Sylwia Świątkowska (PL)
Violinist, fiddle player, singer, composer. Musician fascinated by Polish folk art. Seeker of a universal language that connects the world’s distant musical cultures. Graduate of ethnomusicology at the University of Warsaw.
She performs and records albums with numerous bands, co-creating projects on the borderline of styles and cultures (Etnofonie Kurpiowskie, Struktura, Stilo, Kontraburger, Village Kollektiv, etc.). At the Polish Radio festival “Nowa Tradycja” (New Tradition) 2002, she received the special prize Golden Goose for the best musician and the first place with the band Stilo. At the “Folkopranie” festival in Skierniewice, she was recognised as the most interesting musician and awarded individually. Since 2001, she has been co-founding the band Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa, with which she has achieved numerous successes on the most prestigious stages around the world (including WOMAD, WOMEX, Glastonbury Festival, Rudolstadt Festival, Solidarity of Art, Rainforest Festival), played more than 1000 concerts and received numerous awards (3 Folk Phonagrams of the Year at the PR New Tradition Festival, BBC Radio3 World Music Awards, 5 Fryderyks, 2 Machinery, European Radio Union Grand Prix, Grammy Award nominations, multiple 1st place in the World Music Charts Europe and others). Together with her band, she collaborates with many artists from Poland and abroad: Norway, Sweden, Spain, USA, Canada, India, Iran (e.g. Esperanza Spalding, Bill Laswell, Leszek Możdżer, Kayhan Kalhor, Sandy Scofield, Andy Teirstein, Jack Wall, Mercedes Peon, Dj Feel-X, Torgeir Vassvik, Dhoad Gypsies from Rajastan, Hedningarna), creating new constellations of ethnic sounds. She is closely associated with folk singers and musicians from the Mazovia region (Maria Bienias, Marianna Rokicka, Stefan Nowaczek, Carniacy, Bandysionki, Kapela Zdzisława Kwapińskiego, with whom she recorded the album Re:Akcja Mazowiecka together with KzWW), as well as with a band from Dobrowody on the Polish-Belarusian border.
She has also co-written and performed music for Japanese manga, computer games (Myst IV), films (Lost Urzecze, Kapel Mistrze, Zimna wojna, Sąsiady), theatre productions (Balladyna, Tale of Three Horses, Musicians of the Great Field) and music for the New York new opera A Blessing on the Moon. As a soloist, she collaborates with composer Nikola Kolodziejczyk (2019 premiere of the composition Baroque of the New Era – Handel XXI, 2022 premiere of the Symphony ‘Return to Matanza’ with the Symphony Orchestra of the Pomeranian Philharmonic).
The artist sings with a white voice and specialises in playing reconstructed Polish folk instruments – the Biłgoraj suka and the Płock fiddle, using the so-called nail technique and experimenting with their specific sound.