Żywieckie Suwakowanie 2006–2026
The Story of People United by Music
A story about the birth, growth, and twenty years of a festival that changed the way people think about music education.
How Żywieckie Suwakowanie Was Born
Not every story begins with an event.
Some begin with a conversation.
The story of Żywieckie Suwakowanie did not begin with a concert or with the first edition of the festival. It began with a conversation about the possibility of teaching music differently. It was born from one person’s vision and another person’s determination to turn that vision into reality. Then, more people began to join them. And that is how a community was created — one that, twenty years later, still continues in Żywiec.
The beginnings of Żywieckie Suwakowanie can be traced back to early July 2006, during a car journey from Warsaw to Żywiec. A few hours earlier, Maciej Pietraszko, who was already living in the United States at the time, had taught a masterclass during the 4th National Trombone Festival in Warsaw. Despite its name, the event was primarily a competition. Most young participants were eliminated after the first round of auditions. Instead of returning home inspired and motivated, many left disappointed, convinced that they were simply not good enough.
During the drive back, Maciej talked about this with Tomasz Hajda. He said something that would change everything.
He wanted to create a festival without competition. A place where anyone could come — regardless of age, experience, or playing level. A place where everyone would leave richer in new skills, inspiration, and friendships.
After returning home, Maciej shared this idea with his wife, Anna Klimala-Pietraszko. He had the artistic vision, but he did not yet know how to turn it into reality. Anna, with her organizational experience and natural ability to plan and build projects, immediately saw the potential of the idea.
For Maciej, it was a vision.
For Anna, it was the beginning of a project.
The 4th National Trombone Festival in Warsaw ended on July 6, 2006.
The inaugural Żywieckie Suwakowanie began on August 1.
Less than four weeks passed between the birth of the idea and the beginning of the first edition. Something that would normally take months to prepare was created within a single summer month.
For many people, it was a bold — perhaps even crazy — idea. A festival without competition. Without dividing people into winners and losers. Open to everyone: amateurs and professionals, regardless of age or level of advancement. Organized without participation fees and based on the generosity of people who believed that something new was worth creating.
It was unknown whether such an idea could succeed. Time proved that this courage became the greatest strength of Żywieckie Suwakowanie.
“At the beginning, we didn’t know that a spontaneous idea could grow into something on such a scale. We simply wanted to create something that had never existed in Poland before.”— Anna Klimala
Why Żywiec?
The choice of location was not accidental.
Żywiec was Maciej Pietraszko’s hometown. It was here that he grew up, took his first musical steps, and built relationships that years later proved invaluable.
He wanted to create something for his city. He wanted to show that a small town at the foot of the Beskid Mountains could become a meeting place for musicians from all over Poland and from abroad.
From the very beginning, however, it became clear that the festival was not simply taking place in Żywiec — it became part of the city itself. Local institutions opened their doors to the organizers, and residents welcomed the new initiative with warmth and curiosity. Thanks to this support, Żywieckie Suwakowanie had not only a location from the beginning — it had a home.
The name of the festival also emerged naturally.
“Żywieckie” — because everything began right here.
“Suwakowanie” — from the trombone slide (“suwak”), the most distinctive part of the instrument.
The Visionary and the Architect
From the very beginning, their roles naturally complemented each other.
Maciej Pietraszko was the visionary. He believed that music education should not be based solely on competitions and rivalry, and that music should not divide people into winners and losers. His idea was to create a space where everyone could develop their skills, learn from outstanding teachers, meet other musicians, and experience the joy of making music together.
This philosophy remains the foundation of the festival to this day.
Anna Klimala-Pietraszko became the architect of the entire undertaking. She transformed the vision into reality. She organized logistics, managed correspondence, built partnerships, secured sponsors, created the festival’s first website, coordinated participant registration, and handled hundreds of details that are invisible on stage but essential for making the festival possible.
Neither of them could have created this event alone.
It was the combination of a dreamer’s courage and an implementer’s determination that transformed an idea into reality.
