TUGŁOS | Voices of ancestors. Traces | concert

About the event

This premiere concert is the final part of the triptych entitled ‘Głosy Przodków’ (‘Voices of Ancestors’). In 2024, it had the subtitle ‘Para-ritual’, in 2025 – ‘Source’, and this edition is accompanied by the slogan ‘Traces’. In it, we draw on musical inspirations and discoveries, following in the footsteps of our masters, both those we have met in person and those we know only from their voices, sheet music and fragments of memories.

The main star of the event will be music from the Lublin region, interwoven with sounds from Kujawy and Mazovia, to/from which the traces of the project’s creators also lead. We will tell a story about life/lives: ‘this one’ and ‘that one’, and about the transitions between them, about their directions, meanings and symbols. The old folk songs that form the ‘mycelium’ of the concert are a commentary, a hint, a suggestion. They bind everything together as a universal story of loss, transformation, love, birth, passing, waiting – in this order, or perhaps in a completely different one. Each and every one of us – artists and those participating in the event – is most likely in a completely different place in this existential loop.

In autumn, we are affected by the passage of time. We look at the crops, the fruits, the traces. We look at places – not so long ago flourishing, heavy with abundance, flavours and colours. The world is slowly becoming deserted, the landscape, the light and the rhythm of the day are changing. It is also a time when, somewhat differently than at other times of the year, we look back to the past and remember our loved ones who have passed away, as well as our distant, unknown ancestors. We recall stories from bygone eras and fresh, still vibrant tales of loss and mourning. We are waiting for something that will allow us to break away from the monotonous routine. We want to celebrate and pause for a moment in time, which has stopped flowing.

In ancient cultures, these increasingly shorter days, saturated with fleeting, darkening light, were seen as an opportunity to turn inward, to explore themes and phenomena that are subject to reflection in an elusive way, which cannot be precisely named, although they constitute our temporality. We are part of a ‘cosmic’ order, an orderly plan. Or perhaps – like our memory – it is not linear and chronological at all?

Ancestors – this is a large and fairly chaotic group. In personal and artistic narratives, this word sounds smooth and dignified. When we want to touch it, explore it and get to know it better, it turns out that it is not entirely clear whether ancestors form a tree, as in genealogy, or rather a horizontal structure, something like mycelium. Do we only become ancestors after death, or already at the moment of coming into the world? Are we all connected, or are we completely separate? What and who is the source, and what is the fruit?

The category of space functions in a similar way. What are the voices, sounds and afterimages that fill it, existing only for a moment? Do they stay and settle down, and if so, where? What’s in the air?

After the concert, we invite you to a symbolic feast with our ancestors and to a conversation. About music and its creation, the intermingling of worlds, about memory, transience and endurance. Bring your stories and the traces that are important to you.

Concept of the series, texts: Ewa Grochowska

Arrangements: Piotr Wróbel

Photo from the family archive of Leonia Zając / field collection of Ewa Grochowska

Performing

Tugłos
Ewa Grochowska – vocals, violin
Piotr Wróbel – tuba, trombone, baritone saxhorn, looper

and
Ewelina Prokopiuk – vocals, saxophone
Agata Turczyn – vocals

Zuza Solakiewicz and Zvika Gregory Portnoy – traces (a film story)

Details

When: 6 November 2026 (Friday), 19.00
Where: Workshops of Culture in Lublin, Grodzka 5a, auditorium, 2nd floor
For: adults
Admission: free, limited number of places, first come, first served

Accessibility

• The event takes place on the second floor. There is no lift.
• Noise-cancelling headphones are available on site.
• Let us know about your individual accessibility needs using the form.
• Read the basic accessibility information about the Workshops of Culture.
• Find out how to get there – watch the video.

The event is held as part of the Re:tradition Festival.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.