Noam Zylberberg studied conducting at the Jerusalem Academy of Music. He became fascinated with interwar Polish music and established Mała Orkiestra Dancingowa (The Little Dancing Orchestra), which has played concerts in Poland and abroad. Their first album was released this year.
Juliette Bretan: So let’s start from the beginning. Where do your links to Poland come from?
Noam Zylberberg: My grandparents were born in Warsaw but left Poland in 1934. They were young. They wanted to follow their ideals and reinvent themselves. My grandmother’s family were Warsaw people going back many generations and so Warsaw has always been present in my life.
JB: When did you begin to become more involved with Poland and Polish culture?
NZ: I became curious after my grandparents passed away – I was still very young, but I began wondering about their pasts. They never spoke Polish at home, but I’d heard about their lives and families in Warsaw. This fascination followed me into my student years and still does till this day.
JB: Did your interest in interwar Polish music begin from that period?
NZ: Not really; It was a long time until I discovered this music. It all started through an interesting family connection – one of my grandmother’s cousins, Tadeusz Raabe, was a friend of Antoni Słonimski’s. Tadeusz was from a wealthy background – his family owned a factory. When World War I broke out, they had to leave to Russia. During those years, Tadeusz spent time in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. That was when he discovered their modern art cafés and avant-garde culture – which didn’t exist in Poland at all. Back then, Poland was in the midst of the Young Poland movement; art was very serious and patriotic. So when Tadeusz returned home, he opened the first modern art café in the city with Antoni Słonimski, who in turn brought with him Julian Tuwim. This was the famous Pod Picadorem cafe.
Later, he also married a well-known singer and movie star, Tola Mankiewiczówna. When I first learned about this, her name meant nothing to me. I found a video online of her singing the tango Odrobinę Szczęścia w Miłości (A Little Luck in Love). If I’m honest, I wasn’t that taken by it – it’s a video of her dressed as a maid, shining a shoe, and at that time I didn’t understand Polish, so I didn’t know what she was singing about.