Singer, accordionist, musicologist and Warsaw-native Olga Mieleszczuk’s (Polesye Project) special focus is music of the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition of Eastern Europe, especially the border areas of Poland (Galitzia, Polesye). A classically-trained musician, who divides her time between Warsaw and Tel Aviv, she has studied and performed wide-ranging genres from Hassidic music, to Yiddish songs, to folk music from the Jewish, Slavic and Balkan traditions.
Shofar Trio—guitarist Raphael Roginski, saxophonist and bass clarinet player Mikolaj Trzaska and drummer Macio Moretti—formed in 2006, joins traditional Jewish music with contemporary avant-jazz and rock. The Poland-based band released its debut album album in 2007—works based on the first compendium of Hassidic melodies from the Ukraine, Poland and Moldova compiled by early 20th-century Soviet musicologist Moshe Beregovsky. Over the past five years, the group has performed throughout Europe. The concert will feature the trio’s innovative interpretations of nigunim, or religious songs (meant to induce a state of religious ecstasy), more dancelike freylakhs, and Jewish liturgical music.
New York City, NY; NYC