WARSAW VILLAGE BAND NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2009:

October 29 – November 8, 2009

Fierce, passionate folk music with a real edge – The Irish Times Mesmerizing – The Washington Post
One of Europe’s most intriguing and adventurous bands – The Guardian

Poland’s internationally captivating Warsaw Village Band (Kapela ze wsi Warszawa) returns for a North American tour with its latest repertoire of compositions based on folk sources, and a brilliant new CD, Infinity (Barbes Records, 2009).

Since 1997 the band’s six members have traveled the Polish countryside making field recordings of folk festivities and village celebrations, studying old manuscripts, and learning from elderly rural musicians. To this source material they often add modern instruments and electronic elements. They perform their innovative compositions with foot-stomping gusto on violin, cello, suka (a 16th-century knee-fiddle), dulcimer, hurdy-gurdy, and baraban drum. While using the haunting \'white voice\' singing style of Tatra mountain shepherds, their lyrics are often quite topical, and their music has made them one of the hottest groups around.

Recipient of the prestigious BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music and 2 Fryderyk Awards, the Warsaw Village Band has given over 400 concerts in 30 countries on 4 continents. In their new album, Infinity, they broaden their musical scope, finding parallels between the Polish suka and the Indian sarangi in what they call Slavic raga, and picking up echoes of African polyrhythms in Polish drumming.

The tour is presented by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Mondo Mundo, and Barbes Records, with generous support of Estrada Stoleczna – Cultural Institution of the Capital City of Warsaw.


MINNEAPOLIS
Thu., October 29, 7:30 PM
The Cedar Cultural Center
416 Cedar Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55454
Tix: advance $20, day-of $25; tel. 612.338.2674 or online

MILWAUKEE
Fri., October 30, 8:00 PM
Alverno College Pitman Theater
3431 S. 39th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53234
Tix: $22; tel. 414.382.6000 or online
 
CHICAGO
Sat., October 31, 7:00 PM
Old Town School of Folk Music
Gary and Laura Maurer
Concert Hall
4544 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
Tix: $22, $20 Old Town School members, $18 students & seniors; tel. 773.728.6000 or online

PITTSBURGH
Mon., November 2, 7:30 PM
Synod Hall Auditorium
125 N. Craig Street
Pittsburgh, PA, 15213
Tix:advance $15, day-of $20; tel. 412.361.2048

TORONTO
Wed., November 4, 9:00 PM
Lula Lounge
1585 Dundas St. W.
Toronto, ON M6J 1T9,
Canada
Tix: advance $20, day-of $25; tel. 416.588.0307 or online

BOSTON
Fri., November 6, 8:00 PM
Somerville Theate
55 Davis Square Somerville, MA 02145
Tix: $25; tel. 617.625.5700 or online

WASHINGTON, D.C
Sat., November 7, 7:30 PM
National Geographic Live!
Grosvenor Auditorium
1600 M Street, NW.
Washington, DC 20036
Tix:  $12, National Geographic members $10; tel. 202.857.7700 or online

NEW YORK CITY
Sun., November 8, 7:30 PM
Highline Ballroom
431 W. 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Tix: $25, $18 students; tel. 212.545.7536 or online