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An evening featuring NCU's musical stars
The audience was treated to a three-hour musical feast by the artists who performed on 4 April at the NCU Auditorium in the NCU Alumni Concert. The event was held as part of the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
Joanna Czajkowska, Bogdan Holownia, Mariusz Lubomski, Łukasz 'Małpa' Małkiewicz and Tomasz Organek - this is the plethora of stars with a degree from the NCU who performed during Friday evening's concert, creating an unusual mix of musical styles and energy. The concert was hosted by Marcel Woźniak, also a graduate of the NCU and a writer from Toruń, who presented the profiles of the artists in the context of their studies at our University and quoted their memories from their student days.
The first to perform a nostalgic repertoire were Joanna Czajkowska, a singer, composer and songwriter, as well as a graduate in Polish philology at the NCU, and Bogdan Holownia, a well-known Polish jazz pianist, economics graduate and the NCU Ambassador (2015). Their performance included the standard "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Goodbye Cat" by Jeremi Przybora and Jerzy Wasowski.
The concert was an opportunity to recall little-known facts from the student lives of both artists. The audience learned that Joanna Czajkowska can boast of an extraordinary achievement - a top grade in the exam on Old Polish literature, which in the first year causes future Polish language teachers to lose sleep over their heads, and that Bogdan Hołownia is the author of a master's thesis on... the effectiveness of agricultural production cooperatives, which ultimately, however, did not turn out to be his greatest passion.
Another artist who performed at the Alumni Concert was Mariusz Lubomski, a well-known composer, songwriter and singer, and - in the context of the NCU - a graduate in painting and visual arts education and the NCU Ambassador (2015). Lubomski was led to art studies by his master-student relationship with Professor Stanislaw Borysowski, whom the musician met when he was still a high school student. But today he recalls not only his mentor, but also the figures who shaped him outside the lecture halls and studios during his student days: Yach Paszkiewicz, the band members of Republika, Kobranocka and Rejestracja.
The musical mood turned 180 degrees with Łukasz “Małpa" Małkiewicz - a rapper from Toruń, author of four solo albums, each of which has achieved at least gold record status. He is also a graduate of geography at the NCU. During his studies, he went to Trieste as part of the Erasmus programme, and it was there that his adventure with hip-hop began in earnest. The musician, who is used to performing in clubs, did not hide his stage fright: it is not every day that he has the opportunity to perform in such a place, in front of such an audience and on such an occasion. - I didn't think it would work,' he joked, as the audience responded to his loud "hiiiip" with a thunderous "hoooop". 'Monkey' was accompanied on stage by Kacper Nowak, known as Steve Nash, three-time International Dj Association World DJ Champion.
The evening closed with a concert by the band Ørganek. Its founder and frontman Tomasz Organek is an English Philology graduate from the NCU and the NCU Ambassador (2017). - "I remember my studies very well, I think I was lucky with the lecturers, because I really liked all the classes," he said. - 'Toruń and the University gave me the tools to work on myself - not only as an artist, but also as a person.'
The repertoire played by Ørganek during the NCU Alumni Concert represented a cross-section of the band's musical activity spanning more than a decade. The concert included the energetic 'Wiosna' ("Spring") and the lyrical 'Lili i pałąk' ('Lili and the Stick') from the album recorded to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.
