Piotr Bondarczuk

One of the three

When the Advent starts, the sound of pipes can be heard all around. They call themselves, one after another, and the sound of aerophones, under favourable conditions, can be heard as far as 10 kilometres away, on the other side of the Bug River. First, one of them calls, then another one answers, and so the sound multiplies and a pipe concert begins, which marks the beginning of the Advent. It’s Piotr Bondarczuk playing along with his neighbours – Jan Maliszewki and Eugeniusz Szymaniak.

Mr Bondarczuk started playing the pipe relatively recently, thanks to his neighbour, Jan Maliszewski, the oldest pipe player in the neighbourhood, who lives two houses away. He bought his first instrument, but he didn’t like its mouthpiece, so he designed and built his new instrument on his own. Since then, he’s made over a dozen pipes and he isn’t going to stop. He builds them out of larch and pine wood. Recently, he has also been experimenting with willow wood. He has sold some of his instruments, but generally he’s making them for himself.

He comes from a family with strong musical traditions – his grandfather was a violinist, and it was him who inspired Bondarczuk’s passion for playing various instruments. And so, he’d learned to play harmony when he was 7. Nowadays, along with his son he plays in “Bondarczuki” band, primarily on reviews, local anniversaries, parties and fairs, rarely on weddings, after-parties and christenings.

Like other players, he goes to numerous competitions – in Ciechanowiec, Jabłonna Lacka, Sokołów Podlaski, Siedlce. He taught the next generations the passion and love for the regional music – his son and his grandson both play instruments.