The Mieczysław Wajnberg Institute Foundation is dedicated to commemorating and promoting the work of Wajnberg and other Polish artists of Jewish origin. From the very beginning, we have been combining music with the memory of history and culture – through artistic, educational, and social projects.
Our Activities
Commemoration in Public Space
We initiated the naming of a street in Warsaw’s Wola district after Wajnberg (2021).
We placed a commemorative plaque on the composer’s family home at Żelazna Street.
Musical and Artistic Events
House Party at Mietek Wajnberg’s – an annual celebration of the tenement house at 66 Żelazna Street, the composer’s birthplace.
Rywka Tiktiner Jewish Music Festival in Tykocin (since 2024).
Education and Social Projects
Wajnberg’s Warsaw Walkabout – a guide available in Polish, English, and Yiddish, in both print and online versions.
Postcard to Mietek – a crowd-writing social project that will serve as the inspiration for a new work by composer Wojciech Błażejczyk with a libretto by writer Sylwia Chutnik.
Patronage
We support album releases by Polish artists and ensembles, including:
Lutosławski Quartet, Messages Quartet, Piotr Lato, Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska, Wojciech Pyrć, Szymon Krzeszowiec, Piotr Sałajczyk.
We assist artists and researchers in obtaining sheet music and publications, support initiatives that promote Wajnberg’s music, and mediate contacts with his music publisher, Peermusic Classical.
International and Media Cooperation
We maintain close ties with Wajnberg’s family.
Among the Friends of the Institute are world-class artists such as Gidon Kremer, Julianna Avdeeva, and Ilya Gringolts.
We publish in specialist press and academic journals.
We cooperate with Polish Radio Channel 2.
Our work is also featured internationally, e.g. in an interview for Bayerische Rundfunk on the occasion of the Munich premiere of the opera The Passenger.
Partnerships and Support
We cooperate with leading cultural institutions, including:
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Jewish Historical Institute, Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera.
Our activities are made possible thanks to the support of:
The City of Warsaw, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, STOART, ZAiKS, Jewish Historical Institute Association, Mennica Polska (Polish Mint), and Zwierciadło Publishing House.
Since its founding, the Institute has been initiating unique projects – from courtyard concerts and festivals to virtual museums, recordings, walking tours, and even naming a Warsaw street after Wajnberg.
Mieczysław Weinberg was born in 1919 in Warsaw, at 66 Żelazna Street. His family house still stands on the corner of Żelazna and Krochmalna Streets – one of the few tenement houses that have survived to our times. Weinberg, his parents, Shmuel and Sura Dwojra, and his sister Estera lived in Warsaw for twenty years. He studied piano at the Warsaw Conservatory, worked in famous venues such as “Adria” or “Oaza,” and helped his father compose music for numerous Jewish theatres. His Warsaw life ended in September 1939. Like many other residents of the city, the Weinbergs decided to escape from besieged Warsaw and head East. As a result of an unfortunate series of events, Mietek reached the border alone. He could not have known that he would never see his loved ones again, that his beloved Warsaw would cease to exist, and that he would live and work in Moscow for the rest of his life.
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