Anna Szałapak

Anna Małgorzata Szałapak (22 September 1952 – 14 October 2017) was a Polish ethnographer, ethnologist, singer, and performer of sung poetry, particularly at the Piwnica pod Baranami literary cabaret in Kraków.

Early life and education

Szałapak was born on 22 September 1952 in Kraków. She later referred to her birthday as "the last day of summer". She studied ethnography at the Jagiellonian University. She also danced in the song and dance ensemble of the university, known as Słowianki. Between 1979 and 1997, she performed at Piwnica pod Baranami, being originally invited by Andrzej Maj, and taking part in many of the theatre's activities in Poland and abroad. An outstanding singer known for her lyrical interpretations of poems by Polish poets, she performed works by poets and composers such as Agnieszka Osiecka, Ewa Lipska, Czesław Miłosz, Zygmunt Konieczny, Zbigniew Preisner, and Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz. Osiecka referred to her as the "White Angel of Piwnica pod Baranami".

Career

In 1987, she began to present her own recitals, such as: Z niech są świat (What the World Consists of, 1987), Koncert karęd z szopką krakowskiej w tle (Christmas Carols Concert with a Krakow nativity scene in the Background, 1990) and Żywa woda (Living Water, 1997). Szałapak was a curator of the Historical Museum of Kraków. She was the author of the book Krakowskie szopki (Kraków Nativity Scenes), published in 2002 and organized nativity scene competitions, for which she was also a judge. She also presented many exhibitions of nativity scenes at the museum, exhibiting these in Italy, France, Scandinavia, the US and Ukraine. She published Legendy i tajemnice Krakowa (Legends and secrets of Kraków) on the 750th anniversary of the founding of that city.