A Festival That Was Meant to Be Different
Anna and Maciej were already living in the United States. There, they discovered a different approach to music education — one based less on competition and more on recognizing and developing each person’s potential.
They decided to bring this philosophy to Poland.
For Maciej, Żywieckie Suwakowanie was meant to be a place where people played with someone, not against someone. A place where musicians — regardless of age or skill level — could play together, perform, share musical experiences, and discover that they were all part of the same musical community. He believed that these kinds of experiences build confidence, inspire continued growth, and create a genuine love for music. It is no coincidence that the festival’s full name is: “Żywieckie Suwakowanie – Trombone Meetings in Żywiec.”
From its very first edition, Żywieckie Suwakowanie was open to everyone.
On the same stage, professors, renowned soloists, university students, music school students, amateurs, children, adults, and people returning to the trombone after many years came together.
There were no better or worse musicians.
There were simply people connected by a shared passion.
What in 2006 seemed like a bold experiment became, twenty years later, the festival’s defining characteristic.
“I arrived terrified that I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I left with a love for the trombone, for music, for playing, and for practicing.”— Basia, participant of the first editions
Stories like this multiplied year after year. Many participants returned to Żywiec every summer — not because they had to, but because they found something far more valuable than another music workshop: a sense of belonging, friendships, and a place they simply wanted to return to.
The First Concert
The first concert took place in the historic courtyard of the Old Castle and the Municipal Museum in Żywiec.
At one point, a tremendous storm broke out over the city.
The rain was so heavy that the sheet music on the stands turned into soaked pieces of paper… The musicians no longer turned pages — they simply threw them onto the stone floor, one after another.
The audience could have left.
They did not.
The musicians could have stopped the concert.
They did not.
They played until the end.
Years later, Anna recalled with a smile that at that moment only one thought came to her mind:
“Good thing we didn’t organize a string festival, because wooden instruments would never have survived that!”
That scene became a symbol of the first Żywieckie Suwakowanie.
From the beginning, it was never about perfect conditions.
It was about people who wanted to be together.
The People Who Believed
Żywieckie Suwakowanie would never have existed without the people who believed in the idea before anyone could say that it would succeed.
One of the first was Tomasz Hajda, who participated in the conversation that sparked the entire story and then became actively involved in preparing the first edition. Over the following years, he remained closely connected with the festival, becoming one of its co-creators. In 2018, he took over a significant part of the responsibilities associated with running the festival, ensuring a smooth transition of leadership to the next generation of organizers. Thanks to his dedication, Żywieckie Suwakowanie remained faithful to its original values while entering a new stage of development.
From the very beginning, the festival was also supported by Paweł Golec and Łukasz Golec — Maciej’s childhood friend and the co-founders of the band Golec uOrkiestra.
His knowledge and experience were also invaluable thanks to Zdzisław Stolarczyk — an outstanding educator and teacher of Maciej Pietraszko, Paweł Golec, and many others.
Already during the first edition, Bogdan Piznal joined the group of people supporting the festival. A trombonist associated with Kraków and leader of the Polish Trombonists Association, he helped establish the Association as the festival’s media patron. This allowed information about the event to reach trombonists throughout Poland and helped the festival gain national recognition. Bogdan also collaborated with the Kraków Art Foundation, which assisted with financial and administrative matters. Wojciech Frankowicz supported these efforts by managing registrations, accepting participants, and maintaining correspondence with them.
In artistic matters, important roles were — and continue to be — played by Jakub Urbańczyk and Mariusz Płonka. As conductor of the festival orchestra, Mariusz Płonka has been actively involved in organizing the festival for many years and oversees the artistic quality of the largest trombone-and-tuba orchestra in Poland. Jakub Urbańczyk also contributed to the introduction of tubas into the festival. Year after year, the number of tuba players grew, and although Żywieckie Suwakowanie remained primarily a trombone festival, tubas always had their place within it. Importantly, every year at least one tuba player was included among the faculty members, ensuring that the instrument remained a constant presence in both the program and the educational identity of the event.
