Jerzy Walkusz

Place: Hopowo

Born: 1930

Death: 2017

Biography:

Jerzy Walkusz was a renowned and respected creator and animator of Kashubian culture. He was an extraordinary personality with a wide range of creative and social activities. Born in Hopowo, Poland, he was a blacksmith and farmer by profession, but a passionate promoter of Kashubian culture, which he developed and passed on to subsequent generations. Walkusz was one of the last creators of traditional instruments and ritual accessories on the Kaszuby region. He led groups of carolers from an early age and for many years directed the Regional Kashubian Ensemble "Hopowianie". He currently conducts workshops and demonstrations in his own artistic field: wood carving and blacksmithing. Since the 1980s, he has been involved in creating traditional instruments. The direct reason for their production was the need to provide instruments for the ensemble "Hopowianie", founded by Jerzy Walkusz at that time. The instruments created by him were based on historic, museum pieces, whose reconstructions he enriched with individually developed forms. He currently produces sets of instruments for folk music groups. These include devil's fiddles, burr basses, rattles and clappers, and ringlets called perłaczkas (sound-making tools in the form of a grzechotkowy stick, made from a beech branch with brass rings attached to the branches, tied with eel skin, used as pastural instruments to call livestock or signal departure or return from grazing). Jerzy Walkusz created about fifty fiddle copies. He has also created other traditional instruments.