Mazowsze

Founded in 1948 in Poland at the initiative of composer Tadeusz Sygietyński, Mazowsze takes its name from the Masovia region and was from the outset engaged in collecting, preserving and staging Polish folk traditions. The ensemble developed a repertoire of folk songs and dances initially focused on Masovia, Kurpie and Opoczno, before expanding to many other ethnographic regions of the country. Mazowsze’s form is based on the combination of choral singing, stage dance and instrumental accompaniment, with particular attention to reconstructed traditional costumes. After two years of preparation, Mazowsze gave its premiere at the Teatr Polski in Warsaw on 6 November 1950 and began touring abroad from 1951. Its international career included Paris in 1954 and the United States in 1960. After Tadeusz Sygietyński’s death, Mira Zimińska‑Sygietyńska continued the work for more than forty years and contributed to the expansion of the repertoire. Over its history, Mazowsze has also counted singers such as Irena Santor and Lidia Korsakówna among its ranks, and appeared in films including Przygoda na Mariensztacie (1954), Żona dla Australijczyka (1963), Pan Tadeusz (1999) and Cold War (2018).