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SUMMARY:Raphael Rogiński’s Fall 2026 North American tour
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/10/02/raphael-roginski-us-tour-2/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20261016
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261016
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261101
DESCRIPTION:Friday, October 16 at 9:00 PMThe Pony314 E. Hickory St., Suite 121, Denton,
TX 76201Event Details
Tuesday, October 20 at 8:00 PMGiorno Poetry Systems / Unsound New
YorkRaphael Roginski Plays The Velvet Underground on Solo Guitar222 Bowery,
New York, NY 10012Event Details
Wednesday, October 21 at 7:00 PMRhizome DC6950 Maple St. NW, Washington, DC
20012Event Details
Thursday, October 23 at 7:00 PMManny’s Live Performance Space101 Hiester
St., State College, PA 16801Eveny Details
Saturday, October 24 at 7:30 PMBantha Tea Bar5002 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA
15224Event Details
Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 PMHungry Brain2319 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL
60618Event Details
Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00 PMBerlin204 N. First St., Minneapolis, MN
55401Event Listing
Friday, October 30 at 7:00 PMWoodland Theater608 NW 65th St., Seattle, WA
98117
Sunday, November 1Dandelion Records & Emporium1701 Powell Street, Unit
506, Vancouver, BC V5L 5C9
Polish guitarist, composer, and improviser Raphael Rogiński returns to
North America in fall 2026 for an extensive tour across the United States
and Canada, presenting two distinct solo projects
The tour introduces Qırım, his new project devoted to the music, memory,
and cultural heritage of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars, alongside
performances of Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes,
the landmark solo project that brought his singular guitar language to
international attention. Presented in the year of John Coltrane’s
centennial, the Coltrane-focused performances form part of the Polish
Cultural Institute New York’s contribution to commemorating the legacy of
one of the most influential figures in modern jazz.
Rogiński’s music draws on blues, jazz, Eastern European traditions,
archival research, and improvisation, creating a sound that is at once raw,
meditative, and deeply rooted in cultural memory.
Qırım is Raphael Rogiński’s newest musical project - a personal
journey into sound, memory, spirituality, and Crimean Tatar cultural
heritage.
Drawing on Rogiński’s long-standing engagement with the musical
traditions of Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, the project explores
Crimea as a living cultural landscape shaped by memory, displacement,
survival, and loss.
The album was recorded on analogue tape by anthropologist István Sántha,
whose decades of fieldwork documenting traditional music across Central
Asia resonate with the project’s themes of preservation and transmission.
Rather than reconstructing folklore, Rogiński transforms archival material
and Crimean Tatar musical sources through improvisation and his distinctive
electric-guitar language.
Echoes of Sufi spirituality, mourning songs, and the meditative pulse of
the steppe emerge within a sound world that is intimate, spacious, and
unmistakably his own. Qırım is a reflection on longing, cultural memory,
and hope — and an invitation to encounter Crimean Tatar culture through
sound.
Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes is one of the
defining projects of Rogiński’s career - a deeply personal reimagining
of the music of John Coltrane, intertwined with musical reflections on the
poetry of Langston Hughes.
Originally released by Bôłt Records in 2015, the album was reissued by
Unsound in 2024 in an expanded edition featuring four additional pieces.
Performed entirely solo on electric guitar, without overdubs or effects,
the music strips Coltrane’s compositions of familiar jazz conventions.
Rogiński slows them down, opens their structures, and allows silence,
resonance, and repetition to become part of the music.
The result is an intimate and hypnotic performance in which blues, jazz,
folk traditions, and improvisation meet in Rogiński’s singular musical
language.
Raphael Rogiński is a Polish guitarist, composer, improviser, cultural
animator, and researcher of musical folklore. Educated in jazz and
classical music, he expanded his studies to include musicology and
ethnomusicology — a combination that fundamentally shapes both his
compositional language and performance practice.
