>> Stephen Winick: So welcome to the Homegrown At Home Concert Series for 2022. I'm Stephen Winick. For many years here at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, we have presented the Homegrown Concert Series featuring the best in folk music and dance from around the country and around the world. Now, normally we hold live concerts at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. But in the year 2020, because of the global pandemic, we shifted to producing online video concerts, which we call the Homegrown At Home Series. And so this is now 2022. It's our third year of Homegrown At Home Concerts because we're still being pretty cautious about bringing audiences together. We are very happy to have the Janusz Prusinowski Kompania in our series this year. They are an award-winning ensemble that plays rural village music from Poland. They ground their music in traditional dance rhythms, but they also add improvisation to the old melodies. So their concert, like this interview video, is online at the Library of Congress website and YouTube channel. Now, along with the Homegrown At Home Concerts, we like to present interviews about the groups and their traditions. So I am here with the leader of the kompania, Janusz Prusinowski. Welcome, Janusz. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Hello. Nice to be here. It's great honor for us. >> Stephen Winick: Thanks. We are honored to have you in the series. So, if you could, just explain briefly the vision for the kompania, for the group that you run. >> Janusz Prusinowski: The vision is very simple. When we started being fascinated, when we got fascinated with this village music with the mazureks, bereks, fiddlers, improvised dances rhythms, nobody, almost nobody in our age were much younger than was interested in that music. Nobody was learning it. Nobody was going to continue this language, this musical language. So our aim was quite simple: To learn the language, to use the language, to communicate with the language, to play or to dance, to re -- to bring through the music, to bring these words which this music evokes, to be accepted by the masters, to be their friends, to help them, to support them in finding their own esteem, their own place in the culture. So we -- it was beginning of the story, and the music that we played with village master, masters, learned from them, continued improvise around this sort of language that we wanted to use for our ourselves and for everybody else. >> Stephen Winick: So if you were young and you were among the only people in your age group who are interested in this music, there was a small number, does that suggest that it wasn't strongly surviving at that time, that there was -- that it was, you know, a tradition that was dying out or dwindling to some extent? >> Janusz Prusinowski: Poland is quite diverse country. And in different parts of Poland, different regions, the situation with traditional music is quite -- quite different because 100 years ago Poland was rebuilt from three parts belonging for century or longer to different countries, Russia, Prussia -- that means German -- and Austria, which was Hungarian Austria mixture. And even till now, these differences in attitudes to own tradition, to own quality, to own proud is different. ^M00:04:38 In the South in the mountains, in the southern Poland, people used to be part of their cultures, used to accept, used to like to continue. It is beginning of this Carpathian chain, which is full of diverse, fantastic music. In the West, which was used to be German or used to belong to Germany, it is also kept somehow. And in the center and in the East, which was part of Russia, is quite hot topic. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Part of Russia, people from the village were ashamed of their culture. There were unique places or there are unique places where people just were proud. Oh, I'm from here. My father was from here. We play, we sing what was sung before because we love it. We want to belong to. In quite many examples, people emigrated, young people emigrated to cities bigger or smaller and used to say Oh, I'm from the city. I don't have nothing in common with the village. Village was for them not attractive. They want to break, wanted to break the connection, don't want to continue it. Perhaps there are processes with what that happens everywhere in the world, but here it was very visible. So we fascinated and we wanted to learn and continue the music that was not accepted anymore by village and city societies. They wanted to dance, to listen, to have the music imported from America, imported from media, popular music. They were even -- I can tell the story about one of the greatest fiddlers, Jan Gaca [phonetic] at the beginning when we started to come to his house and to learn from him and play together, he used to put on stories on the windows. Let the people in the village don't see that we play this music. >> Stephen Winick: Interesting. >> Janusz Prusinowski: In some years, it changed. People from the village started to enter, to come, started to open, manifest, oh, we love this music. We wanted to hear it, but we were ashamed somehow and that you, they felt, okay. People from the city come and are interested, this was sort of certificate. All this music is attractive. Is beautiful. We -- and we are also fantastic. That were the differences. And these are also the processes that we consciously wanted to move, wanted to start. Sometime young people which did not know how to find themselves, they