When? 📅 Friday 13.02 18:00–21:00 and Saturday 14.02 12:00–15:30 Place: 📍 Ambasada Muzyki Tradycyjnej, Jazdów 3/20, Warsaw Cost: 💰 470 zł Registration: https://forms.gle/TkHBf3t26SdMhvuf6 On the occasion of Valentine’s Day we invite you to encounter love in its folk form — full of emotional honesty and everyday experience, far from contemporary clichés. The love songs of the Lemkos and Boykos tell of longing, passion, choices of the heart, as well as breakups and obstacles that appeared in daily life. They were sung at home, in pastures and during communal gatherings as a natural way of expressing feelings. During the workshop we will learn this intimate, moving repertoire and experience how love sounded in the Carpathian tradition — raw, polyphonic and authentic. Some songs will appear in the repertoire of the band Samo Południe, and during the dance party (in the evening after the workshops on 14.02.26) you will be able to sing them together, completing the Valentine’s celebration with song and dance. During the sessions you will learn polyphonic traditional songs in their unstylized form, sung in villages inhabited by Boykos and Lemkos. You will get acquainted with the historical and cultural context, translations of song texts and the melodies of polyphonic pieces. Audio examples from the leaders’ archival and field recording collections will be presented. Relaxation exercises for the body to eliminate tension and prepare for natural singing. Work on activating resonators that strengthen voice timbre and are characteristic for the region. Breathing techniques and warm-up exercises for the vocal cords, crucial for maintaining the health and flexibility of the vocal apparatus. Analysis of archival musical materials and oral accounts that help reconstruct the unstylized sound of the songs. For whom? The workshop is aimed at both beginners and advanced participants — vocal experience is not required! Why attend? The repertoire you will learn during the workshop will be based on songs collected during our field research in Western Pomerania, Ukrainian Transcarpathia and archival recordings. Thanks to work among local communities, a unique musical material was gathered, reflecting the richness and diversity of borderland traditions. They survived despite difficult history, including deportations during Operation Vistula. In these songs one can find a wealth of multicultural inspirations, from influences of Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak musical culture to characteristic elements of Romani tradition. This extraordinary mix reflects the history of coexistence and cultural interpenetration in border areas, creating a unique musical landscape. Zofia Zaborowska – graduate of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Jagiellonian University, connected with traditional music since 2012, president of the Łada foundation, member of the research-documentation group Balkan Polyphony. Since 2018 she has conducted field research in Croatia; since 2019 she has taught singing during traditional song workshops and individual lessons. Kacper Siejkowski – PhD candidate in Humanities at Jagiellonian University, archaeomusicologist, vice-president of the Łada Foundation, member of the research-documentation group Balkan Polyphony. Together with the Łada team he conducts field research and teaches folk songs; laureate of many folk music competitions.
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