KAROLINA CICHA – singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, One-woman-orchestra. She is fascinated with the traditional music of the ethnic minorities of the north-eastern Poland. Karolina’s specialty is performing with a few musical instruments at the same time: she sings, plays the accordion and keyboard, while her feet are busy playing the drums. In 2015, she was was in Official Selection of WOMEX, the biggest World Music festival worldwide. Playing her music, she has visited a dozen or so festivals held in Europe, Asia and America.
In 2013 together with her Company she released ‘9 Languages’ album inspired by a heritage of the Podlaskie region, showing multidimensionalness of Polish and East European culture. The same year they won Grand Prix and the Audience Prize at the ‘New Tradition’ the biggest polish folk contest organized by Polish Radio. The Company’s musicians specialize in playing the ethnic instruments such as fiddle form Plock, Bilgoraj suka, dulcimer, oud, rubab, tombak, daf. Her new compositions reflect the current direction of musical exploration: the touchpoints between the tradition and modernity as well as the ones between the music of the Podlasie minorities and modern poetry.
ANDREW CRONSHAW, FROOTS:
‘The set by polyglot Polish singer, accordeonist and electronicist Karolina Cicha and multi-instrumenta Bart Pałyga was for me a transcendent moment almong the many spot-on showcases at last yea’s WOMEX.’
SIMON BRIGHTON, SONGLINES
‘Karolina Cicha is one of Poland’s most accomplished and interesting vocalist, not least for the choice of muic she performs.’
CZESŁAW MOZIL:
‘When Cicha is on the stage, she submits herself to emotions of sounds with a child’s trust. I am impressed by the way she controls her voice being so spontaneous at the same time’
CICHA PERFORMED AT:
‘World Music Fest’ (USA); ‘TFF Rudolstadt’ (Germany); ‘FMM Sines Festival’ (Portugal); Fordefestival (Norway); Ethnoport (Poland); Cheoyong Culture Festival (South Korea); ‘Art Pole’ (Ukraine); ‘Suklegos’ (Lithuania); ‘Folkbaltica’ (Germany/Denmark); ‘Euroradio Folk Festiwal’ (Sweden); ‘Kamianitza’ (Bielaruss); ‘Isole che Parlano’ (Sardinia); ‘Legion Arts’ (Cedar Rapids, USA); ‘Global Union’ (Milwaukee, USA); ‘Lotus Fest’ (Bloomington, USA); ‘Gypsy Festival Drom’ (New York, USA); ‘World Music Festival’ (Slovakia); ‘Music Mela Festival’ (Pakistan); ‘Les Traversées Tatihou’ (France); ‘WOMEX 2015 Oficial Selection’ (Hungary); ‘Five Temples Festival’ (Hungary); ‘Sibiu International Theatre Festival’ (Romania); LaMama Theatre (USA); ‘Menuo Juodaragis’ (Lithuania); ‘Open Air’ (Poland)
Her career started with solo concerts. In 2009 shestarted a band and that’s when her adventure with rock music began. First, she recorded two tracks for “GAJCY” – an album of musical rock interpretations of the poems of Tadeusz Gajcy (published by Warsaw Uprising Museum). According to the “Interia” website ranking, her song “Miłość bez jutra” (“Love with no tommorow”) was one of the ten best polish rock songs of 2009. Since then she has published many albums: “DO LUDOŻERCÓW” (with lyrics of Tadeusz Rożewicz) and “WAWA2010.PL”, a collection of songs about Warsaw, where she sang duets with stars of the polish alternative scene. “MIĘKKIE MASZYNY” was the third album in her discography – and the first to include some of her own lyrics. In 2013 together with Bart Pałyga she published ‘9 Languages’ album with the traditional songs in languages spoken by people living in North-east of Poland. The same year artists won GRAND PRIX and AUDIENCE PRIZE on ‘New Tradition’ – Polish Radio Folk Festival organized by Polish Radio.
She has prizes at some of the most prestigious festivals in Poland and abroad. She won the Grand Prix at the Student Song Festival in Krakow, the second prize at the Actor’s Song Review in Wroclaw, and the first prize at the Chansonsfestival in Koln, Germany. In 2014 polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage gave her the prestigue grant called “Młoda Polska” to develop a digital instrumentarium.
‘She sings with such an expression, that when she appears on stage, anything besides words and sounds does not matter’. (Wojciech Hyla, Rzeczpospolita)
‘You will understand what is meant by “a woman-orchestra” (…) Karolina operates emotions masterfully, suspending her strong voice in a whisper, to move on to scream or melodic vocalizations. (…) Well-known standards she filters through her imagination in such a way that they start living their own lives, shining in a new way’. (Joanna Klimowicz, Gazeta współczesna)
‘Gajcy’ (2009)
‘Do ludożerców’ (2010)
‘Wawa2010.pl’ (2010)
‘Miękkie maszyny’ (2012)
‘9 Languages’ (2013)
‘Yiddishland’ (2015)
‘Poland-Pakistan’ (2016)
‘Tatar Album’ (2017)
‘Jeden – wiele’ (2018)
‘TANY’ (2020)
“Karaim Music Map” (2021)
“Sad” (2022)
See also biogram written by Anna Legierska: http://culture.pl/en/artist/karolina-cicha
