A new album with traditional music performed by The Jagiellonian Fair Orchestra will be released on 1 February. Fans of polkas, waltzes, and foxtrots will now be able to enjoy a tiny part of Workshops of Culture’s annual August festival. The CD will be available in our online store: sklep.warsztatykultury.pl.
About The Orchestra
The Jagiellonian Fair Orchestra is an educational and artistic project based on the belief that traditional music forms and connects communities–of both the musicians who perform it (amateurs and professionals alike) and the recipients, listeners and dancers who enjoy dancing to its tunes.
The project is an invitation to make music together, addressed to all enthusiasts of pure traditional music. It aims at popularising the traditional culture of the Lublin region and promotes learning from village masters. The album “Sesja Otwarta” / “Open Session” wraps up several years of The Orchestra’s work and contains 11 tracks. You will soon be able to hear the first single.
Ewa Grochowska emphasises that the title of the album refers to the founding dream of the Orchestra that’s open to new sources, inspiration and people. Since 2014, when the Orchestra first performed under its current name at The Jagiellonian Fair in Lublin, more than 50 people have participated. Over the years, a permanent line-up of the Orchestra has emerged from its numerous participants. The group continues to perform on the festival’s main stage as well as at dance parties.
The Orchestra’s work and rehearsal sessions are led and coordinated by Ewa Grochowska, Maciej Filipczuk and Marcin Kowalczuk. The members of the group are people who have come to love traditional music, getting together and performing music for people to dance to. The Orchestra’s members are people of different age groups, musical and educational backgrounds. Both trained musicians and enthusiasts who developed their skills on their own. They are also musicians who, thanks to many years of encounters with village masters performing traditional music, can now pass it on.
The repertoire consists of traditional tunes from the Lublin region: polkas, obereks, ride tunes (podróżniaki), marches, waltzes, foxtrots and other melodies from various archival recordings and family traditions, or learned from the oldest generation of musicians and orchestras whose traditions date back to the early 20th century. The tunes arranged and performed by The Jagiellonian Fair Orchestra come from the repertoires of: the Brass Band from Zdziłowice, the Brass Band from Wola Gródecka, the Stanisław Mróz Band from Makowiska, the Dudka Band from Zdziłowice, the Brass Band from Goraj, the Wojciechów Band, the Kurasie family band from Lubzina, the Bździuch brothers from Aleksandrów, the vocal ensemble “Jarzębina” from Kocudza.
Ewa Grochowska, Maciej Filipczuk and Marcin Kowalczuk lead specific sections of The Orchestra, and offer a repertoire developed through their meetings with masters of traditional music as well as tunes found in archival recordings
About the album
The music on the album is performed by:
Maciej Filipczuk (fiddle), Joanna Glińska (fiddle), Ewa Grochowska (fiddle, vocals), Tomasz Graczyk (double bass), Magdalena Jakubowska (clarinet), Jakub Korona (baraban), Cecylia Korona (fiddle), Marcin “Kabat” Kowalczuk (trombone), Kamil Królik (accordion, clarinet), Eliasz Kuśmierz (saxophone), Przemysław Łozowski (trumpet), Edyta Piekarczyk (tuba), Grażyna Pluta (transverse flute), Ewelina Prokopiuk (saxophone), Milena Siczek (fiddle), Julia Szafraniec (cello), Katarzyna Zedel (the Biłgoraj suka).
Orchestra’s leaders, selection of materials, arrangements:
Maciej Filipczuk – A fiddler who was mentored by the village music master Maciej Filipczuk – A fiddler who was mentored by the village music master Kazimierz Meta. In his musical explorations, he focuses on the direct communication between a master and a student and delves into the archaic musical forms of the Mazowsze region. He plays dance music in its purest, non-stylised forms. He is the leader and co-founder of many projects inspired by traditional music and received grants from the Ministry of Culture for his projects “Mazurek Vulgaris”, “Metamuzyka”, and “Archevivum”. Filipczuk is the author of “Maciej Filipczuk & goście weselni” (Maciej Filipczuk & the wedding guests), a project centred around encounters in the here and now and on the intensity of the music as revealed by the sweat the dancers generate.
Ewa Grochowska – a fiddler and singer who draws inspiration from the traditional music and culture in which she grew up. She researches the styles of traditional (mainly ritual) singing and instrumental music in East-Central Europe. Since 2001, she has conducted field recordings, workshops and concerts dedicated to Polish traditional music. She has authored and run projects dealing with the popularisation of traditional music. She was mentored by local master fiddlers Jan Gaca from Przystałowice Małe (2001-2013) and by Stanisław Glaz from Dzwola (since 2006). She loves instrumental music characterised by dynamics typical of the music of Kajocy and old-fashioned wedding singing, which leaves no room for insincerity. She’s learned this from the village singers in central and southeastern Poland. She is a member of the bands: “Tęgie Chłopy”, “Z lasu”, “Warszawa Wschodnia”, The Jagiellonian Fair Orchestra, MZK Toruń, Bujne Ziele, PoMore TanzOrkiestra. She received the scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2006 and 2014. She holds a PhD in Arts and Humanities.
Marcin “Kabat” Kowalczuk – A trombonist and a tuba player, he’s a qualified musician with a passion for music. He worked with brass orchestras in the Lublin region (Parczew, Lubartów, Ostrów Lubelski, Rossosz, Zdzilowice, Majdan Grabina). Currently, he plays with the brass orchestra from Zdziłowice and the Helicopter Brass Orchestra in Świdnik. His knowledge of traditional music from the Lublin region has expanded in recent years, but he is also interested in improvised and experimental music, jazz, and reggae. A member of several bands, including Komische Pilze, Słoma i Przedwietrze, Chojzes Klezmorim, Sekta Denta, and Mikroelementy. As an actor, musician and lighting director, he works with Pracownia Sztuczką (Little Art Studio), which provides artistic and educational events for children. Co-founder and member of Zespół Deficytu Natury.
The Jagiellonian Fair Orchestra’s album will be available for purchase in the online store:
sklep.warsztatykultury.pl.
Price: 30 pln.