Global music and Lemko poetry “At the source” – photoreport

As we have announced on our Lem.fm website, from 15-18 September 2016 in Krynica and Berest, an International Music Festival took place, “At source.” It was founded, managed, and organized by a violonist famous all over the world – Dr. Mariusz Monczak.

The festival’s agenda was carried out in several places of Krynica –  the Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, the Old Spa House and the New Spa House. Additionally, the artists moved to Berest, to Saints Cosmas and Damian Church for one afternoon. The idea of the concerts was to include the music of the most famous composers in the world and intersperse it with Lemko poetry. The music of composers such as: Bach, Wieniawski, Bartok, Mozart, Haydn, Chopin and others was interlaced with performances of the following Lemko artists: Julia Doszna (15.09, the Church of Association of Virgin Mary) who recited Lemko poetry and Petro Murianka (16.09 the Old Spa House) who presented his own work. During the following festival days, the organizers also reminisced about Lemko culture, including the poetry of Władysław Graban and Bohdan Ihor Antonych in the concerts. During the performances, the Lemko poetry interchanged with the sounds of violin, accordion, viola and fortepiano – in this way, it completed the event with the Rusyn element that was being showed there deliberately – the area used to be mostly populated by Lemkos.

Dr. Mariusz Monczak is a violinist who has Lemko roots (his parents come from Berest, where one of the concerts took place). Before he left to study in the New York City and Montreal, he was a student of the eminent musician and pedagogue, Stanisław Hajzer. As a soloist, Monczak used to perform on the biggest stages of the world. Nowadays, apart from playing concerts and making records for popular phonographic companies, he organizes concerts of classical music in Poland and Canada.

Below is the photo report from three concerts of the festival (photo: Petro Basałyga).

Krynica, 15.09 – Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary:

Krynica, 16.09 – the Old Spa House:

Berest, 18.09 – Saints Cosmas and Damian Church: