In 2020 we have got information and videos about the Polish festival from the artistic director, Grzegorz Karnas who was one of the teachers and artists last year in Budapest: The Voicingers fesztivál Budapesten - 2019

Some more information about the festival and some videos of the workshops and the concerts:
It is a perfect place to develop a creative approach to all forms of action as an indispensable condition of a wandering journey through the meanders of a life full of art and secrets.

That's why the festival: 

• organizes the International Jazz Competition for Singing Musicians.
• (It takes place every two years in Zory, Upper Silesia.) 
• educates young musicians during various individual classes and group Voicingers workshops.
• Breathing techniques, improvisation, interpretation, rhythmic issues, articulation, relaxation, playing with a combo and improvised group singing are the phenomena that the Workshops at Jazz Collective Interaction and Open Forms focus on. They are intended for professional musicians as well as enthusiasts and amateurs.
  The workshop is run by a group of international, active musicians and artists. The classes oscillate around jazz and improvised music. 
• provides music education for entire families. Thanks to the artistic activities program for children, parents can share the live music experience with their children. When discovering the different faces of music, new bonds are created between generations. 
• creates a chance to present for a new generation of musicians through the JazzBus Showcase organized in cooperation with the Slovak label Hevhetia. Ja promotors such as representatives of independent labels and organizers of jazz festivals from all around the world. 
• builds a platform for international cooperation of musicians, promoters, journalists, labels, festivals, jazz contests and clubs - intercultural exchange of ideas through music.
• entertains a series of outdoor and non-open concerts in various locations in the Żory microregion. Nights with Live Music is the nightly jam session of the Voicingers festival.

WORKSHOP:

Anna Gadt

Polish chanteuse, improviser, composer. A representative of the European jazz stage who combines free improvisation, classical music and contemporary jazz. She has recorded 5 original albums. In 2018 she has been nominated for the prestigious Polish Fryderyk Award for the best artist.The Grand Prix at Jazz Struggle, the international competition for singing musicians and the acclaim of Billy Harper, the head of jury, determined a breakthrough in her artistic work. She toured in France, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, Slovakia, Poland. She participated in Polish Stage at Jazz European Conference. Apart from singing comprehended in traditional way, she seeks for the unusual sounds and techniques of performance. Her concept refers to the improvised music, in which there is no division into the accompanying band and the leader. Such a unity highlights the wealth of differences between the musicians and the value of mutual complementarity. The search for the common idea, the daring and spontaneous creation happening “here and now,” become the aim.

Alan Wykpisz

Polish jazz and blues musician, bass player. Alan Wykpisz is a distinguished figure of the generation of young double bass players. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Krakow and Katowice. Awarded at international festivals such as: Jazz Hoeilaart 2011, Bass Copenhagen 2012, Tarnów International Azoty Jazz Contest 2013 and 2014 and Jazz Nad Odrą 2015. With High Denition Quartet nominated for the Fryderyk 2014 award for the best jazz debut of the year for the album Hopasa released for Universal Music Polska.

András Dés 

Hungarian percussionist. András Dés graduated from the Jazz Faculty of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in 2005. As a member of numerous popular Hungarian jazz bands, including e.g. the Elemér Balázs Group, Kaltenecker Trio, László Dés Septet, the Winand Quartet, Zoltán Lantos’ Mirrorworld or the Miklós Lukács Quintet, he has been touring all around Europe and has played at many important and world famous venues such as Carnegie Hall, Covent Garden, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Damascus Opera House, the Jerusalem Theatre or the Shanghai World Expo. Over the past years, Dés has developed his own percussion set: with his right hand he plays like a drummer and with his left hand like a percussionist. He also plays several hand percussion instruments like the Hungarian kanna (water can), some frame drums from all around the world and also some instruments from the Latin American tradition.

Grzegorz Karnas

Polish jazz vocalist, music producer, linguist, photographer, blogger. Karnas is the spiritus movens and the artistic director of the Voicingers Festival - his brain child born in 2008. Karnas comes from a family without academic traditions of any kind. During his high school education he finished one year of classical guitar at the Szafrankowie Brothers State School of Music in Rybnik. He also spent eight years studying French, English and Arab languages, literatures and cultures at University of Mikołaj Kopernik in Toruń, English Teacher Training College in Cieszyn and Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Karnas is a graduate and a former teacher of the Jazz Institute of the Academy of Music in Katowice, considered prestigious in Poland. Throughout his career he has worked with top-line artists of European jazz scene as well as some of its legends. In 1998, he was awarded first prize at the International Jazz Vocalists' Meeting in Zamość (Poland).

CONCERT:

Andras Des - Vars/Kaper Deconstructi:ON

Andras Des - percussion Mateusz Szewczyk - double bass Jakub Mizeracki – guitar

Grzegorz Karnas - Vars/Kaper Deconstructi:ON

Grzegorz Karnas - vocal Paweł Kaczmarczyk - piano Alan Wykpisz - double bass Maksymilian Olszewski – drums

Paweł Kaczmarczyk - Vars/Kaper Deconstructi:ON

Paweł Kaczmarczyk - piano Alan Wykpisz - double bass Grzegorz Masłowski – drums

Photo: The Voicingers