Polish rural music, often disregarded a dozen or so years ago or at best serving as a source of inspiration for classical music composers, has returned in the 21st century in the in crudo form. Currently, it once again attracts young people and the most talented artists, and again appears in its most natural context, which is having fun and dancing together. At the Forum Musicum, you will be able to hear the music of the Polish-Ukrainian borderland, performed by members of Orkiestra Galicja led by musicians of the Kapela Niwińskich ensemble. There will also be a valuable and rare opportunity to learn rural dances.

Galicia – a multicultural, colourful land located in the shadow of the Carpathians – was the home of many musical traditions that coexisted side by side for centuries. The diverse repertoire coming from this very land is cultivated by Orkiestra Galicja, an ensemble of students of authentic rural musicians who explore it with the passion of real researchers, reaching for archival recordings and 19th-century scores by Oskar Kolberg. They perform songs and dances of the Polish Pogórze, Ukrainian Subcarpathia, music from the areas of Rzeszów and Lviv, and melodies from the inhabitants of Pogórze, Boykos, Hutsuls, Jews and Hungarians. For dancing, there are energetic kolomyjkas, Ukrainian polkas, obereks and slower pieces from Pogórze, krakowiaks and kozachoks. The presence of musicians from Kapela Niwińskich among the members of the orchestra means that during the dance we can expect the artists to also reach for trance repertoire from central Poland. Mateusz and Agnieszka Niwiński from this ensemble are most known as heirs of the musical culture of this area.

You will be able to learn traditional dances from Piotr Zgorzelski. He is one of the most experienced dance instructors of this type of dancing in Poland and an initiator of the revival of its non-stage forms. As the founder of the Polish Academy of Traditional Dance, he has been organising workshops throughout Poland for years for people who have no direct contact with folk music. He is also the author of a dance learning program that takes into account contemporary habits and musical education in the realities of global culture.