV programmes "Rozmowy na koniec wieku” (“Conversations at the end of an era”), “Rozmowy na nowy wiek” (“Conversations for a new era”), “Rozmowy na czasie”(“Current conversations”), scripts of which have also been published in book form. Winner of the Wiktor prize for best TV programme and the Dariusz Fikas prize given by the “Rzeczpospolita” newspaper for truth and independence in the media. He has recently had his books “Innego końca świata nie będzie. Rozmowy z Barbarą Skargą” (“There will be no other end of the world. Conversations with Barbara Skarga”) and ” Próbka reprezentatywna” (“Representative sample”), which he co-authored with Katarzyna Jankowska.

The secretary of the Festival is Grzegorz Jankowicz (Tygodnik Powszechny, Korporacja Ha!art) – a critic, philologist, essayist, editor and translator. A co-worker of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the Jagiellonian University. Among others, he translated the following texts into Polish: R. Firbank’s, G. Perec’s, R. Rorty’s and S. Žižk’s. On channel TV Kultura, he is one of the hosts of the programme “Czytelnia”. He cooperates with the Foundation Corporation “Ha! Art”, of which he is vice-president and for which he edits the series “Critical Line”. Editor of the cultural department of “Tygodnik Powszechny”. Juror of the Wrocław Poetry Award SILESIUS. Laureate of the prestigious scholarship “Polityka” for the most outstanding young researchers. Author and editor of critical-literary books. “It’s already autumn, sire, and I don’t have a home. Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki and critics” (2001) and “A Lesson in a Living Language. About Andrzej Sosnowski's poetry (2004). Together with Andrzej Sosnowski, he translated “Study of temperament” by Ronald Firbank, which appeared this year in the Literary Office.

The organisational director of the Festival is Magdalena Sroka (Krakow Festival Office) – graduate from the Jagiellonian University (Polish philology, specialisation: theatre studies) in Krakow. Manager of culture, producer, culture and art expert. In the years 1998-2003 she worked for the Krakow Festival Office 2000, organising cultural projects in connection to the title that Krakow received – European Capital of Culture, among others: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Easter Festival, Opera Films Festival, Festival of Traditional Music Rozstaje, Genius Loci Festival. In the year 2000 she produced the concerts: New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur, Norddeutscher Rundfunk with Christoph Eschenbach, Concentus Musicus with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bergen Philharmonic with Simone Young, Wiener Akademie with Martin Haselböcki, Bundesjugend Orchester conducted by Gerd Albrecht within the domain of the Polish-German project “Together in the heart of Europe”. Co-creator of the first strategy of promoting Krakow. Organiser and boss of securing the largest mass events in Poland (Wianki and New Year’s Eve in Krakow). Producer of Misi’s Polish concerts, a Portuguese fado music star. Member-founder of the Ludwig van Beethoven Association and until 2008 director of the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival office. Co-producer of events and television materials, among others for the Magazine Ekspres Reporterów, the final gala of Miss World 2006 in cooperation with the National Economic Chamber or May '88 in the European Centre of Solidarność. For a few years connected with the Foundation Conspero, co-producer of prof. Jerzy Duda-Gracz’s exhibitions, in this the one presented in Teatr Wielki – the National Opera of a unique exhibition Duda-Gracz to Chopin, presenting for the first time in Poland a unique cycle of almost 300 paintings – painter interpretations of Chopin's pieces. From May 2008, director of the Krakow Festival Office, organising prestigious Krakow cultural events and coordinating the unique in the sale of Poland, programme of cultural promotion of the city of 6 senses.