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Polish Arts Festival collaboration piece by Anna Banko-Schumacher and Emma Langford is a ‘loving tribute’ to Polish poet

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Anna Banko-Schumacher and Emma Langford will perform their collaboration piece at this year’s Polish Arts Festival in Limerick. Picture: Kris Luszczki

A ‘deep belief in the strength and power of women’ unites Anna Banko-Schumacher and Emma Langford in Polish Arts Festival collaboration

A 'deep belief in the strength and power of women' unites Anna Banko-Schumacher and Emma Langford in Polish Arts Festival collaboration
Anna Banko-Schumacher and Emma Langford. Picture: Kris Luszczki

Coming from very different worlds, musically and personally, something that unites musicians Anna Banko-Schumacher and Emma Langford is a deep belief in the strength and power of women.

The artists wanted to shine a light in this collaboration on a beloved Polish poet, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, whose work explores the natural, the supernatural, love in all its forms, and the “divine feminine”. 

Their original, collaborative piece is called “I, Woman / Ja, Kobieta” and combines Polish, English and Irish languages in a loving tribute to Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s piece “Rodzina Czarownicy”.


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Speaking to I Love Limerick about the song, Anna said,  “It was an absolute privilege to work with Emma, such a fantastic Limerick artist, so the song will be in Irish, Polish, and English, that’s what we thought, it was great to mix those three languages together and it’s from our hearts as well.

Female, Celtic, and Slavic traditions, woman it’s all about us so come on Thursday, September 14th to the Hunt Museum for our launch to hear our song.”

The piece begins in Irish “sean nós” style with Anna singing gently in Polish over a simple drone – a perfect juxtaposition of Irish and Polish elements.

In the song, you hear the poem split into two parts, sung in Polish and then in Irish. Anna created the initial melodic structure upon which Emma wrote a counter-melody, and together they wrote the chorus which occurs in Polish and in English.

Emma created the arrangement, the piece is written for multiple voices, two violins, piano, and a drone instrument such as harmonium or shruti box. Produced by Ben Wanders of Ben Wanders Productions.

Find out more about this year’s Polish Arts Festival here.
Read more Polish Arts Festival news here.

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Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.