Singer’s Warsaw Festival in Radzymin
Concert: “The Colors of Jewish Music” – Hebrew, Sephardic, and Yiddish songs | Anna Riveiro, Michał Pindakiewicz
Line-up: Anna Riveiro (vocal, guitar, selection and translation of the pieces, concert’s script), Michał Pindakiewicz (guitar, arrangement)
It is a remarkable program presenting the centuries-old Jewish musical tradition. From old Hebrew songs, mainly religious, through secular Sephardic music, to the traditional Yiddish repertoire. It is a musical tale of Jewish life, the birthplace notwithstanding. We will hear songs that accompanied people in different situations, on normal days and holidays: prayers, love songs, wedding songs, and lullabies. All are an expression of the Jewish soul…
Anna Riveiro, charismatic vocalist, cantor soloist, voice coach, guitarist, and music producer, who sings in many languages, performing music from different epochs, traditions, and countries. She regularly performs in Poland and other parts of the world, and cooperates with outstanding soloists and bands. Riveiro performed in Israel, Mexico, Spain, France, England, Germany, Italy, and other countries. Her interpretations of Sephardic songs are considered as model in the UNESCO program concerning languages threatened by extinction.
Michał Pindakiewicz – classical guitar virtuoso, guitarist with comprehensive musical interests, arranger, and composer. Graduate of Warsaw’s University of Music and winner of international guitar competitions. Performed on multiple stages in Poland, Czechia, Germany, Spain, and Mexico. Appears with various bands and musicians, classical, jazz, and folk.
The Municipal F. Chopin Hall in Radzymin 15 Konstytucji 3 Maja St.
Free admission
Organized in cooperation with the Town and Municipality Hall in Radzymin and the Public Library of the Town and Municipality of Radzymin
GRAND FINALE CONCERT: “SEPHAR TANGO” | YASMIN LEVY |IL|& GANG TANGO |PL|
Line-up: Yasmin Levy (vocal), Yechiel Hasson |IL| (guitar), Gang Tango featuring: Grzegorz Lalek (violin), Piotr Kopietz (bandoneon), Mirosław Feldgebel (piano), Sebastian Wypych (double bass, artistic director) and Anna Wandtke (violin), Jeno Lisztes |HU| (dulcimer), Arad Emamgholi |IR| (daf), Anna Iberszer and Piotr Woźniak (tango)
The program of the concert includes the most famous Polish tangos and tangos of composers of Jewish origin: Szpilman, Petersburski, as well as Piazzolla, Gardel and others, and Sephardic songs.
All the pieces will be presented in new, amazingly vivid interpretations of the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy.
The artists: Yasmin Levy (vocals), Yechiel Hasson |IL| (guitar), Gang Tango band, with: Grzegorz Lalek (violin), Piotr Kopietz (bandoneon), Mirosław Feldgebel (piano), Sebastian Wypych (double bass, art direction) and Anna Wandtke (violin), Jeno Lisztes |HU| (cimbalom), Arad Emamgholi |IR| (daf), Anna Iberszer and Piotr Woźniak (tango).
The huge emotional load, original harmony, and rhythm of tango, as well as its sophistication, contribute to its amazing popularity, though the performers are faced with high expectations… Fortunately, all of them are acclaimed virtuosos and tango connoisseurs, performing globally.
Yasmin Levy, an artist born in Jerusalem, from her youngest years had contact with the Ladino culture and singing – her father was a major personality among researchers and protectors of Jewish-Spanish culture, whose traditions date back to fifteen-century Spain. In her deep, poignant singing style, Yasmin both preserves and brings back to life the most beautiful songs of the Jewish-Spanish Ladino heritage, combining them with the Andalusian flamenco. In this music, we find its characteristic values – subtlety and charm coupled with seismic passion, excitement, and emotionality. From the beginning of her career, Yasmin has been giving concerts around the world, with great success, and so far has released six albums. One of the few artists to have won three awards in the prestigious BBC World Music Awards competition. Performed at many international festivals and cultural events, including WOMAD in Singapore, Forum Barcelona, BBC’s New Year’s Concert in London, and one of the world’s most famous concert halls, Carnegie Hall in New York.