asked us somewhere, Why are you coming? There's nothing. There's nothing interesting. And we say, Oh, we are coming to Jan Gaca to [inaudible] Jan Szarkowski because they are fantastic fiddlers. They are fantastic. Ah ha. And in some time they took on their phones. Their rings were recorded from the fiddlers. So that was fantastic social change. This is -- this music is part of that. >> Stephen Winick: That's wonderful. So how did you personally become interested in this music if it was some people were ashamed of it and it was rare to listen to it? >> Janusz Prusinowski: I'm very thankful to Professor Andrzej Bienkowski. And 1993 there was somewhere in Poland at some theater, Societies Theatre Festival, he was invited with his film, Last Village Musicians. And me and my friends from the group were part of the public. And we were just shocked with the quality of that music, with expression, with personalities of these fiddlers and the other musicians and singers of all this music. And we understood. Okay. We live in this country. We travel on these roads, and we did not know that such music is just by, just some kilometers. And for Andrzej Bienkowski who is Professor of Art Academy, he was doing this not as a professional ethnographer but as a amateur in the meaning he loved, that he found he recorded himself. And we were the first group that was so moved by this film that asked him, okay. Andrzej, could you give us addresses to these fiddlers? We will -- we will learn. We will go to them. And that was the beginning, first address, second address. Then it was moving itself. >> Stephen Winick: So you became immediately amateur ethnographers and ethnologists yourselves, going around and learning this music. Is that -- was that how you saw it? ^M00:10:58 >> Janusz Prusinowski: On one hand, yes. On second hand, we became steadily part of this world. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Because it could be different. I know different of values, ethnographers. One of them look from the distance at their subject, subject that they're info matters and say, Oh, that's interesting. This is interesting. But they like intelligence coming to these peasants and analyzing various processes. And the other ethnographers, you cannot recognize who is from the village and who is from the University because they are so near to people. They are not only understand what's that, how it works, but they want to be part of these processes. And we are the second kind of so-called ethnographers. We are -- I -- we name ourselves continuers, pupils, students of particular musicians. It was so great. Great moment to hear, oh, you play well. It works. Yeah. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. So you were -- you were their students, rather than being someone studying them as well. So, yeah. I understand that. So -- so who were some of the master musicians that you went to work with? >> Janusz Prusinowski: Who were the musicians? >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. Give -- tell us a little bit about them if you would. >> Janusz Prusinowski: First of all, I would tell about two brothers, Piork Garcinia and Jan Gazza from Sitstowvitza mowa village [phonetic], then urtzu. And they started playing as a band when they were teenagers, like 12, 13. It was a band of three brothers. Piork was the eldest. He was the fiddler. Fiddler was most important instrument then. Jan was the youngest. He plays the drum. And this third brothers, Danitsof, was playing Polish accordion, harmony. And they became quickly famous as great, great musicians. They all they were quite little. So they were many anecdotes of people being in doubt how they will be able to play three days wedding. And these two days weddings happen twice a week. So they could spend one day at home when it was the full season of that. And Piork used to be always the leader of the band. So he started it was like also as a manager. I remember meetings with them in ''90s. ^M00:14:27 He was not so full of trust to ask, Who are you? Why you are coming to me? Perhaps you would like to sell my music; was really not so open. And he changed with years. Jan was -- he learned playing fiddle, and he played great. And he was totally open. He used to say, Don't go anywhere. You should sleep. You should stay here in my house. And his house was really tiny like, I don't know, 50 square meters altogether, as the old wooden houses used to be. And he is in some time got a huge amount of pupils living there, just -- we was joking. There is Jan University in his court and around him in his house. And when all -- when they were meeting and playing together, they -- first tune they played together. Second tune, they started to quarrel a bit. And with the third tune, they were really nervous. So they used to play one by one, not together because they -- for me, that was a great example. They played together the same music in the same villages their whole life; and they have different tastes, different attitudes, different figures, different ideas how this music should work being so new. And it was so common. Their next neighbor [inaudible] played totally differently using even different -- different notes. They were not exactly sharp this or that. