MARIA BALISZEWSKA

Maria Baliszewska - ethnomusicologist and journalist. Since her graduation in 1973 she has worked in Polish Radio's Folk Music Section, since 1982, with a three-year break caused by the Martial Law, as its manager. In 1994 she established the Folk Culture Radio Centre that she has been leading to this day. She became fascinated with folk culture, and with the radio, as early as 1968, during a students' ethnographic camp near Łęczyca. She was awarded the 1993 "Golden Microphone," the 1998 special prize of the Culture Foundation, and the 2003 honorary Zygmunt Gloger's Award (for the record series entitled "Muzyka Źródeł" - "Music of Sources"). She serves as a juror at the Folk Groups and Singers Festival in Kazimierz, as well as at Oscar Kolberg's Awards. Since 1998 she has been the traditional and folk music coordinator of the European Radio Union. She was the originator of the Polish Radio Folk Music Festival "Nowa Tradycja" ("New Tradition"), as well as of the aforementioned "Music of Sources" record series, meant to include 22 albums. She is the author of numerous radio programmes devoted to ethnic, traditional, folklore-inspired and folk music, and as many recordings taken at real settings, during festivals, and in studios. Her personal engagement in the organization of recordings, concerts, and other events, has helped Polish folk survive and grow.

www.radio.com.pl/rckl