Musicians from the Santander Orchestra in a music video with Anna Szarmach and on the stage of the Wodecki Twist Festival
The Santander Orchestra project, associated mainly with classical or jazz music, in the 2020 edition was exploring new paths and opening up to popular music. This year the artists have invited the public to watch the video clip „Wodecki by Santander Orchestra & Ania Szarmach” and the online concert „Good that you are”, a virtual edition of the Wodecki Twist Festival.
The combination of the symphonic sound of the orchestra with the dynamic sound of the big band resulted in a unique piece – young musicians from the Santander Orchestra together with Anna Szarmach and the band performed new, contemporary versions of three cult hits by Zbigniew Wodecki. It is a tribute to the legend of Polish music, but also a response to the recent comeback of 80s and 90s music.
We wanted to play songs that are known to every generation, so we reached for the repertoire of Zbigniew Wodecki. Special arrangements for this occasion were prepared by Grzegorz „Jabco” Jabłoński. The result was a medley of three songs originally performed by the artist : „Start with Bach”, „Let’s learn to live side by side” and „Throw away all that is wrong”
The authors of the project also prepared a video clip, which was shot during ghe unique, mobile outdoor concerts, played on a barge and on the roof of a double decker bus in different parts of Warsaw. The musicians performed, among others, at the Breakfast Market in Żoliborz. You can watch the video on YouTube.
This year, we couldn’t make a tour in selected cities in Poland, but we decided to carry out the project outdoors, bearing in mind the sanitary restrictions related to the current epidemiological situation. This is an exceptional year in which most of us spent alot of time at home, often in seclusion. We all crave for live interactions, meetings with others and we need to create positive memories. We wanted to give people a little bit of joy. That’s why we came up with the idea of playing mini-concerts live, thinking out of the box and showing people that closed concert halls is not a barrier to music that has a comforting effect on our mood
The project was developed in cooperation with Ania Szarmach, Grzegorz „Jabco” Jabłoński, Rebelia Media agency and Santander Bank Polska. Ania Szarmach’s team included, among others: David 'Fingers’ Haynes – a drummer nominated for the 2008 Grammy Award, who has performed with many international artists, including Prince, Steve Wonder and Frank Ocean, and Envee – a Polish musician, composer, music producer and DJ.
In the next stage of the project, thanks to the cooperation with the Zbigniew Wodecki Foundation, the musicians with Santander Orchestra will perform during the concert „It’s good that you are”, as part of the third, online edition of the Wodecki Twist Festival 2020 , accompanied by Tomasz Szymuś’s orchestra. Other famous artists that will also appear on the festival stage include Kuba Badach, Ania Rusowicz and Natalia Kukulska. The event will be broadcast live on 27 September on the YouTube channel of the Zbigniew Wodecki Foundation and on player.pl. Santander Bank Polska is a partner of this event.
All of the above are not the only activities planned for this year’s edition of the Santander Orchestra project. Already in October, the first podcasts within the Santander Orchestra Academy will appear on the YouTube channel of Santander Bank Polska. The subjects of the podcasts will be related to music but they will not be addressed to musicians. exclusively The first part of ths eries will be devoted to music education of children.