As the festival grew, it gained support from people involved in local and regional institutions.
One of the first supporters was the Old Castle and Municipal Museum in Żywiec, led by Director Anna Tuleja. The institution immediately opened its doors to the new initiative and remained one of the festival’s most important hosts for many years.
The first edition was held under the honorary patronage of Mayor Antoni Szlagor together with the Żywiec City Hall.
Others who became part of this circle of supporters included: Mirosław Dziergas from the Żywiec County Office, Marek Czul from the Municipal Cultural Center, Jerzy Kliś from Beskid Żywiec Sp. z o.o., and Jolanta Tomas from the Wojciech Rowicki State Music School in Żywiec.
In later years, people such as Lidia Pietraszko and Dorota Babińska Waluś joined the group of those actively shaping the festival. Thanks to their involvement, cooperation was established with the I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika w Żywcu, which for many years served as a place for festival orchestra rehearsals, lectures, individual lessons, masterclasses, and instrument presentations.
The Volunteers — The Silent Strength of the Festival
There is another group that must not be forgotten: the volunteers.
When cooperation began with the I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika in Żywiec, the festival gained not only rehearsal spaces and classrooms, but also an extraordinary group of young people — high school students who, starting in 2012, volunteered year after year to help organize Żywieckie Suwakowanie. Usually, there were between 10 and 14 volunteers each year.
They worked alongside Anna, Lidia, and Dorota, often from early morning until late at night, making sure that everything ran smoothly. They helped arrange classrooms and chairs, welcomed participants, escorted the youngest musicians from the train station to their accommodations, carried music stands, took photographs, managed social media, and handled countless other tasks that are invisible from the stage but without which the festival could not exist.
They were indispensable.
They represented the quiet, everyday strength of the festival — people who were not in the spotlight, but without whom Żywieckie Suwakowanie simply could not function.
“The atmosphere of the meetings is very friendly and welcoming. There is no element of competition, because everyone can present their abilities regardless of their level of advancement.”— Natalia Fraś, volunteer
Traditions
Some traditions were created during the very first editions and have continued to this day.
The most important of them remains inclusiveness.
Regardless of age, experience, or level of playing, every participant is part of the same musical community.
One of the most anticipated events is the “Young Talents” concert, for many years led by Peter Malton — an outstanding trombonist and educator who, after emigrating from Poland, settled in Sweden. For the youngest participants, he was much more than a teacher. He had a remarkable ability to recognize potential in every child and make them believe in their own abilities. After his passing, his memory remains an important part of the festival’s history.
“Suwakowanie fills certain gaps in the general education of trombone and tuba players… This summer week expands their knowledge, fills them with even greater enthusiasm, creates opportunities for new connections, and broadens their musical horizons.”— The late Peter Malton
Over the years, another tradition became the Final Concert during the Beskidy Highlanders’ Week of Culture. Although the festival orchestra is not a folk ensemble, it was warmly welcomed among the performers of this international event and has remained a regular participant for many years.
The culmination of every festival became the shared bonfire — accompanied by Beskid highlander music, roasting sausages, and conversations where the boundaries between professors, students, and the youngest participants disappeared.
An Exceptional Artistic Faculty
From the very first edition, participation in Żywieckie Suwakowanie has remained free of charge.
The organizers wanted participation to be determined not by financial circumstances, but solely by passion and the desire to grow.
Equally remarkable was the festival’s model of cooperation with its teachers.
From the beginning, the organizers wanted to create something more than a course or a series of lessons. Żywieckie Suwakowanie was meant to be a place where people could spend their summer surrounded by others who loved music — learning from outstanding educators, performing concerts, making new friends, and at the same time taking a break from everyday life.
It was precisely this combination of intensive artistic work and the atmosphere of a summer gathering that quickly distinguished the festival from other musical events in Poland.
For twenty years, outstanding educators and artists from Poland and many countries around the world traveled to Żywiec, sharing their time and experience not for financial compensation, but because they believed in the festival’s mission.
