ECM Warsaw Festival 2026
8 May, Friday, 19:00
Elina Duni & Rob Luft
In May, Warsaw will once again become a meeting place for artists associated with the legendary Munich-based label ECM Records.
The sixth edition of the ECM Warsaw Festival will take place from 7 to 10 May 2026, presenting four concert evenings which – true to the ECM catalogue – will guide listeners through different realms of contemporary musical imagination.
The ECM Warsaw Festival 2026 will once again become a space where diverse musical worlds meet: jazz, chamber music, and improvisation. Four concerts – four distinct stories – united by a shared sensitivity that has defined the ECM sound for decades.
In 2026, the ECM Warsaw Festival introduces an important organisational change: this year, the event is co-organised in partnership with Nowy Teatr, one of Warsaw’s most exciting centres of artistic life, opening a new chapter in its further development.
As in previous editions, this year’s festival will take the form of four separate concert evenings. Each will offer an encounter with music that is just beginning its journey into the world – the programme will feature concert premieres of the latest ECM releases.
8 May, Friday – Elina Duni & Rob Luft “Reaching for the Moon”
The second evening of the festival will present one of the most intimate projects in the ECM catalogue in recent years. Elina Duni, a vocalist of Albanian origin with a Swiss musical biography, and British guitarist Rob Luft will perform material from their latest album Reaching for the Moon.
This is their most cameral collaboration to date – music for voice and guitar, where song, jazz, and folk intertwine with extraordinary subtlety. The album’s programme takes listeners through nocturnal landscapes: from Irving Berlin’s standard, through film themes by Shigeru Umebayashi and Krzysztof Komeda, to original compositions by the duo. Duni’s voice – singing in multiple languages and often treated as an instrument – floats above Luft’s guitar textures with remarkable lightness, creating music that is more sensed than heard. As British critic John Fordham of The Guardian rightly noted, Elina Duni is among those rare vocalists who can “sound as intense as no one else, drawing simultaneously from many cultures and languages.”
Elina Duni & Rob Luft
Elina Duni – vocals, percussion
Rob Luft – guitar, electronics
For over half a century, ECM – Edition of Contemporary Music – has remained one of the most recognisable symbol of quality in the world of music. Founded in 1969 by producer Manfred Eicher, the label has created its own artistic language.
Its catalogue brings together artists who do not merely record albums, but co-create a way of thinking about music: sound as a space of dialogue between tradition, improvisation, and contemporary composition.
From Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Jan Garbarek, Arvo Pärt, and Tomasz Stańko, to younger-generation artists such as Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Maciej Obara, and Dominik Wania, ECM has spent decades building a catalogue that transcends stylistic boundaries. Today it includes more than 1,700 jazz and classical albums, including the ECM New Series line, which since 1984 has opened new spaces for contemporary and chamber music.
More about the festival: https://www.ecmwarsawfestival.pl/program/