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah, yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: This [inaudible] is beyond our 12 tune -- >> Stephen Winick: Scale. Right. >> Janusz Prusinowski: -- idea. The -- and another played still differently. Each -- even each singer has his or her own style of singing. People in one village like this type of making rate -- making sense in arguments. They say, Oh, we don't like it. We prefer more even way of playing. That cuts our feet when they play like that. So this idea that this sort of folk music or traditional music appeared to be not precise because there was very individual, very individual styles based on common improvised melodies, melodies that everybody has in mind. And should -- even they should be different. And Piork Gazza at the end of his life, he lived longer than Jan, being older, and last meetings I was coming to him, he was sort of examining me. Jewish polkas, you know, he asked and I said, Oh, yeah. I know this and this and this. And he used to say, Oh, this there are four polkas. Number one is this; number two is this. He had all that organized in his memory, and he was able to play Mazureks or Oberek in the style of his neighbor. He said Oh, Jan Scharkowsky would play this like that. My brother Jan will play like this. And I play like that. And you Janusz Prusinowski, you play like this. He was able to remember to hear such -- such delicate, delicate thing. He thinks in music. So this was the quality difficult or impossible thing to imagine from an outside, this -- that was the matter of being really in this music. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. And how did you learn? So if you're listening to your masters play and you're learning the tunes from them, how did you learn how Janusz would play it? In other words, how did you learn to make it your own? ^M00:19:34 >> Janusz Prusinowski: First I was trying and I'm still starting from this to play exactly the same notes, exactly this, even the same color of the tune. To recognize, for example, the cashinias metal fiddle with some sort of light in this recall points when the -- when the notes are located on the instrument, the same with -- the same with Jan Scharkowsky. The same with other fiddlers that I met and played together. Then I just play this. And in some years, I don't know, in 20 years, I see, oh. This is my version, I see took this shape because I was playing that tune many times for days. We were playing with other instruments. We were experimenting. It is exactly the same as happens in any real bands. When the jazz band plays, it's just communication. Oh, let's do this like this. It's in contact. It's -- when the dancers, for example, that dance is something that shapes the way you're playing, that shapes the melody when you feel that you and when you see that you lead the dancers, that they react to any tiny movement you play. It is like both relation. They can lead you as well. You can -- you should search the way for emotions for the state of mind that happens when you really, really are together. >> Stephen Winick: So talk a little about the repertoire of music that you play. I mean, in the concert I saw, there's some wedding dances. There's a number of sort of, like, love songs or ditties you call them in the text. So what -- what's the sort of range of music that you look for? >> Janusz Prusinowski: We used to be invited to weddings, and we are invited to weddings still. This is, for me, it's great occasion to play this music in real context, in real situations, which is -- which are most important moments for people really. It's not only the concert, not only the aesthetics, etc. It is we prepare these ceremonies together. We discuss. Okay. For the parents, we will propose this. Perhaps that one will be better. Let's discuss because my mom is, I don't know, sick or whatever. For this moment when the bride changes or when the flower crown changes into the cap, So it's the symbol of changing the state from virgin, from young girl into woman, this -- these are special, many special songs usually sung by girls or by women but whereas we are boys, we have to deal with that as well. And also we have to search for contemporary senses of these words, of these songs for contemporary power, contemporary meaning this communicates which -- and these words of those songs are really, really strong, really working. Like when the Sun is rising, the young boy, the young John, whoever it is, whoever who is walking with his cap in his hands to ask his father, his mom, his brother for blessing, for a blessing for being together in this -- at this wedding, at this moment, at this point when he leaves home and starts his own life. >> Stephen Winick: Sure. >> Janusz Prusinowski: And it is as important then 100 years ago, 200 years ago and now. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: So we have wedding songs, wedding blessings in our repertoire, which are usually with a kind melodies with ceremonial ribbons. ^M00:25:14 And we have wedding dances, Obereks, Mazureks any dances have their best -- best place at wedding. This is what wedding for people was. The ceremony, the blessing, the meeting the society, and the crazy wild energy that happens while people dancing this wild wailing, turning crazy Obereks. