🔴 Sam Kowalski is a solo project by Mateusz Kowalski – a Polish singer and multi-instrumentalist whose experience in folk music, both as a researcher and a performer, resonates powerfully in this interpretation of the stirring rhythm and melody of the oberek – the beloved dance of the Polish countryside. His album, which won the Fryderyk Chopin Institute’s Special Prize at the Polish Radio ‘Nowa Tradycja’ Festival (2024), is an exploration of a slower and more meditative approach to this ancient music, which is traditionally quite spirited, even feisty. Transposed from the violin to the guitalele (a miniature classical guitar) and accompanied by traditional verses, it is a minimalist and imagination-stirring invitation to a world of music which, fortunately, has not yet been forgotten.

🔵Kujawski Ansambl – a band formed by Wojciech Jachna and Marcin Karnowski to realise a special project: a musical story about Anna Jachnina. The main character of this unconventional radio play is an editor at the Polish Radio PIK (Pomerania and Kujawy). The aforementioned Anna Jachnina is also Wojciech Jachna’s grandmother. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, she made pioneering recordings of folk bands and singers from the regions of Kujawy, Pałuki and Kashubia. Drawing on these, she created around 300 radio plays. Known as ‘Kolberg in a skirt’, she began working in the folk music department in 1948. In 1950, on the initiative of Paweł Billert (head of the music department), the Bydgoszcz radio team set out on their first field recording trip. From 1951, she accompanied him. The album features songs from the songbook: ‘Folk Songs from Kujawy, Pałuki and Kashubia’. Anna Jachnina wrote the foreword to this book, and Paweł Billert arranged the melodies. These serve as a starting point for interpretation, creative exploration and new arrangements. The radio play is therefore both a story about an exceptional journalist and artist and an attempt to establish a dialogue between the past – tradition – and the present – a fresh perspective.

Kujawski Ansambl:
SVAHY – vocals
Michalove – vocals
Justyna Piernik – vocals
Piotr “Gary” Gwadera – drums, percussion
Ksawery Wójciński – double bass
Marcin Lorenc – violin
Jacek Cichocki – keyboards, accordion
Wojciech Jachna – trumpet, effects, production
Eva Lanche – dulcimer, handpan

FULL PROGRAMME FOR THE TAURON CULTURE FRIDAYS SERIES: CLICK

28 August, Ruins of the Victoria Theatre in Gliwice
6.00 pm – opening of the summer terrace with the Stary Kufel bar area
7.00 pm – Sam Kowalski
9.00 pm – Kujawski Ansambl
FREE ENTRY, places are limited – the maximum capacity at the Ruins is 300 people. No tickets are required and we do not take bookings.

The event is organised by the City of Gliwice and the Victoria Cultural Centre.
TAURON is the title sponsor of the event.
The event is being held as part of the TAURON Gliwicka Energia Kultury project.
Partners: Silesian Metropolitan Network, Hotel Qubus Gliwice