Open Classics Festival in Beskids

Open Classics Festival 2026 – Crossing Borders Between Music, Art, and Technology

The 2026 edition of the Open Classics Festival continues its mission to expand the horizons of classical music by opening it to other disciplines of art, science, and modern technology. The word “Open” in the title symbolizes dialogue — between tradition and innovation, between different artistic languages, and between artists and audiences. The festival seeks to create a space where classical music meets dance, visual arts, digital creativity, and improvisation, inviting audiences to experience the classics in new and unexpected ways.

This year’s festival will take place primarily in Bielsko-Biała, with additional events in Ostrava, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, and Skoczów, bringing together artists and audiences from Poland and the Czech Republic. Between April 9 and April 16, 2026, the festival will present a series of unique concerts, performances, and workshops designed to celebrate the openness of artistic creation.

The festival will open on April 9 in Bielsko-Biała with an extraordinary project titled “Baroque Illusions.” This interdisciplinary performance will feature an ensemble specializing in early music, presenting works from the Baroque period, in collaboration with two contemporary dancers. The choreography, directed by Aleksandra [surname if available], will reinterpret the gestures and emotions of Baroque art through modern dance language. The performance will create a dialogue between the elegance of the past and the expressive freedom of the present, offering the audience a multi-sensory experience that blends music, movement, and visual aesthetics.

The following evening, on April 10 in Ostrava, the stage will host the Impro Opera Project, an innovative collaboration between soprano Aleksandra Opala and jazz pianist Piotr Matusik. This project merges operatic vocal technique with the spontaneity of jazz improvisation, exploring the boundaries of classical form and contemporary expression. Each performance becomes a unique, unrepeatable event — an experiment in musical communication and emotional intensity, guided by the creative chemistry between the performers.

On Saturday, April 11, the festival will return to Bielsko-Biała for a special concert featuring a Polish folk choir. The ensemble’s traditional repertoire will be enriched with visual projections created by students from Ostrava, turning the performance into an audiovisual journey through sound, color, and cultural memory. The collaboration highlights the festival’s cross-border and interdisciplinary spirit, merging folklore and digital art to show how tradition can inspire modern creativity.

The festival’s program will continue on April 13 in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, where renowned pianist Grzegorz Niemczuk will perform a recital accompanied by a ballet dancer. This intimate dialogue between music and movement will explore the emotional depth and structural beauty of classical piano works, enhanced by the grace and expressiveness of dance. Together, the artists will transform the concert space into a living stage of poetic motion and sound.

Finally, on April 16 in Skoczów, the festival will conclude with a day devoted to education, innovation, and creative exploration. The Open Classics Workshops will invite participants to discover the connections between music, digital technology, and interactive media. The workshops will include sessions on sound design, computer game music, and creative use of new technologies in composition and performance. Participants will learn how sound can shape virtual worlds and how classical training can find new life in the realm of interactive art.

The Open Classics Festival 2026 is not only a celebration of music but also an invitation to curiosity and dialogue. It brings together artists from different backgrounds, generations, and disciplines to show that classical music is a living art form — one that evolves, inspires, and opens doors to new experiences. Through concerts, performances, and workshops, the festival continues to build a bridge between heritage and innovation, tradition and experiment, the local and the international.

With its open-minded approach, the festival invites audiences to listen, to see, and to imagine — to experience classical music as a dynamic part of today’s artistic and technological landscape.