Their travel, accommodation, and participation were made possible thanks to the support of partners, sponsors, and people who believed in the importance of the project.
The greatest capital of Żywieckie Suwakowanie from the very beginning was not money.
It was people.
“It was a friendship-based gesture… They came at their own expense and conducted workshops and individual lessons. And they did all of this voluntarily, for the festival participants.”— Maciej Pietraszko (about the faculty members)
Voices of the Participants
From the very first editions, participants wrote about something that cannot be measured by the number of concerts or the names of teachers.
They wrote about the atmosphere. About kindness. About courage.
About music that stopped being a competition and became a meeting.
“This is probably the only event of its kind in Poland, accompanied by an extraordinary energy.”
“What matters is not how someone plays, but that we can share the beauty that each of us can create through an instrument.”
“This week was one of the most productive weeks of my life. I am grateful that people with such initiative created something like this.”
“You created an event where money and playing ability do not matter, but rather the joy of sharing the beauty that can be brought out of each of us through an instrument.”
“Such a performance allows people to overcome stress, stage fright, and believe in their own abilities.”
These voices best explain what Żywieckie Suwakowanie has been from the beginning.
Not a competition.
Not only a festival.
But a community.
From the very beginning, the organizers repeated that Żywieckie Suwakowanie did not belong to one person or one institution. It was created by everyone — participants, teachers, volunteers, partners, and friends of the festival. Perhaps that is why, over the years, so many people did not refer to it as “that festival,” but simply as: “our Suwakowanie”.
Twenty Years Later
Over the past twenty years, more than 2,000 musicians have participated in Żywieckie Suwakowanie, and more than 25,000 audience members have witnessed its concerts.
Programs changed. Teachers changed. Generations of participants changed.
But one thing remained the same:
The belief that music is most beautiful when it becomes an opportunity for people to come together.
Today, it is possible to calculate the number of concerts, teachers, participants, and countries from which musicians traveled.
It is much harder to account for the countless friendships, inspirations, courage, and life decisions that were born in Żywiec.
Perhaps those are the greatest achievements of Żywieckie Suwakowanie.
Today, the festival is led by another generation of people who grew up alongside it. Jarek Meisner, Wojciech Jeliński, Tomasz Zabor, and Kuba Sznajder spent many years as participants — arriving as young boys — and today they help shape the festival’s future development.
Alongside them, Dorota Babińska-Waluś continue to co-organize the festival, preserving the connection between its earliest years and its present-day identity.
It is this continuity that makes Żywieckie Suwakowanie not merely a memory of its first editions, but a living story that continues to be written.
Two Paths, One Story
The most beautiful initiatives become larger than their founders. Over time, they become the shared legacy of everyone who contributes to them.
Life writes its own stories. The paths of the founders of Żywieckie Suwakowanie eventually went in different directions, but the idea they brought to life together in the summer of 2006 continues.
Maciej Pietraszko lives in the United States. After many years of artistic and educational work, he eventually connected his professional path with the field of behavioral health. Today, he works as a patient support specialist, helping individuals throughout their treatment and recovery journeys. In 2026, he begins graduate studies in social work at Florida State University. Music remains an inseparable part of his life. However, today he also uses his experience, compassion, and dedication as he prepares for therapeutic work and continues supporting people in their own processes of healing and growth.
Anna Klimala has lived in the United States for many years, where she leads one of the largest music education organizations in the country and creates tuition-free educational programs for children and young people. Her work has transformed the lives of more than 60,000 young people from underserved communities, consistently demonstrating that music can be a powerful tool for social change and creating opportunities. Although she now lives thousands of miles away from Żywiec, she remains a devoted admirer of Żywieckie Suwakowanie, a guardian of the festival’s early history, and a proud observer of its continued growth.
Żywieckie Suwakowanie exists because of the people who believed in it from the very beginning. And that is where its greatest strength lies.
Today, the festival is the story of many generations — a story that continues to be written.