Gang Tango is one of the few tango bands with a style related to Argentina’s ‘Orquesta Tipica’ of the past and directly inspired by Quinteto Nuevo – the original band of Astor Piazzolla; also, their style is connected to that of the tango bands of pre-war Warsaw. The band’s repertoire, comprising a compilation of Polish compositions and world tangos, is inspired by the cradle and model of the style, that is, Argentine tango, as well as connecting and nurturing the huge body of tangos by Polish composers of Jewish origin from the period between World War 1 and World War 2. These were composed by authors of both light and classical music. It is said that around 3000 Polish tangos come from that period.
The National Opera House, 1 Teatralny Sq., Moniuszko’s Hall
Tickets – zone 1: 150 PLN, zone 2: 100 PLN, zone 3: 80 PLN, zone 4: 60 PLN, zone 5: 50 PLN, zone 6: 30 PLN, purchases available at: www.ewejsciowki.pl, www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl, in the Audience Office, phone no. +48 22 526 20 34; +48 22 850 64 50 or 51 and in the Jewish Theater box offices at 35 Senatorska St., phone: +48 22 850 64 35 or in the Club of the Command of Garrison in Warsaw, 141a Niepodległości Ave., phone no.: +48 22 850 56 56 and in the box offices of the National Opera House and on the website www.teatrwielki.pl
Organized in cooperation with the National Opera House
Singer’s Warsaw in Wawer District: concert presented by Bester Quartet & Dorota Miśkiewicz, Krzysztof Lenczowski, Michał Bylica
Line-up: Bester Quartet featuring: Jarosław Bester (accordion), Dawid Lubowicz (violin), Maciej Adamczyk (double bass), Ryszard Pałka (percussion) and Dorota Miśkiewicz (vocal), Krzysztof Lenczowski (cello), Michał Bylica (trumpet)
The legendary formation Bester Quartet (formerly Cracow Klezmer Band) is an authentic icon of Jewish music in Poland. In the second half of the 1990’, they were the ones that started the renaissance of new Jewish music here.
From the beginning of their existence, the musicians have cooperated with the iconic “Tzadik Records”, John Zorn’s record label based in New York. There, they released nine of around a dozen their albums. The band has played hundreds of concerts, at home and on almost all continents. This year, they are officially celebrating 25 years of their stage presence.
During the concert in the Wawer Cultural Center, the artists will play the most interesting compositions of their leader, outstanding accordionist and composer Jarosław Bester, as well as pieces by the Jewish icon of the interbellum period, Mordechai Gebirtig, songs of the legendary Polish-Jewish artist David Beigelman, and pieces composed by John Zorn especially for Bester Quartet.
The vibrancy and bitter-sweet mystery, tradition, and modernity, all this will feature in the kaleidoscopically colorful journey through the amazing Jewish music of Bester Quartet. The band will be joined by the outstanding vocalist Dorota Miśkiewicz, Krzysztof Lenczowski (cello), and Michał Bylica (trumpet).
Wawer Cultural Center, Show Hall, 1a Żegańska St.
Tickets: 30 PLN – available at Biletyna: https://wck-wawer.pl/kup-bilet or in WCK’s box office (Mo.-Fri. 9.00-16.00)
Poetry concert: “LESMAN/FANTASIES” | ADRIANNA DOROCIAK & TRIO AFTYKA/IWAŃSKI/MAJEWSKI
Line-up: Adrianna Dorociak (script, vocal), Michał Aftyka (compositions, double bass, bass guitar), Piotr Iwański (piano), Kacper Majewski (percussion)
One of the most poetic events of this year’s Singer’s Warsaw, with Bolesław Leśmian (originally Lesman) as its hero. Polish poet of Jewish origin, during his lifetime described as epigone, and after his death – as demiurge. Escaping the influences of the epoch and history, during the twenty years between the wars, he created poems in a truly romantic style. Rebel driven by great passions. Master of the erotic language and neologisms, nature-maniac.