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about your instruments, if you would, I know -- I mean, you mentioned that you started studying on the fiddle, and you play the fiddle beautifully in the concert. But you also play the Polish accordion and hammer dulcimer. So let's talk about those two instruments. I noticed the Polish accordion, the keyboard seems different from other accordions that I've seen. So, explain the instrument a little bit. ^M00:26:20 I will start from the fiddle because I took this instrument in my hands first time when I was 21 or 22. I am self learning person, and this that was exactly the moment that I started learning from village musicians. So I have no classical background which helps me sometimes because I just know nothing, nothing to change, nothing to break. This is ready, position ready sound different, completely different technique of using the instruments than classical fiddlers. But this is topic for another -- another story. And this harmonia is the -- Polish accordion's called harmonia or harmonia [inaudible] were being produced in Poland before the key accordions piano accordions came. So on this instrument this first musicians, first player were transposing, were learning these tunes that used to be sung or played on fiddle before. And so, for me, it sounds much better than accordion, and even the fingers finds their ways in some characteristic or special ways that sounds. I have two harmonias, two accordion, Polish accordions. One is from my neighbor from my street. When I was little, he played this pedal accordion. It is almost 100 years old. And it did not find place in a concert, unfortunately. But the second harmonia, second accordion was one of the most famous instruments in my neighborhood after the war. And in the ''50s and ''60s, people told legends about how far these -- the bands with this accordion was -- could be heard. And it was so precious that the owner, when he was going to leave the home, the house, he put it into parts and hide it in different parts of the house not to be stolen. And when accordions, harmonias became popular in villages in ''30s, they changed the music very quickly. So on fiddle, I can play micro tunes. I can play notes, characteristical for fiddlers, for masters, for singers. And on that accordion, I had to play what was there. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: What's given. And some of the old fiddlers accepted that change and were able to play both with harmonia and without, and some did not accept. They said it's not -- it's not the music. We will play only with bass, basetla, and the drum. It's not our kind of music, this new revolutionary sound. ^M00:30:12 So they kept old kind of old school of playing with basetla. The basetla, very, very important instrument because it is mostly rhythmical instrument. This kind of written that is played on the strings is not point like bam, bam, bam. It is more, more like waves, wow, wow. So that all three instruments playing together fiddle, basetla, and drum built sort of common wave, wave that moves the body of the dancer. It's very special. To do this on the accordion is not so simple, but it's possible. This music was transposed and it will became extremely popular very quickly. And dulcimer, cymbaly, this is an instrument that came to Poland both from the West and from the East through Jews. So Poland was for centuries was sort of paradise for traveling Jews and living there. And then it became also part of Polish bands. Many bands were mixed, played together. There's even some projects or CDs or concerts, Jewish music in the memory of Polish musicians. Very, very different from klezmer music. And, for example, for walking dances, these ceremonial slow melodies that you used to be played at the beginning of the opening of the wedding, the sound is great. And we use other instruments, the blow instrument because they sound fantastic. And they were used in British bands. Anybody played the instrument could be part of the band if he could play the melody. So trumpets, clarinets, saxophones, whatever the musicians could play, and it could be part of the band of the music became part of this culture too. And for me, for me, it makes -- shows the colors of these melodies that bring connections to unexpected places in the world. Like you [inaudible] directly sounds well. It is Turkish, only it is from the East because it -- its melodies are similar. We were neighbors for 600 years, etc. So, I mean, it's not -- it's not our -- the work of our brains. It is just sound something coming from the matuga, from sounds from specific of this place. >> Stephen Winick: So when you were thinking of your band or when you are thinking of the group, how did you decide which instruments you wanted to be in it? Was it just the people that you were working with and the instruments they played? Or did you think we need to find someone who can play the shawm or any of those instruments? ^M00:33:52 ^M00:33:56 >> Janusz Prusinowski: When we were starting the Prusinowski First Trio, then Kompania, we just met with Michal Zak and Piotr Piszczatowski and used the instruments we played. And -- but in our heads, there was also a question how to play this beautiful fantastic Polish music in a way that we could be not qualified as part of the skansen, part of museum, part of let's say culture, which was not accepted by the city, by young generation. And these experiments with shawm, with flute opened -- opened our minds. So let's play the same melody with the same ornaments but on the flute. Whoa. What was that? And nobody -- nobody -- this negative because at the beginning I was talking about these differences in regions. So, when we started dealing with Polish traditional music from the lowlands, from Central Poland, it was not zero in society; it was minus 10. