My name is Stanisław Mazurek. For over 20 years I have been passionate about music – starting from learning to play the classical guitar (sheet music) through solfege to singing in a choir or performing my own repertoire of sung poetry.
Many years of dealing with music (especially with early music) led me to gain knowledge about it; learning the rules prevailing in it, as well as getting to know its history. I have been playing this genre of music for several years, joining other bands at first, then leading the band by myself (Ostrovia). This led me to collect all kinds of musical instruments and learn the basics of playing them. It is so to this day. I have over 90 instruments in my collection and the collection is still growing. I have also participated in many workshops on the construction of musical instruments, which contributed to the fact that I can make instruments, especially reconstructions (e.g. rebec, gudok, plucked goose from Nowogród, kantele (Scandinavia), Fidel (Spain), gitterna from Elbląg, or various types of flutes, wooden or bone pipes and other instruments).
In 2014, I opened my own business, DITONUS Stanisław Mazurek, which deals with presentations, reconstructions and workshops on early music and old instruments.
INSTRUMENT RECONSTRUCTION
Dealing with the reconstruction of instruments from the Middle Ages results from active participation in the so-called historical recreation also known as experimental archeology. I work with many centers and organizations operating in this field, such as the Wolin Jomsborg – Vineta Center of Slavs and Vikings Association (including professional work at the open-air museum in Wolin or being one of the organizers of Slavs and Vikings Festivals), Ukranenland Historische Werkstatten e.v. Torgelow (Germany), the Archaeological Museum in Biskupin, the Museum of the First Piasts in Lednica (Grzybowo, Giecz) or the Archeozdroje Association in Międzyzdroje, as well as foundations and organizations for the disabled.
COOPERATION
Currently, I work quite closely with the National Museum in Szczecin (department of archeology and department of education) where I conduct demonstrations of old instruments showing their sound qualities and the way they are built, as well as research artifacts in terms of isolating musical instruments or sound tools from among them, also cooperates with the Polish Academy of Sciences. I am also participating in research with Dr. Dorota Popławska on musical instruments found in Poland. One of the fruits of this cooperation was a keen interest in reconstructed flutes from Płock, Elbląg, Warsaw, Nysa, Toruń and Puck at the Musical Instruments-History, Science and Culture: Faculty of Music, The Bate Collection, The Galpin Society, Oxford (Great Britain ) from my private collection. This is reflected in the participation in the Organological Congress 2014 International Scientific Meeting for Sound and Musical Instrument Studies in Portugal (Braga) in July 2014, on the theme Music in Opole (Poland) in the tenth and eleventh century, organized by Dr. Patricia Lopes Bastos or participation in a conference in Berlin (September 2014). Privately, I also conduct my own research on the effect of impregnating agents on wooden musical instruments, as well as research on strings made of natural raw materials such as silk, linen, nettles, horsehair, sheep intestines or deer and elk tendons.
In 2015, I took part in the 14th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music Archeology with the speech of “The Mediveal Sring Instrument of Wolin: A New Discovery from Western Pomerania (Poland)”.
In 2016, I took part in a conference organized by the University of Warsaw entitled ” Music in archeology “with speeches -” Monument and reconstruction – from artifact to instrument “and” Proposal to reconstruct a nyckelharpa on the basis of a find in Wolin “. In the same year, I founded the band Huslar.
I run natural singing workshops and presentations of musical instruments and their sound qualities, maintaining constant cooperation, including with the National Museum in Szczecin or the “Kana” Theater.