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Archive for the AFC Events Category (147 posts)

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Janusz Prusinowski Kompania’s Progressive Village Music from Poland

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In this photo of Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, four men play musical instruments. Photo is accompanied by the Homegrown 2022 logo, which includes the words "Library of Congress American Folklife Center Homegrown 2022 Concert Series, "Homegrown at Home." Janusz Prusinowski Kompania

We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, a quartet that plays rural music of Polish villages on fiddles, flutes, accordions, and other traditional instruments.  As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

Janusz Prusinowski Kompania play rural music of Polish villages on fiddles, flutes, accordions, and other traditional instruments. They ground their music in dance rhythms, adding a modern improvisational flair to old melodies. They follow in traditions of village masters they have learned from, including Jan Lewandowski, Kazimierz Meto, Józef Zaras, Piotr and Jan Gaca, Tadeusz Kubiak and many others. But they are also a progressive band with their own characteristic sound and language of improvisation. Kompania’s unique style is the result of their attempt to find new ways of interpreting the most important elements of village music from central Poland.

The band has performed in most European countries (including Poland of course), as well as in Asia and North America (including Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Symphony Center). The band’s recordings have received rave reviews and national awards in Poland, and bandleader Janusz Prusinowski was awarded a Medal for Merit to Culture—Gloria Artis (Bronze), as well as the annual prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Writing in Roots Magazine, Andrew Cronshaw said: “The music they produce—lurching, rhythm-jumping—is vigorous, grainy-textured, even appearing rough on the surface, but in no way is any of the playing anything but extremely skilled; these are contemporarily aware players, with deep love and understanding of central Polish traditional music and its techniques.”

Watch the concert in the player below!

 

In the interview, I talked with Janusz Prusinowski about his life in Polish music. We discussed the master players that inspired him, the revival of interest in village music among young people, and his own work promoting the music through performances, recordings, and festivals. We discussed the Mazurkas of the World festival, which he organizes. We also talked about the current situation in Poland regarding the war in Ukraine, and how Polish people are helping their Ukrainian friends and families. It was an educational and fun conversation for me, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too…find it in the player below!

 

[Transcript of interview]

After the premiere, you’ll be able to find both these videos with more bibliographic information at this link on the Library of Congress website. You’ll also find them on the Library of Congress YouTube Channel.

Also, make sure to visit Janusz Prusinowski Kompania’s website, at this link.

Collection Connections

If you enjoyed the concert and interview, check out the Collection Connections below. You’ll find links to archival collections, guides, and other materials related to Polish folklife.

Collections Guide

Start your research with our Poland collections guide, at this link!

Field Collections Online

You can find Polish folklife in the following AFC online collections and presentations:

Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection.

Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project.

Lowell Folklife Project Collection.

Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings.

Rhode Island Folklife Project Collection.

The Wisconsin Folksong Collection (AFC collection materials shared with the University of Wisconsin, online at the University of Wisconsin website).

Event Videos

Several lectures in our Benjamin Botkin Lecture Series have discussed Polish music and folklife:

Matthew Barton mentioned Polish traditions in his lecture “Not the Same Old (Folk) Song and Dance: Field Recordings in the European Communities of the United States.”

Mark Slobin mentioned Polish music in his lecture “Improvising a Musical Metropolis: Detroit, 1940s-1960s.”

Folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett discussed her career, including her work as chief curator charged with creating the multimedia narrative exhibition at the recently opened POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Find her lecture and an interview at this link.

 

Thanks for watching, listening, and reading! The American Folklife Center’s Homegrown Concert Series brings music, dance, and spoken arts from across the country, and some from further afield, to the Library of Congress. For several years, we’ve been presenting the concerts here on the blog with related interviews and links, in the series Homegrown Plus. (Find the whole series here!) For information on current concerts, visit the Folklife Concerts page at Concerts from the Library of Congress. For past concerts, including links to webcasts and other information, visit the Homegrown Concerts Online Archive.