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Music, no, no, no, anything else but not Polish music. Do you know it? No, I -- we don't know it, but we are not interested in it. And it was years and years of events, meetings to open people's minds, to stop also this communistic connection because in the ''70s, ''60s, ''50s, so-called peasants' and workers' culture was part of propaganda. And the intelligence just did not accept it,, if they thought nothing was it, we find our freedom in Western music, not in this propaganda, fake because there are many -- there were many bands, just fake bands, fake focloe [phonetic], we call it. Beautiful faces, always happy and having nothing in common with real village music. And these real village musicians were stopped to be accepted anywhere, though the same time. So it was part of the Soviet way of dealing with the culture. Let's break the reality and build our own, which will be fake. But we will -- we will make it. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> So now the situation is different. We have full house. We have hundreds of young people playing this music from not after us, after Prusinowski but after real masters, real village masters, they managed to meet, to learn, to travel, to get own story, own music, own sources, own relations. This is fantastic. This is one of our greatest successes, I think, that we somehow managed to be part of this process of change. ^M00:37:39 >> Stephen Winick: And how did it happen? I mean, what were -- what do you think was the most important thing that brought young people to this music? >> Janusz Prusinowski: In ''90s, in the beginning of ''90s, we -- first we organized the house of dance, a bit -- the idea of Hungarian dance houses, a bit on the idea of Irish or any other places where village music is played, not for as a concert or a forgery [phonetic], 15 minutes, but for the dance. People to have joy to dance for their own joy, not to -- for show or for any anything else. So we -- you organize the house of dance. We started inviting village groups. There were many, many in ''90s. It was 25 or more years ago. We started building relations with them, traveling. And we -- anybody who was able started learning, both dancing and playing. We were the first band. My first band was linked the house, the house of dance bands, to promote also the house of dance. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: And this process was slow, slow lasting, lasting. We always did -- my friends organized summer camps. They also were great. And when the ten, that was the year of -- that was Frederic Chopin's anniversary so very important year for Polish cultures, the greatest composer. There were -- and I thought, if we did not organize some tool to get into this story to turn up Chopin, for example, did not land on the moon and all the music he created from nothing but that his music is based, is rooted in the real and still living tradition which works, which could be used as a working tool for meeting, for finding love, for living. And that were -- was the first year of Mizzou because of the word festival. And the festival was -- is still now it is constructed of workshops. The whole days are workshops of playing the instrument, singing, dancing. At first evicious [phonetic], I used to stop, for example, at some point of the dance night where -- which is the final part, moment of the festival and ask people, okay. Who cannot dance mazurka? And half of the public used to put their hands up. So we organized quick workshop, and they could enter, could feel invited. But last year's I even -- don't ask because nobody's sitting. The people are dancing, and I know the faces because I know he plays. He learns to play this. He makes the drums. He travels there. This -- this is sort of word that was built from. And also the generations change. And next generation was not ashamed of the village. They were curious. Where are you from? What was the life of my grandma and grandpa? What did they think? What did they believe in? How was it? So that opens the need for reality. ^M00:42:10 >> Stephen Winick: So are there more young people now going to the villages and learning music there from older players? >> Janusz Prusinowski: I know hundreds, hundreds of them. >> Stephen Winick: Oh, wow. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Hundreds, hundreds of them. And I don't think there is any master, village master who did not have pupils, did not have students. People understood that as we did in ''90s that the first need is to learn, to meet, to have this common moment of life with that person. And all the other things could be done later, but this one cannot. >> Stephen Winick: So you mentioned the Chopin anniversary and how, you know, that brought some more attention to music. And there is a sort of deep connection between classical music and some of the village traditions. Could you talk about that a little? Do people -- do people know a little bit about mazurkas because of the classical -- the way they influenced classical music? >> Janusz Prusinowski: I don't know about the classical music in general, but I can tell some ideas about Chopin -- >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: -- who I know and -- I mean, his compositions and who I love. When I was music student, I even played. That was really something and moving for me. So I think that Chopin uses in his mazurkas mostly but not only the same language, local language, that is played by village fiddlers, singers, and the drummers, anybody. That belongs to people. And he mentioned that in his letters, in his correspondence. He also appreciated and loved the real incrudo [phonetic] village music. He traveled to Poland quite thoroughly, and we even play sometimes programs