Closely associated with Eastern European Jewish culture and other minority
traditions, Rogiński researches forgotten musical forms and translates
their meanings into contemporary artistic expression. As leader of
pioneering ensembles such as Cukunft and Shofar, he has recontextualized
traditional music within modern experimental frameworks.
His artistic practice extends across Turkish, Bedouin, African, Georgian,
Persian, Armenian, and Crimean Tatar musical traditions, often performed in
collaboration with musicians from those regions. A deep engagement with
classic blues guitar techniques and vintage instruments from the 1950s and
1960s informs projects such as Wovoka and Shy Albatross.
Rogiński’s fascination with Kurpie folklore led him to collaborate with
Genowefa Lenarcik, an outstanding singer of the region and daughter of the
renowned folk musician Stanisław Brzozowy. He also worked with the last
musicians of the Polska Roma community, founding the ensemble Drom.
His exploration of early music resulted in projects such as Bach Bleach, in
which Johann Sebastian Bach’s works are performed on prepared guitars,
and Plays Henry Purcell, reinterpreting Purcell through the aesthetic lens
of 1980s Polish cold wave.
At the same time, Rogiński remains active in the international new jazz
and experimental scene. His music has accompanied documentaries, animated
films, theater productions, multimedia performances, and literary works. He
has collaborated with directors and artists including Małga Kubiak, Jerzy
Kalina, Paweł Miśkiewicz, Piotr Cieplak, and Maja Korczakowska, and has
created music inspired by writers such as Tadeusz Różewicz, Mieczysław
Myśliwski, Mieczysław Abramowicz, and Andrzej Stasiuk.
He performs primarily as a solo artist and bandleader. His ongoing projects
include Shofar, Hizbut Jamm, Żywizna, Elik (a duo with Svitlana Nianio),
and solo guitar programs.
Rogiński has collaborated with numerous internationally recognized
musicians, including Jim White, Joe McPhee, Marylin Mazur, Michael Zerang,
Frank London, Tim Sparks, Dave Rempis, Mark Sanders, Hania Rani, Mikołaj
Trzaska, Natalia Przybysz, Wacław Zimpel, and many others. He regularly
appears at festivals and concert venues in Poland and worldwide.
In 2015, Bôłt Records released Raphael Rogiński Plays John Coltrane and
Langston Hughes African Mystic Music, which received widespread
international acclaim. The album was included in The Wire magazine’s
annual summary (ranked 16th), marking Rogiński as the first Polish artist
to appear in its year-end list. In 2024, the album was remastered and
reissued by Unsound with additional material. He was nominated for the
prestigious Polityka Passport Award in 2015, and again in 2016 for projects
including Żywizna and Shy Albatross.
Between 2018 and 2020, Rogiński collaborated with the Slovenian band
Širom. His fascination with 1970s Senegalese culture led to the formation
of Hizbut Jamm, whose debut album was released in 2024. Together with
Ukrainian alternative music legend Svitlana Nianio, he founded Elik, a
project dedicated to Ukrainian mythology.
During the pandemic, Rogiński developed the solo guitar program
Dobroczynne Niguny, reinterpreting mystical Jewish nigunim. In
collaboration with Natalia Przybysz, he reimagines music of the 1960s and
1970s.
His solo album Talán (Instant Classic, 2023) received highly positive
reviews both in Poland and internationally. In 2024, the project expanded
with the album Žaltys, focusing on original sources of Eastern European
heritage. These recordings involve collaborations with musicians from
Georgia, Serbia, Armenia, Ukraine, and other countries, presenting the
region’s traditions through a contemporary lens.
In May 2025, Rogiński premiered Ružičniak Tajni (with Svetlana Spajić,
Marina Džukljev, and Tijana Golubović), a project reinterpreting ancient
Serbian musical traditions and those of neighboring cultures.
Raphael Rogiński’s Fall 2026 North American tour is supported by the
Polish Cultural Institute New York.
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