SieGra plays the music inspired by the folklore of the Central Europe. The band originated in 1996 as a result of meeting of a few musicians having various backgrounds: classical, jazz, modern, but having most importantly, a fascination with the musical tradition of Europe “from Balkans to he Baltic See”. Although classically trained on their instruments, the band members study traditional performing techniques of Polish, Yiddish and Balkan origin. Pre-war recordings, along with the oral tradition of some still active masters are the fundamental sources of the band's inspiration.
At first a quartet and later a quintet, SieGra is performing currently as a trio:
- Jarek Adamów - clarinet, sopilka, darabuka, kaval, vocal
- Bartlomiej Stanczyk - accordion, kapsluwa krzczonowska, vocal
- Robert Brzozowski - double bass, vocal
Since the beginning, SieGra has played numerous concerts: "International Folk Festival of European Broadcasting Union" in Portoroz, Slovenia;"Rozstaje Festival", Krakow; "Three Cultures Festival", Wlodawa; "Jewish Days", Tarnów "Klezmer nacht", Kiel.
The music of SieGra was highly valued at various festival competitions:
- I prize - Folk Festival Mikolajki Folkowe , Lublin 1997
- I prize - Polish Radio Folk Festival New Tradition , Warsaw 1998
- I prize - Folk Festival , Radom 1999
- II prize - Folk Festival Eurofolk, Plock 1999
SieGra together with the theater group “Teatr NN” performes a series of stories based on “The Tales of Chassids” - a music-theater form integrating live illustrating music with Chassidic stories of I.B.Singer.
In 2010 the cd SieGra -“Memories of the Stone” scored prize “Laureat of Folk Phonograph of the year".
In 2016 this very important cd was also nominated for the most prestigious music prize in Germany - Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and in 2017 was nominated for JPF 2017 Music Awards in U.S.A
" Memories of the Stone" - Music recorded in the XVII century synagogue in Włodawa.
We were seeking …
We were seeking the perfect space for our music. Or actually maybe for our impressions, our ideas of it, our yearns …
Over the years of listening to it and playing it we wanted to find the right place for it, where it would flourish and sound just right.
And we found it. A stone synagogue built three hundred years ago in the town of Włodawa. For centuries a shtetl in the very middle of the blooming Yiddishland, a hometown of Jews, Poles and Ruthenians. The place where Tartars, Byzanine traders and western artisans stopped and lingered.
Today Włodawa is a small town at the edge of the EU, where the borders of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine meet and nobody remembers the sounds of the streets, houses and temples. But it is enough to put your ear to the stones of the synagogue and ask them to reveal their memories. This is how they sound. We hope that also you, listening to our work, feel the enchanting atmosphere of this unforgettable place. Just close your eyes and play the music.
Stones and history. Matter and memory. The structure and course of times that passed. How to feel the atmosphere of remote places and events? Is this possible at all in our age of constant and ever faster race forward? Where to find the murmur of old streets, clatter of carriages, shouts and calls of passers-byes, rush of dishwater poured out onto the streets, the smell of cinnamon shops…Who to ask about the long forgotten things and events?
And only the unyielding guards of the past remained. Their foreheads are covered with moss and furrows are getting deeper year by year. Maybe because of deep thoughts or maybe because of astonishment they feel looking at next chapters of history opening before their very eyes…Stones. The only present witnesses of HISTORY.
Jarek Adamów