with the pianists that will -- they play some mazurka. We answered with village one. And then it is -- it becomes very clear. And one of these features that makes it also so common is so-called rubato, is the idea how the ribbon, ribbons shift. And when we -- when you play for the dance, it becomes really natural because, when you, for example, when the dancer puts his feet higher, he needs more time to stamp. And it could be listening, vum dum dum dum. All these movements became so visible. And when -- sometimes when we prepare such concepts with guests, they say, wow. It makes me understand why we do this huge brain work, not necessary. So this is something very common, and this is based on the language, on Polish language. When you pronounce, for example, my name, this is -- the accents could be really recognizable. And Polish accent is regular on the syllable second from the end, Prusinowski, Covansky, Zenyatta, Amyenta. And very often people singing in these three beat, three steps rhythm, tom tom tom moran tom tom put four syllables because the words sound like that. Sometimes even five. And that means that here you have ^M00:46:39 [ Music beats ] ^M00:46:51 When you hear the talking, when you hear the language, it I might be the same with other traditional music. And here, when you understand it becomes natural, simple, recognizable. And this is something that Chopin loved, used, composed in his -- in his compositions. Sometimes he even quoted short phrases. And in his times people could recognize. Oh, that's elemental. That's popular song. And that of that. And in 100 years, they stopped. I mean, 200 years, they have no idea that it could work like that. >> Stephen Winick: Right. But so now that there are so many young musicians learning the traditional village music, I imagine that there must be musicians in other genres, not just classical music but pop and jazz, who are using the lessons that they learned from Polish traditional music. Is that part of the music scene in Poland now as well? >> Janusz Prusinowski: Yes, yes. This -- these diverse music scene is growing and growing. And I have the impression that is also will be becoming more and more recognizable in the world. And many, many values, attitudes. And what I observe is also a growing esteem to the source, to real local village masters. In the ''90s, I was some -- sometimes negatively moved, like they were used like samples, nothing else. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: People -- people or musicians realizes they did not have idea how to use them better. And since that time, so many great artists used elements in very, very personal, very, very beautiful way, elements of that music, elements of that region, both jazz musicians, folk musicians. There are -- it seems to be real inspiration or real basement fundamentals for creation. ^M00:49:34 >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. That's way too because it that it will always help the music grow if it's moving, you know, through the other styles and there's influence across the spectrum. So that's wonderful to hear as well. So one of the things that I noticed in your concert was, there was -- there were -- there was quite a bit of improvisation within some of the pieces that you played. Is that part of the village music tradition, or is that a modern edition that is part of your training? >> That was the -- this improvisation, that was one of -- one of these factors that make me to go to the village, made me fascinated with this music. On this first choice of recordings from Andrzej Bienkowski, each of the musician was improvising, some of them in such extent that you could not recognize the melody at all. >> Stephen Winick: Interesting. >> Janusz Prusinowski: That it was absolutely like jazz, even, for example, Yusef Conjeski [phonetic], one of the greatest improvisers, used to say, Oh, if somebody would be able to whistle my melody, it meant I played badly. And the others used to repeat, consequently, the same melody with very slight changes but in a way that you get entranced, just repeating and repeating and repeating. It depends on their character or local tradition or other people needs, etc. So, you know, there is one small region we call -- we call it Chaota or it is called Chaota where the greatest improvisers played, where they made sort of school. It was family, and the pupils of particular masters from Conjeski family, from Yashviets, from some other masters, even from 19th century. So somebody had to grab this idea of playing not only around the melody but playing like river, observing what was happening. And when it happens to me because it's sort of state -- it's state of mind. It's not a technique. You have to get some level and then observe what's happening with this tune. So this is the greatest happiness for the musician. So it experiences such states from time to time. