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The STOCK Foundation continues its programme to support talented Ukrainian youth. One of the most active groups is the guitar ensemble founded in May 2022. Since then, dozens of people with different levels of musical education have participated in the classes. Some studied at music schools, others practised as a hobby. Initially there was a lot of rotation of band members, but now the line-up is quite stable, most of them young people living in Poland for a long time and attending school here. At present, there are about 10 people in the ensemble, ranging in age from the 4th grade of primary school to junior high school, whose level can be described as “advanced debutants”. Classes are held twice a week under the direction of an outstanding educator, Mirek Sokołowski, author of lyrics and music animator.

Mirek has been a guitar teacher in Poland and France for almost 25 years. He has given several hundred concerts and represented plays in France Switzerland and Poland. Together with the Lyon-based band Malossol, he was the winner of the 14th edition of the Musicales de Bastia festival in Corsica, and in 2010, with the Lublin-based Couleur Café, he was the winner of the W. Bellon Award at the Student Song Festival in Krakow. Currently, he is an animator of guitar workshops under the auspices of Homo Faber and the STOCK Foundation, as well as a music instructor in community centres, and he infects young adepts of the art with his passion for music. The ensemble under his care performs at concerts given by scholarship holders, e.g. at Baobab or the last concert summarising the school year at the Culture Workshop.