Capturing Military Stories with the Veterans History Project and Military Voices Initiative

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This post is written in collaboration with Megan Harris, Senior Reference Specialist for the Veterans History Project On Tuesday, August 9, 2022 3 pm EST, the American Folklife Center will host the panel discussion, “Sharing Military Voices Archived at the American Folklife Center,” at the Library of Congress—and you’re invited! The American Folklife Center invites […]

Homegrown Plus Premiere: The Chosen Few’s a Cappella Gospel from Virginia

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We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with The Chosen Few, a Virginia gospel group that stands firmly in the great tradition of unaccompanied religious singing by African American residents of the Tidewater region of the mid-Atlantic states. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Rodopi Ensemble’s Traditional Music from Thrace

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We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Rodopi Ensemble, an accomplished traditional band playing music from the Thracian mountains of Greece, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Chinese Hammered Dulcimer with Chao Tian

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We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Chao Tian, a master of the yangqin, or Chinese hammered dulcimer, as well as a sound designer and visual artist. For her concert, Chao Tian is joined by Tom Teasley, a multidimensional percussionist, performer, and composer. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Pamyua’s Modern Yup’ik Drumsongs

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We’re excited to continue the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Pamyua, a trio performing traditional Inuit (Yup’ik) drumsongs from Alaska with a distinct and unique American sound. As is usual for the series, this blog post includes an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore! Together for more than 15 years, Pamyua (pronounced Bum yo-ah) has entertained millions with their fusion of traditional Inuit music and Yup’ik dance performance. Founding members Phillip Blanchett, Stephen Blanchett and Ossie Kairaiuak are from the Yukon/ Kuskokwim River Delta region in southwestern Alaska. Pamyua found national recognition in 2003, winning Record of the Year at the Native American Music Awards, and is now considered a cultural treasure across the circumpolar north. Native People magazine praised their “blizzard of interlocking harmonies” and Alaska magazine rated them “one of the 10 greatest Alaska artists of the millennium.” The group has performed at distinguished events worldwide, including the 25th Anniversary of Greenlandic home rule, which was attended by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and the grand opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Homegrown Plus Premiere: Ukrainian American Bandura Master Julian Kytasty

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We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with Julian Kytasty, a third generation player of the bandura, a Ukrainian stringed instrument with similarities to the lute and the zither. Julian also sings beautifully and composes for the bandura and other instruments. In this blog you’ll find an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore!

Homegrown Plus: Traditional Dance from American Samoa

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We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus series with a very special presentation of Samoan dance. In addition to the dance video, the blog features an interview with Eti Eti, one of the members of the dance group. The dance video was created by the Student Association For Fa’asamoa, a program of the Samoan Studies Institute at American Samoa Community College. The Samoan Studies Institute’s mission is to ensure and promote the continuity of Samoan culture, traditions, language, and heritage. Since its inception, SAFF has been active in performing the Siva Samoa (traditional Samoan dance), and in teaching and practicing old Samoan customs. For their Homegrown video, the SAFF dancers performed a 30-minute program of traditional dances in several locales at the college, under the direction of Molitogi Lemana. See the video right here in the blog!

Homegrown Plus Premiere: ‘Ukulele Master Herb Ohta, Jr.

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We’re continuing the Homegrown Plus Premiere series with international recording artist Herb Ohta, Jr., who is one of today’s most prolific ʻukulele masters. In this blog you’ll find an embedded concert video, an interview video, and a set of related links to explore! We’re very excited to present Herb Ohta, Jr. in the series. Influenced by jazz, R&B, Latin and Brazilian music, as well as traditional Hawaiian sounds, he puts his stamp on Hawaiian music by pushing the limits of tone and technique on this beautiful instrument. The son of ʻukulele legend “Ohta-san,” he started playing at the age of three, and began teaching at the age of nine. Based in Honolulu, he shares the music of Hawaiʻi and the beauty of the ʻukulele with people around the world, performing concerts and conducting instructional workshops. As a special treat, Herb asked his good friend Jake Shimabukuro to join him for a medley of traditional Hawaiian songs. Shimabukuro, also a Honolulu native, is one of the most highly acclaimed ʻukulele players in the world, and has collaborated with many great musicians, including Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Loggins, and Amy Mills. He’s never forgotten his roots in Hawaiian music, though, and was kind enough to join Herb in his Homegrown concert.