Plenty of smiles, some wistfulness, and of course timeless music. We talk about the Wodecki Twist Festival with Kasia Wodecka-Stubbs, the artist’s daughter and director of the festival.
Interview from March 2021. Up-to-date information about festival at wodeckitwistfestiwal.pl.
Kraków Culture: Classical violinist, trumpeter, star of the big stage, avantgarde musician and a suave TV personality – Zbigniew Wodecki was an incredibly versatile performer!
Kasia Wodecka-Stubbs: Of course the sudden void left by Dad’s passing hit family and friends the hardest, but we also received hundreds of letters and calls from fans who’d never met him. And those who had, knew first hand that he truly was a ray of sunshine. Our loss was so great and Dad left behind so much, we felt we had to do something.
We created the Zbigniew Wodecki Foundation which started cataloguing and archiving his work. We soon discovered that during the four decades of his career, he amassed plenty of fascinating themes stepping beyond his “classic” repertoire. We discovered less-well-known classical music and jazz recorded with his musician friends, such as Marek Grechuta and Ewa Demarczyk.
How did you combine all these topics into an elegant whole?
Dad’s personality and work, the time when he worked and the people he played with all encapsulate so much potential that we need several stages to truly show it to the world. This was the basis of the Wodecki Twist Festival, aiming to help his fans remember Dad, spend time with him, smile, ponder and come together to listen to beautiful music.
The festival brings together many artists and we visit different spheres of music – yet we have been able to carve out a consistent format. Choirs from all over Poland are joined by the audience in singing Dad’s ode to Bach, form the very heart of the festival, while eminent guests pay homage to his memory during the gala night. The protagonists of the intimate concerts are Dad’s instruments. We have hosted a violin programme featuring classical and jazz musicians and an evening dedicated to the trumpet with guests from Poland and abroad performing at the stage of the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre. Since the first festival, we have also hosted a beautiful ticketless outdoor stage at Forum Przestrzenie by the Vistula.
It was all going so well…
…then the pandemic struck, and last year we only hosted a gala titled Glad That You Are. All being well, this year we are planning on returning to the original format, perhaps keeping audience numbers to a minimum, and we’ll be streaming concerts online. On the first weekend of June, we will focus on another genre Dad loved: the crazy music of the 1970s. There will be plenty for fans of the artist himself and lovers of refined instrumental jazz. We are also preparing surprises. It will be a bit different, but still all about Dad!
And Kraków will be an important element of the story once again.
Dad was Cracovian through and through – he simply loved the city’s atmosphere. He started every day with a stroll down Grodzka Street towards the Main Market Square, where he frequently had coffee with friends at Loża Restaurant. The Old Town was his favourite, so we choose locations in the city centre for our stages. Choirs are joined by crowds of Cracovians at the Main Market Square for the festival opening, ICE Kraków hosts the gala concert, and an outdoor stage will be erected at Forum Przestrzenie by the Vistula. There will be another stage – I won’t reveal where just yet – and a surprise in Planty Park. We want to keep growing and surprising our audiences!
I can’t imagine this festival being held anywhere else. That said, despite the focus on Kraków – which I am delighted with – I am also proud to say that the festival has a national reach. The gala is shown on TV, and each year we hold a tour: during the last festival before the pandemic, we brought 15 concerts to nine cities all over Poland. You could say that Kraków tours Poland!
Interviewed by Bartosz Suchecki, “Kraków Culture” magazine
photo by Elżbieta Schonfeld
