Toast Urodzinowy dla Tomasza Stańko 2026

The Toast is more than just a concert. It is a space for a gathering centered around music, art, and the ideas dear to Tomasz Stańko. Every year, distinguished artists from the Polish and international jazz scene are invited to participate, presenting original projects, special concerts, and events inspired by the master's work. Previous editions have featured artists including the Marcin Wasilewski Trio, Dorota Miśkiewicz, Maciej Obara, Dominik Wania, Ambrose Akinmusire, Verneri Pohjola, and many other artists who shared a musical friendship, inspiration, and shared artistic sensibility with Tomasz Stańko.

Main Concert "A Birthday Toast for Tomasz Stańko"

• Where? Courtyard of the Lubomirski Castle, Śreniawitów Square 3
• When? July 11, 2026, starting at 7:00 PM

An important element of the project is the long-standing and very successful collaboration between Estrada Rzeszowska and the Foundation. The Tomasz Stańko Foundation, chaired by Anna Stańko, is the founder of the Tomasz Stańko Foundation. Thanks to the Foundation's commitment, the event maintains its authentic character and remains close to Tomasz Stańko's artistic legacy. Anna Stańko serves as the artistic director of the main concert, co-creating its program and inviting artists associated with her father's work to participate.

The Toast program includes not only the main concert but also accompanying events: workshops, meetings, exhibitions, screenings, and educational activities. This makes the project a multi-dimensional story about an artist whose work continues to inspire generations of musicians and listeners.

This year's main concert, "A Birthday Toast for Tomasz Stańko," will take place on July 11, 2026, in the courtyard of Lubomirski Castle in Rzeszów. This unique venue will once again provide a space for outstanding musicians and audiences to come together to commemorate one of Poland's most important jazz artists.

In an atmosphere of shared musical experience and creative freedom, participants raise a symbolic toast to the life, art, and legacy of Tomasz Stańko – an artist who remained committed throughout his life to searching for new sounds, pushing boundaries, and boldly looking to the future. Today, the "Toast to Tomasz Stańko Birthday" is not only a musical event but also an important meeting place for artists, jazz enthusiasts, and all those who wish to cherish the memory of one of the greatest Polish musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Performers: 

Laura Jurd / “Rites & Revelations”

Project lineup:
Laura Jurd — trumpet
Ultan O’Brien — violin / viola
Martin Green — accordion
Ruth Goller — bass
Corrie Dick — drums

Laura Jurd is a British trumpeter, composer, and improviser, one of the most distinctive and unique figures on the contemporary jazz scene. Described by Jamie Cullum on BBC Radio 2 as “the kind of musician I’d like to be in my next life,” Jurd consistently develops her own musical language—intense, colorful, and unconventional, yet communicative and full of energy. Her work defies simple genre classifications: she blends jazz, improvisation, contemporary music, chamber sounds, and folk traditions, all while maintaining a highly recognizable, distinctive style.

Jurd has performed in the United Kingdom, Europe, and beyond, both under her own name and with the Mercury Prize-nominated band Dinosaur. She has performed at venues including the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Montréal Jazz Festival, and the Molde International Jazz Festival, and as a composer she has collaborated with ensembles and institutions such as the London Sinfonietta, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and the Ligeti Quartet.

Jurd has performed in the United Kingdom, Europe, and beyond, both under her own name and with the Mercury Prize-nominated band Dinosaur. She has performed at venues including the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Montréal Jazz Festival, and the Molde International Jazz Festival, and as a composer she has collaborated with ensembles and institutions such as the London Sinfonietta, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and the Ligeti Quartet.

In Rzeszów, Laura Jurd will present material from her album *Rites & Revelations*, released in 2025 and very well received by critics. The British *The Observer* wrote of “virtuosic fusions,” emphasizing that the album blends tradition, modal jazz, and free improvisation. The project showcases Jurd as a composer and bandleader with extraordinary imagination: her trumpet is at times piercing, almost vocal, while the band creates a raw, intense, and energetic sound.

The updated program highlights one of the key themes present in previous editions of the Birthday Toast: the dialogue between contemporary trumpeters and the legacy of Tomasz Stańko. From the very first editions of the event, artists associated with the trumpet and the modern language of improvisation have played a significant role—including Wadada Leo Smith, Piotr Damasiewicz, Tomasz Dąbrowski, Ambrose Akinmusire, Nils Petter Molvær, Philip Dizack, and Verneri Pohjola. 

Marcin Masecki // Blues Suites

Band lineup:
Marcin Masecki — piano, artistic director
Jan Pieniążek — drums
Michał Aftyka — double bass
Jan Harasimowicz, Brunon Wojnarski — trumpets
Michał Daszkiewicz, Maciej Prokopowicz — trombones
Marcin Konieczkowicz, Miłosz Pieczonka — saxophones

Marcin Masecki—pianist, composer, conductor, and one of the most independent figures in Polish musical culture—has for years consistently redefined the concept of artistic independence. His work deliberately avoids clear-cut genre classifications, situating itself at the intersection of academic tradition, the jazz avant-garde, experimental music, and indigenous popular forms. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston and co-founder of the Młynarski–Masecki Jazz Band, he successfully composes for film and theater, while also creating standalone symphonic works, piano concertos, and pieces for large jazz ensembles.

In Rzeszów, the artist will present “Blues Suites”—his own exploration of the blues idiom, treated as one of the structural foundations of contemporary improvised music. This music draws on the blues, work songs, and ensemble playing, and is written for a large, nine-piece ensemble.

The program premiered in the fall of 2025 and is now embarking on its concert tour. In it, Masecki deconstructs and reimagines archaic themes by masters such as Skip James and Robert Johnson, juxtaposing them with his own compositional vision.

Masecki’s work is far from a historical reconstruction of the American South or an academic stylization; it is, above all, a personal, texturally dense compositional statement. This music resonates with concepts of collective memory, the physicality of labor, and a sense of community. In the mini-big-band format, Masecki reveals an outstanding sense of arrangement, while reserving a wide margin of freedom for the individual voices of the soloists. The traditional form gives way to an open structure—closer to an improvised sound essay or a contemporary ritual than to a classical genre-based concert.

The selection of “Blues Suites” serves to highlight this aspect of Masecki’s work, which directly corresponds to Tomasz Stańko’s approach: freedom, risk, formal boldness, and a reluctance to engage in a purely ceremonial reenactment of tradition. 

Both artists’ musical paths have crossed in the past—including in the project *Stańko. Classical / Contemporary* and during concerts at Alchemia in Kraków and the Żak club in Gdańsk. They were united by a fascination with freedom, pushing the boundaries of genres, and treating music as a living, non-obvious language.

The concert will also feature a musical tribute to Tomasz Stańko. Its form remains open—it will be decided on stage, between Masecki and the band: like a brief flash, a ray sent toward Tomasz’s music.

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Organizational Information

• Admission is free. The event is open to the public. No advance reservation required. Seating is unnumbered.
• Admission for participants will be available starting at 6:30 p.m.
• Duration: approximately 3 hours. 
• The concerts will take place in an open-air setting. A paved path leads to the event venue. Seating and restrooms will be available on site.