SINGER'S WARSAW FESTIVAL. WARSAW LIVE
At the end of August, Warsaw will once again change its rhythm. For nine festival days, the city will be filled with concerts, performances, nights of music, talks, theater, and meetings with artists from around the world. From Grzybowski Square to the Grand Theatre, from club stages to city streets – the Singer's Warsaw Festival will once again combine music, theater, literature, and contemporary Jewish culture.
This year's program will include large-scale outdoor concerts and international music projects, as well as intimate literary events, performances, workshops, and urban activities. Alongside legends of the international scene, we will also feature artists of the younger generation, creating new sounds and telling new stories. We will be in conversation with experts, historians, and scientists. We will facilitate shared discussions, exchange of views and knowledge, but also have fun – we will offer the opportunity to learn about Jewish history, traditions, and customs in a variety of formats – from workshops on traditional Jewish songs to contemporary, tradition-inspired educational projects.
Our Festival is a meeting place for all those for whom the world of Yiddish is an important element of Polish-Jewish heritage. We cordially invite you.
JEWISH THEATRE, Senatorska Street 35 / Warsaw Garrison Command Club, Niepodległości Avenue 141a
We invite you to the place where the heart of the Festival has been beating most vibrantly in recent years – to the two stages of the Jewish Theatre, located behind the Saxon Garden and right next to the Shalom Foundation headquarters: the Summer Stage and the Szymon Szurmiej Chamber Stage. Concerts, recitals, and meetings with festival guests will take place at 35 Senatorska Street, as well as small-scale theatre performances. This year's performances include: "Bujdagranda" (accompanying event), an original, lively comedy by Joanna Drozda transporting audiences to interwar Warsaw – the world of the legendary Qui Pro Quo stages and the Mała Ziemiańska café; a staging of one of the most important biblical texts, the hymn of human and divine love, "The Song of Songs" (accompanying event), directed by the outstanding choreographer Jakub Lewandowski; and a performative reading of Ishbel Szatrawska's drama "The Song of Songs." "The Life and Death of Mr. Hersh Libkin of Sacramento, California" and a cabaret performance by artists from the Jewish Theatre.
The concerts organized on the Summer Stage promise to be equally interesting – among others, the crazy crew from Big Bike Orchestra, Olga Avigail and Tango Attack in a concert in memory of Jerzy Ficowski, and Lena Pięknawska with the "Niewarszawa" concert.
The international jazz quartet Kolot The Voices, composed of Dima Gorelik, Haim Peskoff, Aniel Someillan, and Agata Skrzypek, will also perform here, as will the vibrant klezmer duo Nu Tchotchkes, founded in Vienna by Richard Seniow and Yara M'Toto. This venue will also host one of the most warmly received events, organized annually by the festival's director and creator, Gołda Tencer, aka "In Mama Sonia's Kitchen."
We will also listen to Jewish Impressions performed by ROKduo, a duo consisting of two violinists: Lucjan Szaliński-Bałwas and Marcin David Król.
On the stage of the Jewish Theatre, located in the Warsaw Garrison Command Club at 141a Niepodległości Avenue, we will see wonderful premiere performances: "Heritage," directed by Robert Talarczyk, a monumental family saga based on the novels by Isaac Bashevis Singer – "The Manor" and "The Legacy," and "M. Faktor. The Birth of Beauty," directed by Agata Biziuk, a musical story about the life of Maks Faktorowicz, founder of the legendary cosmetics brand Max Factor (accompanying events).
NOŻYK SYNAGOGUE, 6 Twarda Street
Here, we will once again have the honor of hosting a ceremonial Havdalah and a gala cantorial concert opening our Festival, featuring the renowned British cantor Jonny Mosesson, also known as a composer and singer with extensive jazz experience. Other performances include a classical concert by Hubert Giziewski and Iwo Jedencki, brilliant accordionists performing under the Harmonium Duo brand, and a jazz concert called "Masters of Polish Jazz," a musical encounter with legends of the Polish jazz scene. The Paweł Pańta Trio and guest Robert Majewski will perform compositions by Andrzej Kurylewicz, Krzysztof Komeda, Wojciech Karolak, Jan "Ptaszyn" Wróblewski, Bronisław Kaper, and Victor Young.
KWADRAT THEATRE, 138 Marszałkowska Street
This year, thanks to the hospitality of the Kwadrat Theatre Management, we will once again be delighted to play on our friendly stage, and the audience can expect nothing but superstar concerts: one of the best contemporary Polish pianists, Marcin Masecki, will present works by Henryk Wars; Artur Żmijewski, known primarily as an outstanding actor and director, will this time perform on stage as a vocalist as part of the "Cohen – After Love, the End." Also not to be missed is the joint initiative of two extraordinary personalities of the Polish music scene: multi-instrumentalist Milo Kurtis and singer-instrumentalist Adam Strug; a concert by Jewish Trans Oriental, featuring the magnificent vocals of Edyta Krzemień, under the artistic direction of Sebastian Wypych; a concert by actress and singer Katarzyna Dąbrowska; and a performance by cantor and singer Svetlana Portianski, who sings in several languages, accompanied by Janusz Tylman on the ever-present piano.
This year, humor lovers will be invited to another unforgettable musical performance by Janusz Tencer, who will present a project dedicated to the memory of the legendary Kabaret Starszych Panów – "Starsi Panowie… Aj!".
