Anna Jagielska-Riveiro, singer, performs music of various epoques and sings in many styles, but in her musical creation she gives a special meaning to Sephardic music. She is an outstanding specialist in this field and the only singer in Poland who deals with Sephardic themes so deeply. She experiments all the time with different instruments to her projects, but she always performs Sephardic songs in the original language ladino following ancient vocal practices in style and in the use of ornaments.
She has been closely cooperating with the Cervantes Institute in Warsaw for a few years, which gave its patronage to her newest CD with Sephardic songs:
LUNAS OLVIDADAS – Forgotten Moons. Songs presented on the CD refer to the tradition of Medieval Spain as well as to the way of performing Sephardic music in the Arabic part of the Mediterranean Sea Basin. At the same time, the arrangements of the pieces correspond with the worldwide tendency of joining forms and styles: on one hand presenting the originality of separate musical trends and on the other including them in the international cultural heritage.
The interests of Anna Jagielska-Riveiro are connected with widely understood Jewish culture as well. Apart from Sephardic songs, she has included in her repertoire
Hebrew and Yiddish songs. She is also a prize winner of Jewish Song Contest organized by Warsaw’s Jewish Theatre. Jewish music is the topic of her newest programme:
MAAYAN – Colours of Jewish Music.
Although her artistic creation has so far dealt mainly with
ancient music (especially
from Spain) as well as with
traditional, folk and world music she also performs songs in other genres. In her repertoire we can find for example music of
Latin American countries, including Argentinian tango and Brazilian bossa nova (in this program she cooperates also with jazz musicians).
Anna Jagielska-Riveiro constantly gives concerts and takes part in international festivals. She has performed in many countries like: Spain, France, England, Italy, Germany, Lithuania and others. She cooperates with outstanding soloists and chamber musicians in Poland and abroad. She is the initiator and director of „Comtessa” music consort, which specializes in ancient, particularly
Medieval and
ethnic music. She also runs vocal courses and workshops in the country and abroad.
She has been recording for the radio and television and she has made several records, including solo CDs, among others: “Almond trees – Sephardic songs” together with the singer of Sephardic origin Jerardo Ojeda, „Cantos de la Espana Antigua” (Songs of Ancient Spain); „Noche Latina – Latin Night” (Songs from Latin America), Cantigas de Amigo - Songs to a lover” and :
„Lunas olvidadas” (Forgotten Moons – Sephardic Songs).
The artist’s concerts and recordings have been given the patronage of the Polish Radio 2.
Anna Jagielska-Riveiro speaks spanish, english and french.
More information on the website: www.music.annajagielska.art.pl/ and
www.myspace.com/anyaannajagielska
