It would be all too easy to gain the impression that contemporary music in Poland has always revolved around the ‘Warsaw Autumn’. This festival does, after all, have an extraordinary record for international exchange and for the promotion of Polish composers. It takes place in the capital, supported by other Warsaw-based institutions in the press, broadcasting and recording industry. The broader picture, however, reveals a significant dispersal of activity across the country, largely the result of the post-war establishment of regional centres of output: the state-owned music publisher PWM is in Kraków, the principal Polish Radio orchestra is located in Katowice, and the Music Academies (previously known as PWSM – State Higher Schools of Music) are to be found in major cities across Poland. In music publishing, further diversity came in 1974 with the establishment of the Authors' Agency in Warsaw (in conjunction with ZKP). And as a sign of new pluralism in the dying moments of communism in Poland, and at the moment when PWM was going through a difficult period, an independent imprint was established in Poznań. The driving force behind the co-operative venture Brevis (set up in 1990) was two composers of the post-war generation: Lidia Zielińska (b. 1953) from Poznań and Rafał Augustyn (b. 1951) from Wrocław. Their motivation was simple: to raise the profile of their own generation at a liberating moment in Polish history.

The role of music festivals other than the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ has also been particularly significant.