This inimitable, metaphysical atmosphere of Bolesław Leśmian’s works inspired the versatile artist – actress, singer, dancer, and pianist Adrianna Dorociak to work on a musical project entitled “Lesman/Fantasies”, with the melody of his poems and their accentual-syllabic features resulting in their musical development. To collaborate, Dorociak invited Michał Aftyka, bassist and composer, and his band; these are his compositions that we hear in the project.
Together, the artists invite the audience to the world of Bolesław Leśmian. A world full of philosophy, fantasy, and symbolism, where nothingness and death flirt with life-giving passion.
The Summer Stage of the Jewish Theater, 35 Senatorska St.
Tickets: 40 PLN, purchases available at: www.ewejsciowki.pl, www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl, in the Audience Office, phone no. +48 22 526 20 34; +48 22 850 64 50 or 51 and in the Jewish Theater box offices at 35 Senatorska St., phone: +48 22 850 64 35 or in the Club of the Command of Garrison in Warsaw, 141a Niepodległości Ave., phone no.: +48 22 850 56 56; seats are not numbered
Classical concert: “WEBERN, WAJNBERG, MAHLER, BACH – reflections” | MARCIN ZDUNIK / HARMONIUM DUO (Giziewski & Jedynecki)
Line-up: Marcin Zdunik (cello) and accordion duet Harmonium Duo featuring: Hubert Giziewski, Iwo Jedynecki
Concert program:
– Anton Webern – “Langsamer Satz”
– Mieczysław Wajnberg – Jewish songs op. 13 (music for the poetry of I. L. Peretz)
– Gustav Mahler – “Kindertotenlieder” (music for the collection of poems by Friedrich Rückert, written as the “elegy” after the children’s death)
– Johann Sebastian Bach – “Die Kunst der Fuge” (BWV1080) Kontrapunkt no. 1
The concert will open with “Langsamer Satz” (1905), an expressive composition by 21-year-old Anton Webern, who was later consumed by serialism in concise forms. The piece, planned as a part of a composition for string quartet, ultimately remained a stand-alone, influenced by Brahms and early modernism.
It will be followed by Mieczysław Weinberg’s Jewish Songs, op. 13 with the poems of Isaac Leib Peretz, who is considered the father of modern Yiddish literature of modernism. In the context of wars, histories of innocent childhood acquire a new meaning. The composer reaches for the simple rhythms of the simple language of children. The composition can be interpreted as a specific memoir of the author, working on trauma – looking for his space in the realities of the war.
The climax of the concert will be an exceptional piece – Gustav Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” in which the author reached for the collection of poems by Friedrich Rückert, written in 1833-34 as laments on the deaths of children. Therefore, today’s, purely instrumental version is a departure from a very special text, based on concrete, traumatic circumstances.
The culmination of the concert will be “Die Kunst der Fuge” (BWV1080) Contrapunctus 1 – the last piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, on which he started working a year before his death. For a long time, the “Die Kunst der Fuge” collection was overshadowed by the composer’s other works, and the lack of any information as to for what instrument or instruments it was intended resulted in it being frequently considered as purely theoretical. Respected music theoreticians also did not appreciate this work of Bach. In an analysis of Das wohltemperierte Klavier, Van Bruyck stated that Kunst der Fuge “is not music, but something barbarian, a degeneration into counterpunctual chivaree of a kind.”
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Today’s project is an attempt at “filtering out” the text from the “sound base”, assuming, however, that the message of the piece – its expression – will maintain its “proper tone.” The listener, in turn, having acquainted themselves with the songs’ content in the written form, may be able to experience their sense, maybe even more profoundly and personally. The performers-authors are cellist Marcin Zdunik, Hubert Giziewski, and Iwo Jedynecki, forming the accordion duo Harmonium Duo, and representing the generation of outstanding young musicians who, in addition to winning spectacular awards in competitions, having a rich repertoire, and appearing in prestigious concert halls, are pursuing new solutions in the field of music performance.
