October 12, 2025 (Sunday) 7:00 p.m.

"Musical caravan from Turkey to Poland"

The Aula Magna of the Branicki Palace

Watch on-line:

Performers:

Maria Pomianowska — artistic director
Żaneta Seweryn
Anna Klimczyk
Wassim Ibrahim
Wojciech Lubertowicz
Rodrigo Barata
Shaheen Parvez

Schedule (.pdf)

Event description:

The beginnings of Polish-Turkish contacts date back to the 15th century. They were marked by periods of war, but also long years of peace and trade and cultural exchange.

In the 16th century, Polish-Turkish relations were mostly peaceful, and at times even friendly. It was then that knowledge of the art, music, and customs of the Middle East began to flow into our country.

Grand Crown Hetmans played a significant role in Poland's relations with Turkey. One of them was Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki. A remarkable manifestation of this affinity for Turkish culture was the creation and maintenance of Janissary orchestras in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, beginning with the reign of John III Sobieski. From the 18th century onward, many magnate families were interested in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian art and music. Among them were the Czartoryskis, the Radziwiłłs, the Potockis, the Krasińskis, and the Sanguszkos. It's important to remember that knowledge of exotic oriental instruments, which ultimately gave rise to most European musical instruments, had been spreading centuries earlier by traveling musicians arriving from the Middle East.

Our concert is a journey through time and space. Poland is a country with a turbulent history. Due to its geographical location, it has been subject to strong influences from the North, South, East, and West. This means that in ancient Polish songs and melodies we can hear echoes of the times when the Turks and Tatars conquered Europe, bringing with them the rhythms, stories, and melodies of the Middle East. The concert will present Ottoman music. The musical caravan will also include Polish melodies, echoing oriental scales and rhythms.

According to scholars, Middle Eastern music traces its roots back to Mesopotamia. One of the key elements of its magic is the celebration of the moment of "live" creation. Therefore, improvisation is a constant presence during the concert. This approach to music is cultivated to this day by Turkish, Persian, and Syrian musicians. Improvisation intertwines with the playing or singing of composed works. Concerts imbued with "live" creation can touch the deepest layers of the human psyche. We feel as if works were being created continuously, yet each time slightly differently.

The caravan from Turkey to Poland, like the old Janissary orchestra, will take with it many oriental instruments, stories and emotions.

Program:

• Claudio Monteverdi
Toccata z „L’Orfeo”
• Mikołaj Zieleński
Per merita sancti Adalberti, motet ku czci św. Wojciecha Biskupa i Męczennika
• Marcin Mielczewski
Aria a 3
• Introit: Protexisti me Deus – Georgian chant**
• Marcin Mielczewski
Kyrie – Missa Triumphalis
• Marcin Mielczewski
Gloria – Missa Triumphalis
• Graduale: Alleluja, Surrexit Pastor – Georgian chant*
• Alleluja, Posuisti Domine – Georgian chant*
• Mikołaj Zieleński
II Fantazja a 3
• Bartłomiej Pękiel
Credo: Missa Concertata La Lombardesca
• Offertorium: Posuisti Domine – Georgian chant
• Mikołaj Zieleński
Posuisti Domine
• Mikołaj Zieleński
III Fantazja a 3
• Bartłomiej Pękiel
Sanctus: Missa Concertata La Lombardesca
• Giovanni Battista Grillo
Sonata seconda à 7
• Bartłomiej Pękiel
Agnus Dei: Missa Concertata La Lombardesca
• Communio: Ego sum pastor bonus – Georgian chant*
• Mikołaj Zieleński
Ego sum Pastor Bonus
• Mikołaj Zieleński
Laetabitur iustus
• Ite missa est – Georgian chant*
• Mikołaj Zieleński
Ortus de Polonia, motet in honor of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr

*Fragmenty chorałowe z Chorału Piotrkowczyka z 1614 r.

Maria Pomianowska

A professor with a postdoctoral degree in musical arts, she is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and educator. She is a professor at the Academy of Music in Kraków and director of the international Crossroads of Cultures festival. Thirty years ago, she reconstructed the performance practices of lost Polish string instruments: the Biłgoraj suka, the Płock fiddle, and the Mielec suka. She has released 29 albums featuring her own designs and compositions, many of which have received Polish and international awards. (including "Chopin on 5 continents" - World Music Chart, "Voice of female dog" - Top of the World - Songlines) For 30 years she has been performing as a soloist all over the world, in the best concert halls. The most important of them are: Royal Albert hall (London), Kennedy Center (Washington), Lincoln Center (New York), Teatro Arcimboldi (Milan), Stadthalle (Vienna), Au Concert Noble (Brussels), Espace des Blanes Manteaux (Paris), National Opera (Kiev), MHAT -Gorky (Moscow), BKZ "Oktiyabrskiy" (St. Petersburg), Euscalduna Jauregia (Bilbao), Philharmonic hall (Baku), Mei Lanfang (Beijing), Genaina Theater (Cairo), Rishon-Le-Zion (Tel-a-viv), Ibn Zeidoun hall (Algiers), Taipei City Government Hall (Taipei), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Mozart Hall (Tokyo), and Kiara Hall (Sapporo). She has performed with world-renowned artists, including Yo Yo Ma, Janusz Olejniczak, Gil Goldstein, Gonzalo Rubelcaba, Branford Marsalis, Hoosein Alizadeh, Kayhan Kalhor, AMJ, Stanisław Soyka, and Kayah. From 1997 to 2002, as the Polish Ambassador to Japan, she befriended the entire Imperial Family, giving concerts and composing music for Her Majesty Empress Michiko. This friendship with members of the Imperial Family continues to this day. In 2010, she opened the first ethnic music specialization in Poland, "Knee Fiddles," at the Instrumental Department of the Academy of Music in Krakow. Since 2011, she has been creating unique programs with Arab, Pakistani, Senegalese, Iranian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian musicians in Asia and Africa, based on the folk music of the Mazovia region. In 2014, she published a publication with Ewa Dahlig titled "Knee Fiddles. (Re)construction." In 2018, she began official collaboration with Normal University in Qanzhou, China, implementing projects with Chinese students. In 2020, she published the first-ever textbook for playing reconstructed old Polish string instruments. She composes music for theater and film.

