Karolina Cicha and Bart Palyga Present Music from the Polish Borderlands at Lotus Festival Sept. 25th and 26th

KAROLINA CICHA AND BART PALYGA
9 Languages US TOUR stops in Bloomington Sept. 25th and 26th

9 Languages will be presented at the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival, the World Music Festival Chicago, the Landfall Festival of World Music, Alverno College's Global Union World Music Festival, the Brink Lounge, and the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). The tour will end with a concert co-presented by Live Sounds at the legendary DROM club in New York as part of the New York Gypsy Festival. The tour is presented in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

The project is inspired by the multicultural richness of the Podlasie region, which borders Russia, Lithuania and Belarus and is one of the most diverse areas of Poland. Karolina Cicha and Bart Palyga draw on the full range of traditional music, but rather than an archival compilation, the project a compact whole, speaking the language of contemporary music. This language is built on the innovative style of the two performers, their charisma, and their experience in musical expression from folk, ancient and rock music projects. 9 Languages features songs in the minority languages of Podlasie: Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Russian, Romani, Belarusian, Yiddish, Polish, Tatar and Esperanto. Traditional folk instruments, such as the morin khuur, dotar, Jew's harp, duduk, accordion and mandolin are joined by modern samplers and loopers, as well as ancient overtone singing. The concerts present multidimensionality of Polish culture and the power of music – the best translator of emotions, universal language, understandable for people of all cultures.  

9 Languages was awarded the Grand Prix of the Polish Radio New Tradition Festival and has been performed at prestigious folk festivals. This fall, the concert will be staged as part of the official selection of the World Music Expo WOMEX in Budapest.

Karolina Cicha is a vocalist, composer, actor and one-woman orchestra. From 2005 to 2009 she was a member of the Gardzienice Theater Practice Center and created the title roles in their productions ofElectra and Iphigenia in A…. Her new album, Greetings from Yiddishland, with songs composed to texts written by Jewish poets from Podlasie, premiered at the 2015 Warsaw Singer Festival. Her newest project, Poland Pakistan: Music Without Borders was produced with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Islamabad. The goal of this musical journey was a collaboration between Karolina Cicha and Shafqat Ali Khan, a songwriter and master of the ghazal tradition of South Asian classical music. Karolina Cicha holds a PhD in Literary Studies.

Bart Palyga is a cellist, multi-instrumentalist and improvisational artist. He specializes in more than a dozen string instruments from around the world. He has collaborated with the bands Laterna, Masala, Village Kollektiv, Arcus Poloniae, the Polish Ensemble, Yerba Mater and the Maria Pomianowska Ensemble. He is a pioneer of aliquot (throat) singing in Polish modern, folk and pop music. He performs all over the world and at prestigious festivals, including the Ollincan Festival in Mexico, the Fusion Festival in Germany, La Folle Journée in France, the Mostar World Music Festival in Moldova, and the Open’er Festival in Poland.

9 Languages was supported by the Podlasie Marshal’s Office and the Bialystok Municipal Office. The tour is presented by the Landfall Festival of World Music, World Music Festival Chicago, Alverno College's Global Union World Music Festival, University of Illinois at Chicago, Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, The Brink Lounge, Mad-Pol KA, Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Wayne State University (WSU), WSU Slavic Program, WSU Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, DROM, and Live Sounds in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute New York.