The Nożyk Synagogue 6 Twarda St.
Tickets: 50 PLN, purchases available at: www.ewejsciowki.pl, www.teatr-zydowski.art.pl, in the Audience Office, phone no. +48 22 526 20 34; +48 22 850 64 50 or 51 and in the Jewish Theater box offices at 35 Senatorska St., phone: +48 22 850 64 35 or in the Club of the Command of Garrison in Warsaw, 141a Niepodległości Ave., phone no.: +48 850 56 56; seats are not numbered, men are obliged to wear headgears
Recital: “Sztelele, my little town” | Genady Iskhakov
The Summer Stage of the Jewish Theater, 35 Senatorska St.
Free entry upon confirmation between 8 and 24 August in the Festival Office at 35 Senatorska St., phone: +48 660 004 793, +48 694 686 339; seats are not numbered
DJ SET Kolektyw 25% KOSHER, 25% HALAL, 50% MELODRAMA – presented by DJ Rachel i DJ Misza
An eccentric duo presenting the findings of oriental music of the last fifty years. A never-ending odyssey of Middle-Eastern rhythms. For dancing, drinking, and talking over hummus and shisha!
Bar Studio, 1 Plac Defilad
Free admission
Event organized in cooperation with Bar Studio
Open air concert: “Ghetto Songs” presented by the artists of the Jewish Theater in Warsaw
Written and directed by: Gołda Tencer, music selected and prepared by: Teresa Wrońska
Line-up: Monika Chrząstowska, Ewa Dąbrowska, Adrianna Dorociak, Sylwia Najah, Izabella Rzeszowska, Alina Świdowska, Gołda Tencer, Genady Iskhakov, Henryk Rajfer, Dominik Rybiałek
Music: Teresa Wrońska (piano), Dariusz Falana (clarinet), Marek Wroński (violin)
Square by the former Bersohns’ and Baumans’ hospital, 51 Śliska Street / 60 Sienna Street.
Event organized in cooperation with the Warsaw Ghetto Museum
KLEZMER NIGHT: KLEZMER & ODESSA GANGSTA FOLK | KOMMUNA LUX |UA|
Line-up: Bagrat Tsurkan (vocal), Vitya Kirillov (guitar), Oleg Vasianovych (accordion), Vladimir Gitin (clarinet), Andrey Okramovych (trumpet), Yaroslav Besh (trombone), Sergey Poltorak (percussion)
“In Odessa, people find together. In Odessa they all will laugh and sing.” Kommuna Lux validate these words from an old couplet, using their own style called “Odessa Gangsta Folk”, which stands for thrilling klezmer music and common gangster folk songs from their hometown. About the Odessites, their great tolerance, an easy-going lifestyle and a very special sense of humor have always been mentioned. The metropolis is world-famous for its significant Jewish life and for being the birthplace of Russian chanson as an independent genre. These songs were created over 100 years ago in Odessa, and in the course of the later decades, despite many bans, this beloved music reached the last corner of the Soviet Union. This bohemian and nostalgic temper from the Ukrainian Black Sea coast is now set to a timeless level by the vibrant performances of the lovely singer Bagrat Tsurkan and his charming musicians, playing these joyful songs and melodies from Odessa and all Eastern Europe in spiced up arrangements.
Years ago the gangsters making music performed noisy flash mobs at the famous city fish market called Privoz, in the old wooden tram line number 5, on the Primorsky Boulevard promenade and on rusty rocking boats on the popular Lustdorf beach, causing perplexed masses of Odessites. In addition to the band’s presence on the largest festivals in Ukraine such as the Koktebel Jazz Festival, Kyiv Klezmer Fest, Atlas Weekend or Woodstock Ukraine, the band received cheering applause from the audience globally at the Fürth International Klezmer Festival, the Summer Festival of Cultures in Stuttgart or the transVOCALE in Frankfurt/Oder, as well as at the Master Theater in New York or at the Rodeo Club in Haifa. Another triumph came in 2018: the music collective won the “Eisernen Eversteiner”, Germany’s only European folk music prize, which is awarded annually at the Folkherbst festival in the city of Plauen.