AUSTRIAN CULTURAL FORUM, Próżna Street 7/9
At the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Singer's Warsaw Festival slows down. Here, the focus will be on memory and conversation – encounters with writers, historians, artists, and witnesses of the times. Stories about a world that no longer exists, but which constantly returns in literature, music, and human stories. This is where meetings such as the Jewish Literary Salon and Masters Read series will take place.
You'll be able to listen to conversations between Remigiusz Grzela, Magda Łazarkiewicz, and Mateusz Pakuła. We'll also invite you to meetings with Małgorzata Niezabitowska, Feliks Falk, and Aleksander Rotner.
During a meeting with Maria Czyńska, we will immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of Jewish Łódź, while Barbara Michalczyk and Helena Linskog will delve into extraordinary stories about the Belarusian city of Kobryń. We will also have the opportunity to hear from Bella Szwarcman Czarnota and Maria Sławek about the memories of Natalia Wowsi, daughter of the legendary actor and director of the Jewish Theatre Solomon Mikhoels. These stories will include family memories, lost homes, artists, and women who tried to save their own world from oblivion.
The program will also include lectures by Andrzej Krakowski and Alexandre Kaplan, who will discuss Feliks Kersten, the unfairly "forgotten hero of the SS," and a lecture by Monika Krajewska on Jewish jewelry and feminine traditions. Between the talks, traditional Jewish music will be performed during workshops by Teresa Wrońska. The Austrian Cultural Forum will certainly be a place for those who value words.
YIDDISH CULTURE CENTER, Andersa Street 15
During the Singer's Warsaw Festival, the Center for Yiddish Culture will become a space for encounters with literature, language, and… imagination inspired by the richness of Yiddish culture. Artists, writers, musicians, researchers, and Warsaw scholars will gather at the Center. There will be discussions about memory and identity, literature, the history of Warsaw, and contemporary Jewish culture. The program will include an academic session, "Utopias/Anti-utopias – Yiddishland in Philosophical and Artistic Practices," as well as events organized by the Jewish Culture Enthusiasts' Club and the Kinderwelt Club.
You'll be able to participate in events such as a meeting dedicated to prominent figures of pre-war and ghetto cultural life in Vilnius – Chajele and Lejb Rozental, featuring Bella Szwarcman-Czarnota and her lecture on fairy tales in Yiddish literature; an open meeting about the book "Rosa Luxemburg: My Home Is the Whole World" with Weronika Kostyrko; and a workshop and walk "Muranowski Notebook" led by Izabela Szumen. There will also be family events and workshops – from the Yiddish "Tomato!" class, through a paper-cut and stained-glass window workshop, to the outdoor family activity in the Krasiński Garden "Let's Go on a Bear Hunt" led by Zofia Mioduszewska-Wajszczak.
The audience will also be able to participate in the "Libe" concert by Joanna Szumacher and Paweł Cieślak and the unique concert by Ola Bilińska "The Painter and the Moon" inspired by the fairy tales of Erna Rosenstein.
GRZYBOWSKI SQUARE
During Klezmer Night at Grzybowski Square, the audience at the Singer's Warsaw Festival will be taken on an emotional musical journey—from nostalgic klezmer melodies to frantic, irresistible rhythms—by the vibrant, international band Dobranotch. For over 25 years, the band has proven that music can transcend borders, languages, and histories.
Following Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the band's musicians—originally based in St. Petersburg, though they began playing on the streets of Nantes, France—left Russia and settled in Germany. There, they formed a new, international lineup, and their music took on an even more powerful meaning—it became a story of freedom, remembrance, and the need to stay together despite divisions.
Today, with their instruments, energy, and love of traditional Eastern European music, they are one of the most recognizable bands on the contemporary klezmer and world music scene. Their music blends Jewish melodies, Balkan rhythms, Roma exuberance, and the sounds of the Caucasus. Each Dobranotch concert transforms into a celebration of dance, emotion, and shared energy between the band and the audience.
GRAND THEATRE – NATIONAL OPERA, Teatralny Square 1
The Grand Finale of the Singer's Warsaw Festival will take place on the stage of the Grand Theatre – National Opera. For the first time in many years, it will not be a concert! This time, we will invite our wonderful audience to a grand musical and theatrical spectacle coming to Warsaw straight from New York – "Night on the Old Market Square," inspired by the legendary Yiddish drama by IL Peretz, one of the greatest creators of Jewish literature.
The production will feature distinguished artists associated with Broadway's performing arts scene. The music was composed by Grammy winner Frank London, who also serves as the project's artistic director. London fused psychedelic klezmer, jazz, the cabaret sounds of Kurt Weill, and the music of the old shtetl in a modern, electric setting. This emotional, humorous, and musically energetic event, balancing a concert, a theatrical dream, and a mystical ritual, has been presented in cities such as Milan, Copenhagen, Toronto, and São Paulo, captivating audiences with its extraordinary imagination, humor, and musical breadth.
Before the final performance, also on Sunday, August 30th, the Grand Theatre will host a meeting between Remigiusz Grzela, Anda Rottenberg, and Mirosław Bałka about their book "Cosmos." This will be a unique conversation about art, memory, and how we view the world.
