Štefan Štec and ĽH Hornád
Pohoda will also see a phenomenal singer of Ruthenian songs, Štefan Štec. Štefan attended Pohoda several times; he organized a few workshops at House of Dance tent and, last year, was part of an amazing concert during Sun Welcoming. At the beginning of May 2018, he released a debut album titled Poleťiv bym na kraj svita and a day after played a powerful gig at Concert for Martina and Ján in Gregorovce. On this album, Štefan presents unique ancient songs from Slovak-Polish-Ukrainian border area. As he says, with his music, he would like to tear down the borders between countries as well as between people.
06. June 2018
“This album is damn good; it’s exceptional. Štefan is wise, well-educated, intelligent, his voice is a gem and he has incredible music discipline, which, I think, is very important for a singer,” Ľubica Čekovská praises the singer in an article published by Hudba.sk portal. Štefan adds some details about the album and the upcoming performance at Pohoda, where he will be playing the entire concert set for the first time: “I will be singing songs from the new album, but, in the meantime, we are working on new material with the band as well. And we feel the atmosphere that has been spreading across Slovakia these past few months in the songs. You can really say a lot via a folk song. But we will be also playing cheerful songs, i.e. pick-me-up songs that we like in order to put us all in Pohoda mood.”
Štefan Štec sings accompanied by Ľudová hudba Hornád, a six-piece of young gifted musicians. The front man of this well coordinated band is the violinist Dominik Maniak. “Concert at Pohoda is a dream come true. This festival is even older than some of band’s members,” Dominik laughs and adds: “We are working on some awesome stuff with Števo and are looking forward to bringing it to visitors at Pohoda.” Apart from Dominik, Maťa Babinčáková plays the violin in this band as well; Iva Harachová is a talented cimbalom player; Martin Halčin is a violist, Viliam Grega is band’s bass player and Martin Mražík plays accordion and drums.