Festival Autumn 2023

Autumn edition of the festival All Mazurkas of the World
Warsaw, November 23 – 26, 2023

For 13 years now, the autumn edition of the All Mazurkas of the World festival has been a time when we remember our masters – they are passing away, and with them the world of rural traditional music is ending. So that it does not completely disappear we record their music, we cherish the memories of them, their music and the inspiration they were. The current edition was dedicated to the memory of an outstanding fiddler and teacher – Jan Gaca.

The opening of the festival, on Thursday, November 23, was the “Mazurca Jazz Impressions” concert. It was the premiere of Marcin Pospieszalski’s original album – the fruit of his long-standing fascination with Polish rural music (mainly from the Western Radom region). It combines two musical idioms: Polish source music and full-blooded jazz.
The violinist Mateusz Smoczynski, pianist Jan Smoczynski, drummer Frank Parker and Marcin Pospieszalski double bass played. After the concert, in the festival club – a crazy, improvised jam session. In addition to the Marcin Pospieszalski Quartet, we heard guests including Maria Siwiec (a traditional singer from Galki near Rusinowo), Michal Zak, Kacper Malisz, Kazik Nitkiewicz, Paula Kinaszewska, Mateusz Niwiński and many others.

The autumn edition of the festival has been accompanied for years by the “Canon of Three” concert series. Its originator and host is Andrzej Bienkowski, a painter and ethnographer, who has been documenting rural music and its performers for more than 30 years. This year’s concert, on November 25, was titled “Kanon of Three – Musical Escalations” and presented, in turn, masters of playing to dance on the organ (mouth harmonica), bands composed of fiddle, bass, drum, and bands with harmony and accordion. On Andrzej Bienkowski’s filmed field recordings from the 1980s, we saw masters from Central Poland, including Franciszek Reguła, Stanislaw Ciarkowski, Walenty Mirecki’s band, and harmonist Marian Lipec. And after them played the contemporary continuators of their music – including the Beautiful Company, Katarzyna Andrzejowska’s band, Piotr Binkowski’s band and Diabubu.

Saturday, November 25, was filled with workshops – singing, dancing, playing the fiddle, drum and baraban, most of them under the motto: Music of the Gaca House, focused on themes given to the students by Jan Gaca, a fiddler from Przystałowice Małe. Saturday night was a hot night of dancing – more than 8 hours with live music, in the atmospheric environment provided by the Prague venue, High Culture. Village and city bands, mature masters and young musicians played to dance.

And at the end of this year’s edition, on Sunday, November 26, in the Camaldolese basement (Bielany Church, Dewajtis 3), gentlemen from the male funeral singing groups from Podlasie region (from Kalinówka Koscielna and Zabiel) and their students, sang the traditional Funeral Office in memory of Jan Gaca. The Offertory is a form of singing rarely seen in folk tradition anymore, dating back to the Middle Ages, performed during the night vigil by the bedside of deceased. The singers presented its ancient form and invited those present to sing along.

Location of the festival:
Center for Promotion of Culture, Podskarbinska 2 (23 and 24.11)
Praga House of Culture, Konopacki Palace, Strzelecka 11/13 (25. 11)
High Culture, Szwedzka 2 (25.11)
Pokamedulskiy Church, Dewajtis 3 (26.11)

Tickets from PLN 20, available for purchase at the door and on Tickets24

Organizer: All Mazurkas of the World Foundation
Co-financed by funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund; The project is co-financed by the City of Warsaw; Public task titled Autumn Edition of the Festival All Mazurkas of the World co-financed from the budget of the Mazovian Voivodeship
Partners: Cultural Promotion Centre Praga Południe, High Culture, Praga Culture House

Image gallery: Autumn 2023