Poland’s jazz superstar Anna Maria Jopek is billed today at London’s South Bank Centre, when violinist Nigel Kennedy will be one of the special guests.

She will appear with her band in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and will also be one of the special guests with Nigel Kennedy’s Chopin Super Group at a concert presenting different interpretations of Chopin’s music. A classical pianist by training, Anna Maria Jopek’s vocal art combines jazz, Polish folk and pop music. She has performed and recorded with such household names as Tomasz Stańko, Pat Metheny and Bobby Mc Ferrin.

The two concerts are parts of Nigel Kennedy's Polish Weekend. The final day’s programme also includes gigs by the Nigel Kennedy Quintet, which brings together members of a new generation of leading Polish jazzmen, and the Quartet of Jarek Smietana, one of Poland's top  jazz guitarists.

Visitors to the South Bank Centre can also watch at work the well-known violin maker Grzegorz Bobak. He learnt his trade from his father and also studied at The Chicago School for Violin Making and the William Harris Lee Workshop in Chicago. (mk)