The Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture one of the most celebrated arts festivals in Poland returns to New York City November 24–25, 2024
November 24, 2024
Jazz concert by Adam Makowicz and Krzysztof Medyna
Polish & Slavic Center Concert Hall
177 Kent Street Brooklyn, NY 11222
Free entry, RSVP by e-mailing claudian@polishslaviccenter.org until November 22, 2024
November 25, 2024
Concert of Wiera Gran songs
Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York
233 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016
Free entry, RSVP until November 22, 2024
The most important Jewish cultural event in Warsaw and one of the most recognized festivals in Poland – Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture returns to New York for the third time to present selected events on November 24th and 25th! The program is headlined by the Makowicz & Medyna jazz duo, as well as a recital by Monika Chrząstowska, actress of Warsaw’s Jewish Theatre (one of only two Jewish theaters in Europe).
Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture has been around for 21 years and is organized by the Shalom Foundation. The idea for the festival in New York arose from the desire to keep the memory of Isaac Bashevis Singer alive, of his magnificent literary legacy, and above all, his remarkable role in preserving the now-vanished world of Yiddish culture. This aligns with the main goal of the Shalom Foundation, which is to promote the heritage of Jewish culture not only in Warsaw but around the world, including all the cities where this great writer lived and worked – Leoncin, Radzymin, Biłgoraj, and New York. We want to honor and evoke Singer’s memory in the city to which he emigrated in 1935 and where he lived the longest. The Festival’s director is Gołda Tencer, who is also the director of the Ester Rachel and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theatre – Center of Yiddish Culture in Warsaw, and the founder of the Shalom Foundation.
On November 24th, we welcome everyone to a jazz concert by Adam Makowicz and Krzysztof Medyna at the Polish & Slavic Center Concert Hall. Jazz virtuosos will present compositions by the renowned composers of Jewish origin, including George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rogers & Jerome Kern. Adam Makowicz – Polish jazz great – needs no introduction to music enthusiasts, as he is known worldwide. It’s worth noting that he is not only a piano virtuoso, but also a philanthropist and the author and co-author of dozens of albums. Krzysztof Medyna, on the other hand, is an outstanding saxophone player and composer, co-founder of the legendary bands = Breakwater and Komeda Project. Free entry, RSVP claudian@polishslaviccenter.org until 18.11.2024.
The following day, November 25, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York will host a concert of Wiera Gran songs, the legendary muse of pre-war and wartime Warsaw. The retro songs with a jazz touch will be performed by Monika Chrząstowska, who is an actress at the Jewish Theatre in Warsaw. She will be accompanied by Bartozzi Wojciechowski on the bass, Franciszek Wajdzik on piano, and Robert Seniuta on violin.
Wiera Gran was a cabaret and film actress, a charismatic singer whose love songs were popular before the war. In March 1941, she voluntarily entered the Warsaw Ghetto to reunite with her mother and sisters and became an artistic sensation at the Sztuka café. Thanks to her performances, accompanied by the excellent piano duo of Władysław Szpilman and Adolf Goldfeder, the café was highly popular. Wiera Gran was the only member of her family to survive the war. Following WWII, she was accused of collaborating with the Germans, and throughout her life, regardless of where she was or performed, she carried the stigma of that accusation. Her entire life became a consequence of the several months spent in the ghetto. Monika Chrząstowska, endowed with a strong, deep voice and a lyrical temperament, conveys a wide range of emotions to tackle the legend and tragedy of Wiera Gran, bringing out the multidimensional nature of her personality during the concert.
The event’s partners are Golden Land Concerts & Connections, The Polish & Slavic Center in New York, The Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, The Polish Cultural Institute in New York, The Ester Rachel and Ida Kaminska Jewish Theatre—Yiddish Culture Center and co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage’s Fund for the Promotion of Culture.
