Wishing you a season filled with peace and joy. May this beautiful springtime bring you the greatest feelings of gratitude, love, compassion, hope and faith and enjoy the chocolate this Easter!
Thanks again for your support and looking forward to sharing my news with you this Spring 2024 newsletter 🙂
Some Spring Katy Carr 2024 music news for you 🙂
❤️ A BIG THANK YOU everyone at The Polish Weekly – Tydzien Polski for making me their cover girl this week ! I’m so excited to be on the front cover #tydzienpolski Thank you so much to everyone for supporting my wonderful concert in Edinburgh dedicated to all the heroes and heroines of #Poland WWII. Thank you to Magdalena Grzymkowska – Editorial Executive at the Polish Weekly for her wonderful article. I performed songs inspired by Polish 🇵🇱 Scottish 🏴 friendship and my own family connections to Scotland. Singing ‘The Skye Boat Song’ inspired me to think about my heroine Maria Clementina Sobieska who was a Polish noblewomen and mother of Bonnie Prince Charlie and granddaughter of King Sobieski won the Battle of Vienna stopping the advancement of the Ottoman Empire advancing into Europe in 1683.
The caption reads ‘ Katy Carr’s concert in Edinburgh – I was singing for General Maczek’.
Lieutenant General Stanisław Maczek (31 March 1892 – 11 December 1994) was a Polish tank commander of World War II, whose division was instrumental in the Allied liberation of France, closing the Falaise pocket, resulting in the destruction of 14 German Wehrmacht and SS divisions. A veteran of World War I, the Polish–Ukrainian and Polish–Soviet Wars, Maczek was the commander of Poland’s only major armoured formation during the September 1939 campaign, and later commanded a Polish armoured formation in France in 1940. He was the commander of the famous 1st Polish Armoured Division, and later of the I Polish Army Corps under Allied Command in 1942–45.
🎵KATY CARR NEWS & APRIL 2024 CONCERTS🎵
Friday 12th April 2024 5pm: Katy Carr performs in Hamburg, Germany Teressa-Platz (corner of Leo-Leistikow-Allee/Uferstraße), Hamburg-Uhlenhorst at the Inauguration of Teressa Square and memorial event for the children of slave laborers murdered in Hamburg. I am delighted to announce that I will be accompanied by my long time accordion musical collaborator Anja McCloskey who is now based in Hamburg, Germany. Many thanks to Margot Löhr who is organising the event and has inspired me to take part.
The square is being dedicated to the memory of a child called Teresa (German – Teressa), daughter of Hanka Scira a Polish slave labourer in Germany in WWII who was stolen from Poland during WWII. I will be singing lullablies in Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and French (the Jean Jaques Goldman song called Comme Toi ) remembering all child victims of WWII. When I sing these songs, I will also remember the 1 million children who have been stolen by Russia from Ukraine since Feb 2022 and pray for their safe return. 
During WWII children of forced laborers became victims of National Socialist racist persecution and exploitation. They died under inhumane conditions in forced labor camps, private accommodation and hospitals in Hamburg, Germany. Teressa Square was named after the child of the Polish forced laborer Hanka Scira. Teresa only lived for two days and represents all the children of forced laborers in Hamburg who died under National Socialism.The square is now to be publicly inaugurated at an event organized by the district assembly and the Teressa Square Initiative, in memory of the children and their mothers, as a reminder and at the same time as a sign of hope. The Hamburg-Nord district assembly is making it unmistakably clear that the district does not forget the victims of Nazi rule. Greetings and speeches are accompanied by music from British Polish singer Katy Carr . The neighbourhood also takes part in the celebration, which will end with space for exchange and get-together. Inauguration of Teressa Square and memorial event for the children of forced laborers killed in Hamburg Friday, April 12, 2024, 5 p.m Teressa-Platz (corner of Leo-Leistikow-Allee/Uferstraße), Hamburg-Uhlenhorst Background: It is known that at least 418 infants and small children of forced laborers died due to neglect and malnutrition in Hamburg hospitals, camps and accommodation.Teressa Scira died just two days after her birth on December 25, 1943 in the Finkenau women’s clinic. Her mother, Hanka Scira, was deported from her native Poland and had to do forced labor in Hamburg. Children of mothers from Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus in particular died in Hamburg. In 2013, a small delegation from the “Four for Finkenau” construction project met with children of former forced laborers. They came to Hamburg at the city’s invitation and, among other things, visited their birthplace, the former Finkenau women’s clinic. The future residents of the neighboring property promised to keep the memory of the children of forced laborers alive.More info here in German : https://www.hamburg.de/hamburg-nord/pressemitteilungen/18410930/einweihung-teressa-platz/#:~:text=Der%20Teressa%2DPlatz%20wurde%20nach,Hamburg%2C%20die%20im%20Nationalsozialismus%20starbenSat / Sun April 20th 21st 2024 – I am delighted to announce that my song Motylek (English – Butterfly album Paszport) inspired by the Polish Air Force Pilots who fought so bravely alongside the Royal Air Force during WWII will be played at the 2024 CGSI Genealogy & Cultural Symposium April 20-21, 2024, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCMSL), Cedar Rapids, Iowa , USA. “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.” – Winston Churchill Register here https://cgsi.org/2024-cgsi-symposium . A big thank you to Cecelia Szarwinska Dillon and Mark Dillon Chair, Board Of Directors Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International for kindly inviting me to participate with my song 🙂 Congratulations to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s 50th anniversary (1974- 2024) – we all raise a toast to you from the UK!
