Anna Maria Jopek performed in the best-known concert halls of China's largest cities: Shanghai (Shanghai Oriental Art Centre), Wuhan (Wuhan Qintai Concert Hall) and Beijing (Forbidden City Concert Hall). The tour was coordinated by the Forbidden City Concert Hall.
The singer performed music from her latest album, Polanna, which explores the roots of Polish music. The Israeli composer and three-time Grammy award winner Gil Goldstein and Krzysztof Herdzin have contributed to its musical arrangement. Anna Maria Jopek and her band find inspiration in Renaissance music, old folk songs and classical composers Stanisław Moniuszko, Mieczysław Karłowicz, and Karol Szymanowski.
''We wanted to approach Polish history in a completely different and unorthodox manner - says Jopek in an interview - I hope we have managed to expose this intangible element which defines the existence of 'Polish soul' in music''.
Anna Maria Jopek (born on 14 December, 1970 in Warsaw) graduated in piano from the Frederick Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw. She also studied at the faculty of jazz at Manhattan School of Music in New York, and holds scholarships from the Frederick Chopin Association and Columbia University in New York. She is a laureate of many competitions and awards - at the festival in Vitebsk, she was awarded with the private prize of Michel Legrand; in 1998, she received her first Fryderyk Prize (the "Polish Grammy") for the Phonographic Debut of the year for Ale jestem; she received Polityka magazine's prestigious Passport prize in 2003; and was awarded the 2003 Victor award in the singers category. She was also voted the best vocalist of 2005 by readers of Polish Jazz Forum Magazine. She has continued to win numerous more Fryderyks (including for best vocalist and best production of the year), and has released several critically acclaimed albums.
Jopek's tour is part of a larger series of events which includes exhibitions of classic and contemporary Polish art in Beijing in 2015.
Band:
Programme:
- Kiedy ranne wstają zorze/When the morning stars are rising
- Uciekaj, uciekaj / run, run away
- Laura i Filon / Laura & Philo
- Rdzawe liście / Rust-coloured leaves
- Dziś do Ciebie przyjść nie mogę / I cannot visit you today
- Z tęsknoty / Out of longing
- Kujawiak / Kujawiak
- Poznałem dziewczyna jak biała lilija / I met a girl
- Już się zmierzcha / Already it is dusk
- Oj lulaj lulaj / Sleep, oh sleep
- Hej przeleciał ptaszek / A little bird flew
- Spróbuj mówić kocham / Try to speak love
- Zrób co możesz / Do what you can
Organizers: Culture.pl, Forbidden City Concert Hall
Partner: Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing
See also:
Source: press materials, 22/08/2014, edited by fl
Translated by LB, 24/08/2014