The atmosphere at the concerts of Kommuna Lux is absolutely unique – there is a maritime aura in the air, as well as the typical timeless humor of the Ukrainian Black Sea coast. The Jewish saying “There is always an alive fish“ in Odessa manner characterizes the vitalising show of the band which is definitely full of shaking rhythms, refreshing anarchy and plenty of lust for life!
Open air stage, 1 Parade Square
Free admission, a limited number of seats
Event organized in cooperation with Plac Defilad Project
Meeting: “IN MAMA SONIA’S KITCHEN” – Gołda Tencer, Janusz Tencer, Dawid Szurmiej and Friends
Musicians: Teresa Wrońska (piano), Dariusz Falana (clarinet), Marek Wroński (violin)
This is a mandatory item on Singer’s Warsaw Festival’s agenda. The Director of the Jewish Theater, Gołda Tencer, together with her brother, Janusz, and her son, David, and friends, take us on a journey to the past, to a pre-war Jewish world that no longer exists. But it is revived in such memories and musical stories.
 photo: organisers archive | Gołda Tencer – actress, director, as of 1969 associated with the Jewish Theatre in Warsaw, Deputy Director thereof since 2009 and since 2015 Director General and Artistic Director of the stage. Founder of The Shalom Foundation, originator and organizer of the Jewish Culture Festival “Singer’s Warsaw.” In the Jewish Theatre she played, among others, Leah in “The Dybbuk,” Miss Forsythe in the “Death of the Salesman” and Dwojra in the “Down.” Director and co-director of the following shows: “Kamienica na Nalewskach,” “Dla mnie bomba” (the show was awarded the Honorary Golden Retro Leaf) and “Bonjour Monsieur Chagall.” She took part in the following films: “David” (the movie was awarded Golden Bear in Berlin), “War and Love” (USA), “Austeria” and “Alles auf Zucker!” (Germany). She is also invited to take part in prestigious art ventures – during the 65th and the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising she supervised the artistic part of the official celebration and in 2015 she took part in the Gala Concert of the 36th Actor Song Review in Wrocław. She has received numerous awards and prizes for her efforts, including the Israeli Golden Lira, Golden Medal Gloria Artis and Commanders Cross Order of Polonia Restituta. Together with Katarzyna Przybyszewska, she wrote the book “Gołda Tencer. Jidisze Mame “, which was already named Book of the Month by the Literary Magazine BOOKS at the place of its premiere (September 2019). |
 photo: Eric Tencer | Janusz Tencer – President of the Board of the Shalom Foundation, nephrologist, habilitated doctor, founder and president of the MediCenter Medical Center in Warsaw. He is the author of the book “In Mama Sonia’s Kitchen”. In 2007, he released his first solo album – Jewish Tailor and Others. For years he has been performing Jewish, Hebrew and Polish repertoire, giving concerts in the USA, Israel, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Germany. He has attended the Singer Festival many times, incl. leading and performing in the final concerts, presenting the author’s concert “My March” and musical performances “March Almonds”, “Days we do not know”, “Older Gentlemen Aj”, “Dwór Tzadik” and others, of which he is the author and director. |
 photo: private collection | Dawid Szurmiej – actor, director and producer of feature films and commercials. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the London Film School. He is the winner of the Kodak Advertising Contest; his films have been shown at many film festivals, incl. the Cinefondation section in Cannes. The owner and head of the Studio Agart production house, which in the last two years has implemented projects in several countries and has many award-winning for TV, internet and mobile campaigns. |
The Summer Stage of the Jewish Theater, 35 Senatorska St.
Free entry upon confirmation between 8 and 24 August in the Festival Office at 35 Senatorska St., phone: +48 660 004 793, +48 694 686 339; seats are not numbered
