The EURO BAND project aims to create a Polish-Czech ensemble from scratch. An ensemble that will perform popular Polish, Czech and English-language melodies at the concert. The final concert will take place on Saturday, August 22, at 9:00 p.m. at Piłsudski Square in Bolesławiec during the Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival. Almost 20 musicians will perform on stage in a big band with a brass section and seven vocalists. The ensemble will perform its own arrangements of popular songs. We will also hear Helena Vondráčková’s hit “Malovaný dzbanku” and Karel Gott’s “Lady Karneval”.
“The Euro Band project was written for the second time with our partner, the Blues nad Becvou Association,” says Dariusz Uściński, the project coordinator. “After last year’s successful cooperation connected with Blues nad Bobrem, and despite the threat posed by COVID-19, we decided that we could also organize workshops this year. Friends from Přerov came to visit us. We have six Czech vocalists and Polish instrumentalists. The musicians and vocalists practise for six hours every day before the final concert,” adds the Polish coordinator.
The ensemble has a very strong brass section: seven instrumentalists working under the direction of Patrycjusz Gruszecki, Jazzman of the Year 2017.
“Patrycjusz will also give his own concert during the Bolesławiec Ceramics Festival on Friday at 9:00 p.m.,” says Dariusz Uściński. “He will perform with Zbyszek Lewandowski, who is well known to the residents of Bolesławiec. Kamila Bakalarczyk-Kruk is an excellent singing teacher at the workshops. She will also perform in a concert on Friday. The ensemble’s musical coordination is handled by Daniel Grupa, a talented pianist and composer who, after the festival’s official opening on Friday, will play a short piano recital,” the coordinator explains.
The Czech participants in the project are young people from a music school and members of a choir. Six Czechs will perform on stage; the others are Poles: two female vocalists, two drummers, a bassist, seven members of the brass section, a keyboardist and two guitarists, including Mirek Kuc, an instructor at BOK–MCC, and his most talented student, Wojtek Andrzejewski.
Pavel Ondruj, the Czech coordinator, emphasizes that this is another successful musical meeting with Poles for him. He particularly enjoys the jam sessions performed by the group, because, as he says, Poles are more emotional than Czechs and are better at improvisation.
“I thought that the hit by Helena Vondráčková, a Czech singer popular in Poland, ‘Malovaný dzbanku,’ could not be missing from the Ceramics Festival,” says the Czech coordinator. “I called my friend Darek and asked whether he would like this popular hit to be heard at the Ceramics Festival. Especially since the word ‘dzbanek’ has the same meaning in Polish and Czech: it means a ceramic vessel. There will also be a song from the repertoire of Karel Gott, who is also very well known in Poland. The ensemble will perform ‘Lady Karneval,’” adds Pavel Ondruj.
The organizers and the ensemble warmly invite everyone to Saturday’s concert, which promises to be very good.
The project partners are Bolesławiec Cultural Centre – International Ceramics Centre and the Blues nad Becvou Association from Přerov. The project began on Monday, August 17, and will conclude with the final concert on August 22 at 9:00 p.m. at Piłsudski Square in Bolesławiec.
“The EURO BAND project is co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund and by the state budget through the Nysa Euroregion”