Żaneta Seweryn

Percussionist, heligonist, and cymbalist. She graduated with distinction from the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, where she majored in percussion under the supervision of Beata Wilewska. She also studied percussion under the supervision of Mario Jorge Peixoto at the University of Aveiro in Portugal as part of the Erasmus program. She is a percussion teacher at the Mieczysław Karłowicz School of Music and a soloist in the Krakow Opera Orchestra. She has collaborated as a percussionist with the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, and the "Amadrums Trio" percussion trio. She completed the heligonka class at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where she majored in traditional music under Przemysław Fick. She plays the heligonka, performing songs of Eastern and Western Krakowia. She collaborates with Katarzyna Chodoń and the "Raraszek" ensemble. In 2023, she graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw with a degree in dulcimer performance under Marta Maślanka. Her musical repertoire includes works by Chopin, songs from Rzeszów and Vilnius dulcimers, as well as her own compositions.

Anna Klimczyk

A cellist and instrumentalist, she has been developing her skills on the Polish lap fiddle for several years. She began her cello studies at the age of 11 at the Primary Music School in Wieliczka, continuing at the Władysław Żeleński Secondary Music School in Kraków, and then at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków in the class of Dr. Dorota Imiełowska. She has honed her skills during master classes with outstanding cellists from around the world. She has performed in Poland, Israel, France, Germany, Finland, Saudi Arabia, and Lithuania, collaborating with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra, the Archetti Chamber Orchestra, and the Obligato Orchestra, among others. She has participated in CD recordings and numerous festivals, including the Krakow Cello Spring (2018–2023). Her newest passion is traditional music, and she also plays the Biłgoraj suka and the Płock fiddle, which she studies under the supervision of Professor Maria Pomianowska. She recently co-founded the Derya Ensemble, which performs Turkish and Ottoman music.

Wassim Ibrahim

(Syria/Poland) Born in 1978 in Damascus, Syria. In 1998, he graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering and over the next seven years participated in numerous construction projects across the country. His musical journey began at the age of six, playing the flute and lute. From 1990 to 1996, he continued his musical studies on the Arabic lute, taught by Fayez Zahe Aldin. In 2005, he began studying Harmony and Counterpoint under Professor Bella Tagezieva at the High Institute of Music (Department of Theory and Composition) in Damascus. He graduated in 2010, collaborating with numerous lecturers throughout his studies. His education was led by the following professors: Professor Serge Kopperanov – Composition, Professor Bella Tagezieva – Music Theory, Professor Victor Babenko and Missak Baghboudarian (conductor of the Syrian Symphony Orchestra) – conducting. He came to Poland in 2013. In 2015, he earned a master's degree in composition from the Krzysztof Panderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, under the supervision of Prof. Józef Rychlik. In 2019, he earned a doctorate in music composition from the Krzysztof Panderecki Academy of Music in Krakow (composition program), collaborating with Prof. Wojciech Widłak. From 2010 to 2013, Wassim Ibrahim began his professional academic career as a teacher at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, Syria, where he lectured on music history and taught harmony and ear training. He has been a guest lecturer at the Krzysztof Panderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, and the University of Wisconsin. Since September 2023, Wassim has been a lecturer in ethnic music at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow. Since 2015, he has led the amateur Choir in Contact, which he founded and which was honored in 2020 with the title of Krakow Ambassador of Multiculturalism A.D. 2019. He began his professional composition career in 2002 by composing six songs for children, which were included on an album dedicated to them. His works have subsequently been performed at numerous festivals, in various countries, and in concert halls around the world.

Wojciech Lubertowicz

Sound engineer and multi-instrumentalist. A graduate of the Sound Engineering Department of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, he earned a Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, defending a thesis on contemporary frame drumming techniques. He specializes in ethnic percussion instruments (frame drums, darbuka, tombak, cajon) and wind instruments (duduk, ney). He works at the intersection of musical styles and genres, collaborating with artists associated with early music (Il Giardino D'Amore, Sabionetta, Alta), folk (including Maria Pomianowska, Mosaik, Karolina Skrzyńska, Angela Gaber), traditional (Warsaw-Lublin Wind Orchestra, Monodia Polska, Bonanza Dance Orchestra), and jazz and alternative (Zawartko/Piasecki, Phillip Bracken). He also collaborates with numerous theaters (including the National Theatre, the Polish Classical Theatre, and the Polish Theatre). He has recorded over 30 albums and performed concerts on four continents.

Rodrigo Barata

He is a Portuguese flutist and bagpiper. He began his studies on the recorder at the National Conservatory of Music in Lisbon, Portugal, and is currently completing his master's degree at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow under the supervision of Professor Erik Bosgraaf and Katarzyna Czubek. In Poland, he performs with his band, Derya Ensemble, dedicated to oriental and folk music. He is also a member of the folk/traditional bagpipe trio Canto D'Alvorada, in which he explores Portuguese folk traditions and performs his own music with a traditional Portuguese instrumental ensemble. He has also collaborated with the ensemble Collegium Clara Tumba, with whom he recently recorded the album *800 lat Cystersów w Mogiła*