The Match Match Ensemble
was established in 2022 by conductor Lilianna Krych under the auspices of the Warsaw Stage Society.
A vocal ensemble consists of a number of professional singers of various musical interests who work in all kinds of cultural institutions. They all share a passion for a wide range of music, be it modern, early, or operatic. Members of MME have a vast experience on stage, performing both as soloists and as members of other vocal ensembles and choirs, some having had practice as conductors themselves. This wide range of experience acts as an inspiration and helps to find a new, unique sound quality as well as develop skills and sensitivity that are paramount when it comes to performing in an ensemble with full knowledge.
MME co-creates valuable, ambitious musical projects as well as those including other types of art. It seeks musical pieces and niches that are absent or seldom seen on Polish stage. The ensemble doesn’t shy away from experimenting and taking on new topics, including current and often controversial ones. Its activity aims to change the way classical music has been viewed so far – as an art form only available to the chosen, well – educated ones. It broadens trends and breaks moulds that burden the widely understood high culture. The direct impulse to create the ensemble came from curator Michał Mendyk’s idea to organise a performance of David Lang’s the little match girl passion (2007), previously awarded the Pulitzer prize and never before shown in Poland. For this purpose, conductor Lilianna Krych gathered young, professional singers from Warsaw. The name of the ensemble refers to the first piece they ever performed together, as well as the word – match – symbolizing the perfect fusion of voices and a shared point of view, so necessary in performing chamber and ensemble music. Their first concert consisted of two parts and took place during the 65th International Modern Music Festival Warsaw Autumn. It was a great success, described, among others, by Michał Tomczak and Urszula Świątek in the Glissando magazine: „The concert in the Warsaw Commune with the music of Cornelius Cardew and David Lang has been one of my favourite experiences of this festival thanks to MME, Radical Polish Orchestra and Homeless Theatre.”
In 2023 the ensemble performed during the launch of the first ever new music stage in Poland – Modern Music Space Hashtag Lab – as well as took part in the project The Great Absence in Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, where they gave a premiere performance of Lechem-we-Afar by Agnieszka Stulgińska, a piece which resurrects the history of the Great Synagogoue on Tłomackie Street. The repertoire also included some unknown works by Gershon Ephros – the forgotten Jewish music from the beginning of the 20th century.
