Lahti Organ Festival: Organ and Circus Fun Michał Szostak, organ & Atte Kilpinen, ballet dancer & circus performers: Milja Jaskari, Lukas Peurala, Ada Sainio, Salla Santanen, Mika Seppälä Thursday, 8th August 2024, 19:00 Organ + Ballet / Circus Artists! This combination is extremely rare, so don’t miss it at the Lahti Organ Festival! The internationally acclaimed organist from Poland, Doctor of Music Michał Szostak, will dust off the organ pipes of the Sibelius Hall as he accompanies one of the most renowned contemporary Finnish ballet dancers, Atte Kilpinen! Atte Kilpinen has choreographed a performance to Beethoven’s symphony. Joining Michał Szostak on stage will be top Finnish circus artists Salla Santanen, Mika Seppälä, Milja Jaskari, Ada Sainio, and Lukas Peurala, who

Description This edited collection presents the complex theory of kitsch from aesthetic and artistic points of view, transposed into managerial and organisational fields. In the spirit of management aesthetics, on the ground of humanistic management, the central aim of the volume is to show that kitsch is a common phenomenon not only in art and culture but also in management, and its conscious perception and mindful use may be beneficial for achieving organisational and managerial goals efficiently. Due to the diverse research problems covered by particular chapters, no unified methodology is applied in the book; every author applied an optimal method for the selected topic. However, due to the complex and metaphysical character of the kitsch phenomenon, the only common

Szostak Michał (2024). Chicago’s Largest Colossus. The Organ, 408 (May-July), 30-43. In March and April 2024, I undertook a Spring recital tour to the United States to perform at a few venues in Chicago, Illinois and San Francisco, California. The first stop on that trip was the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chigaco, where in 2015, the Quimby Pipe Organs company built the most prominent instrument in the city and the whole Midwest. This article describes the church’s history (one of the largest in the city), the history of its instruments, the current organ and some fundamental facts about the organ-building company that created that colossus.

I was nominated as the Vice-Rector for Scientific Research at Collegium Civitas. I also serve as the Head of the Institute for Management Research at Collegium Civitas and hold the position of Associate Professor (Doctor habilitated) specializing in management within social sciences. More info – here.

After a ten-month valuation process, on the 5th of April 2024, I received the Doctorate habilitated degree (Associate Professorship) in Management. It is the last stage before the Full Professorship distinction. The main scientific achievement in the evaluation process was my monograph:  Szostak, M. (2024) Humanistic Management, Organization and Aesthetics: Art of Management and Management of Art. New York City: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003458029.

2024/03/22 – USA – Chicago IL, Fourth Presbyterian Church 2024/03/31 – USA – San Francisco CA, Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption 2024/04/05 – USA – Reno NV, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral 2024/04/07 – USA – San Francisco CA, Grace Cathedral

Szostak, M. (2024) ‘Organ landscapes in Kazakhstan’, The Organ, 407(Feb-April 2024), pp. 32–50. Abstract:In August 2023, at the invitation of the Catholic bishop of Karaganda, Msgr. Adelio Dell’Oro, I visited Kazakhstan in central Asia to perform three recitals in the Karaganda region. Kazakhstan is not a place where organs are popular; I would rather even say that the majority of Kazakh society barely associates the word “organ” with a musical instrument. However, all venues (Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima in Karaganda, Birth of Our Lady Church in Szachtinsk, and the church of Our Lady Mother of the Church in Karaganda- Fedorovka) were fully taken during all recitals, and the reception of organ music was enthusiastically warm. This

Szostak, M. and Sułkowski, Ł. (2024) ‘Creativity management within the aesthetical situation regarding the in-real or digital form of participation in arts: art receivers’ perspective’, Creativity Studies, 17(1), pp. 41–58. doi: 10.3846/cs.2024.16418. Abstract:Because digitalisation of the aesthetical experience, a process speeded up by the not-yet-finished COVID-19 pandemic, should be considered in the context of growth or loss of artistry/creativity, this paper aims to assess the influence of the participation form in the aesthetical situation by receivers on the level of artistry/creativity potential loss. Assessment of the quality of participation by the receivers in each of five types of arts (musical arts, performing arts, literary arts, audio-visual arts, visual arts) was done using the same ten criteria for each type of

Szostak, M. (2023) ‘Reflexivity in aesthetic situation management’, Discourses on Culture, 20, pp. 161–197. doi: 10.2478/doc‑2023‑0015. Abstract:The article deals with reflexivity in the context of the aesthetic situation from two perspectives: self-management and management of the components in the aesthetic situation. All considerations are based on the theory of the aesthetic situation (Gołaszewska, 1984), transcribed into the management field (Szostak, 2023a) with the use of a metaphor of an organisation as a work of art (Szostak & Sułkowski, 2020). Emphasis on reflexivity in specific components of the aesthetic situation – especially the creator and the recipient perspectives – brings a new light into the process of self-awareness and prediction of potential consequences of activities before their appearance. The following issues

Szostak, M. (2023) ‘Managing the process of organ improvisation’, The Organ, No 406, Nov.2023-Jan.2024, Musical Opinion Ltd, London, ISSN 0030-4883, pp. 6–16. Abstract: Continuing considerations about the noble and respectable art of organ improvisation (Szostak, 2019, 2020, 2023), I would like to answer the following questions in this work: 1) What are the components of the aesthetic situation in case of organ improvisation and what are the relations between these components? 2) How can an organ improviser manage the process of artistic improvisation in order to be efficient in his musical activities? An interdisciplinary approach must be applied from three perspectives (instrumental studies, aesthetics, and management) to find justified answers. All the time, we base on the concept of Maria Gołaszewska’s theory