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. That's great. So I guess there's one question that I think everyone is concerned with and thinking about now when they think of Poland is that there are so many people from the Ukrainian border coming into Poland. And Poland -- Polish people are just being so kind and helpful to their Ukrainian neighbors. Is this affecting the music tradition and your -- and the music scene, that is, what people are doing as musicians as well as in their daily lives? ^M00:53:21 >> Janusz Prusinowski: This already luckily much longer because, for me, for example, one of the inspirations to focus on Polish music to ask people, to search for Polish fantastic traditional music was meeting with Ukrainian, Ukrainian singers. That was dreadful. And some from Kyiv. I was organizer of some festival, so-called, and it was total shock what they bring as singers, the quality of singing, the quality of not only coping but the developing this, the original singing and recording. And they were musicologists. That was also amazing. Polish musicologists were really like people in the White shirts writing books and analyzing something. And those people were pupils of village singers that they met, that they love, that they cooperate. So that was inspiration. And since that time, we were in the continued relationship. So that was one of the bridges that has been built for this 30 years and made the situation as it is, that we opened or that we feel like brothers, not only because this war started but we felt that before. >> Stephen Winick: Right. >> Janusz Prusinowski: We supported each other. They were part of our scene. They will part of Mazurkas of the World Festival because the two centers go, we used to be one political space also. This is just -- this country was unity or -- unity. That was space for many, many cultures, multicultural state. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: And Ukrainian or Ukrainian language was one of very important. And we were how to say -- we feel part of that space, especially when we meet, when we share the news. And so even on this Mazurka Festival ended three weeks ago, it was quite special. It was very Ukrainian. And there were concerts, workshops, and dances, Polish, Ukrainian. There's huge space of both nations living together for centuries, and the same elements could be played and sung in Polish, in Ukrainian, Lemko language, Balkar language, by gypsies, etc. So this relationship now is based on the long process of building bridges. I personally with my family, we hosted Ukraine family for three and a half months, and was great time to -- also to share these stories, sources. Yeah. It's from this stuff it might seem like very near cultures of, like, one culture with very, very -- we understand each other without translation when we talk slowly. This is also important. It is. Yeah. So we support them as much as we can. We organize events, especially for them. We try to let them sing, play, have workshops as much as possible to feel here as at home and to feel safe, to feel needed, to feel welcome, which is just true. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. >> Janusz Prusinowski: That's it. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. The world is grateful to Polish people and people in the other countries around Ukraine for helping in this situation. So we thank you for that as well. So is -- so I like to ask at the end of an interview if there's anything that I didn't ask about that you would want to tell our audiences. So is there anything more about the music that you want to tell us? ^M00:58:37 >> Janusz Prusinowski: Perhaps I repeat myself, but this music and any traditional music is not just notes. It's not just melodies; it's not just winds. It's the complete work of personalities, of masters, of students, of relationships, of emotions that created that music. It is language, which used to be language of communication, language of -- that's helped in life, that express life, that express personalities. And my idea is to continue that in this scale, not only -- not as an inspiration, musical inspiration but as a world in which we could be surrounded by music, surrounded by dance could be part of that and could pass it, could use it to for needs of our people, our everybody. Public. It is -- I'm really curious when we play concerts. I'm really curious how and which points this music moves people. What connections, what ideas are opened and what emotions opened in minds and in bodies? When the body starts moving, it's a sign. Okay. We -- perhaps we can be complete, complete person, not only with our minds but with the whole, the whole man, whole person, and whole society because this whole means not alone. It also means together, that as we need each other in the band, as we need dancers, as we need singers, then that makes sense. That makes it [inaudible]. >> Stephen Winick: Thank you so much. So my friend Thea has asked me if I would ask you about the paper cut as well that's on the wall behind you, the cutting. If you could, tell us a little bit about it. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Ah, yes. The paper cut is made by village artists from Culcopia [phonetic] region. This is northeast from Warsaw. And sharp scissors work great for that. Everybody from our foundation, from Mazurkas of the World Foundation, got it one year as a present from her as that addition was devoted to her region and to study traditional music from Culcopia region. I don't know if it is visible enough. >> Stephen Winick: I think we can see it. So thank you so much for showing that to us. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Very [inaudible] and very personal. >> Stephen Winick: Well, I think we've come to the end of our interview. So I just want to thank you one more time. Janusz Prusinowski, thank you so much for being here with us. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting us. Thank you for listening to this music. Thank you and welcome to Poland. >> Stephen Winick: Yeah. Now we all want to come and visit when we can because the music is so beautiful. Thank you. >> Janusz Prusinowski: Thank you. ^E01:02:27