Lullabies for Eternal Rest are a farewell ritual. The memory of people who were once part of a place. A tribute to the Jewish history embedded in city landscapes. A musical embracement of the memory of several generations of Polish Jews.

A prayer for the dead, a cradling of souls. Like all other lullabies – a quiet prayer, hope and  entreaty for a peaceful sleep.

They represent the desire to return to a time when normal life still went on. This return will be facilitated by a projection made up of pre-war photographs. As the music unravels, pictures move across the screen in front of the viewer – faces joyous, happy. We see mothers holding children, people in love, holiday celebrations, whole generations… “Beyond the darkness of the Holocaust is light” – are the words of one of the pieces – “Ruach.”

The Lullabies for Eternal Rest project had its premiere in 2010 at the Tzadik Festival in Poznań. To date, it has performed in many Polish cities, in market squares and theaters, including in Białystok, Lublin, Poznań, Sopot, Płock, Warsaw and Aleksandrów Łódzki. The CD was released in October 2012 by Opensources.

Lena Piękniewska – singer, graduate of the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts. She released her first debut album Wyspa (The Island; MCA Music) in 2010, followed two years later by Kołysanki Na Wieczny Sen (Lullabies for Eternal Rest; Opensources, 2012) on which she is accompanied by the Soundcheck jazz quartet. Her interests oscillate between many different musical genres. She creates jazz ballads, poetic songs, austere ethno music.

She has worked with prominent Polish jazz musicians, including Krzysztof Dys, Andrzej Święs, Radek Nowicki, Paweł Szpura, Michał Górczyński, Maciej Kocin Kociński, Krzysztof Szmańda, Piotr Kałużny. She has also starred in the popular Warsaw cabaret Pożar w Burdelu (dir. Michał Walczak).

Lena Piękniewska will be accompanied by:

• Krzysztof Dys – piano
• Paweł Szpura – percussion
• Radek Nowicki – soprano and tenor saxophone
• Andrzej Święs – bass

Free admission.

Reservations at +48 22 471 03 01 or by e-mail: [email protected]

The concert is part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day observances organized in cooperation with the Shalom Foundation.