Saturday 27th April 2024 : Katy Carr performs for Polish Heritage Days at The Polish Saturday School in Lancaster Morecambe Bay Academy, Dallam Ave, Morecambe, Lancaster LA4 5BGEvent is from 11 – 4pm and performances will be throughout the day at selected times.Bring your own blanket for the picnic Everyone is welcome!
Sunday 28th April 2024 at 4:00 pm at the Polish Social and Cultural Association POSK 238-246 King St, London W6 0RF
THE SPRING RECITAL BY KATY CARR in honour of The 80th Anniversaries of the Battle of Monte Cassino 1944 – concert at the POSK JAZZ CAFE, as part of Polish Heritage Days – this is a new booking and more info with regards to tickets etc is available on request 🙂
❤️ A BIG THANK YOU to the Scottish Polish Cultural Association for organising fantastic concert for me in Edinburgh, Mrs Jola Debicka-MacLennan for all your hard work, liasing, organising the artists, the venue, promotion, printing & advertising materials, Anna Ruszel for keeping our members informed about the event, the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh, The Consul General Mr Lukasz Lutostanski and Sylwia Spooner in charge of Cultural affairs for supporting the event.
Below Katy Carr performs at the Polish Ex Combattants House in Edinburgh, Dom SPK 17th March 2024
Below Scottish Polish Cultural Association Chairman Mrs Izabella Brodzinska presenting Katy Carr poppies for her work and encouragement and leadership at her concert in honour of the memory of the Battle of Monte Cassino 1944
(link to Katy’s Edinburgh concert here : https://www.scotpoles.co.uk/spring-recital-2024)
Mr Marek Straczynski presenting Katy Carr with an honorary rosette of Wojtek the Soldier Bear tartan welcoming her to the Polish Ex Combattants House in Edinburgh and to Scotland. Katy Carr has shared the story of Wojtek for over 10 years across GB, USA and Poland through her song – watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1uEn7dvne8
Picture below – Thank you to Mr Marek Straczynski for the use of the Polish House and provision of accommodation for the artists. Thank you to Katy Carr for her enthusiasm to perform and the recommendation of the Architect of the D-Day Memorial in Normandy Alexander Smaga for his incredible presentation about his Polish Air Force Memorial in Normandy.
Below Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA Architect Alexander Smaga presenting his Polish Air Force memorial before Katy Carr’s concert – for more information please visit https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/1945,Ceremony-in-honour-of-Polish-pilots-Plumetot-Normandy-France-9-June-2019.html
✨WE REMEMBER ✨ ✨RIP DANUTA GRADOSIELSKA✨Devastated to hear of the passing of Danuta Gradosielska (née Mączka) a wonderful person, Polish patriot and war veteran. Sending love and strength to her family at this very sad time. Daunta was stolen as a slave in 1940 transported to Stalin’s slave labour camps – the Gulags in Siberia when she was 14 years of age. She had been living a happy, carefree life on Osada Krechowiecka (an army settlement) with her parents, two brothers and a sister. She became a brave female soldier in General Anders Army and served at the Battle of Monte Cassino 1944. We commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino years this year 2024.
✨RIP KRYSTYNA GORYL (12/12/1947-12/03/2018) ✨
A little Katy taking her first drink 🥤in what was then Cold War Poland … a toast to my mamusia kochana mama RIP 🙏 who passed away on 12th March 2018 – … my strong mountain highlander Goralka mother Krystyna from #bielskobiala gave me #Poland and risked everything so that I could be born in #freedom in the West … In the picture, you will see from left to right Katy my Ciocia (auntie) Magda, (Ciocia Wanda’s Daughter), Uncle Wujek Andrzej (Ciocia Wanda’s Son RIP), Wujek Stasiek (Ciocia Wanda’s Husband RIP) my mother Krystyna RIP , Ciocia Wanda (My Polish Grandmother Joanna’s sister RIP) #polishmum #mamusia #herstory #freespirit ❤️ STAY SAFE AND STRONG ❤️💕Thank you for your continuing support of my music💕Keep in touch ! Lots of love to you and your family i pozdrawam serdecznie✸✸✸✸✸ Katy Carr and the Aviators ✸✸✸✸✸