Jana Kirschner and Anna Maria Jopek

To launch the Pulse Festival 2008, Slovakian singer-songwriter Jana Kirschner and Polish vocalist Anna Maria Jopek star in a special double-bill on the South Bank. Having made her name with numerous awards in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Jana Kirschner, now based in London, released her album Shine last year on Universal to vast critical acclaim. Consisting of 11 beautiful songs that roll like liquid honey, all easy drift and rainy-day emotion, topped off by stunning English-speaking vocals that are both intimate and personal, it's no surprise that the album's popularity is such that England has become the 16th country in which it has been released.

for this exceptional concert we have some discounted tickets for ten pounds.

Anna Maria Jopek synthesises a whirlwind of sound in unique fusion that Incorporates pop music, jazz, Polish folk and other ethnic influences. Having recently collaborated with Pat Metheny on the ‘Upoienie' album, selling 80,000 copies in first week of release, this Universal recording artist is a classically trained pianist and graduated from Chopin's Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. After briefly studying in Manhattan School of Music's Jazz Department Anna decided not to play Mozart concertos anymore and traded her beloved Ravel for Keith Jarrett. Philharmonic Halls for small, smoky clubs and theatres.

Anna Maria Jopek has performed and recorded with all the important artists in Poland and beyond. During the Jazz Jamboree International Festival 40th Anniversary Gala in 1998 she performed with the one of the greatest jazz musicians of our time: Joe Lovano and In 2003 at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, invited by the First Family Anna gave a small recital broadcasted live and dueted with pop icon, former King Crimson frontman, Gordon Haskell.

Although she plays open air gigs for 5,000 fans, as happened in Warsaw in June 2001 and 8,000 in Augustów in July 2003, Anna prefers an intimate setting to a huge concert hall and performs about 100 concerts each year, from Toronto to Vienna, London to Berlin. Yet her Carnegie Hall appearance on January 4, 2004, remains one of the most cherished and memorable thrills of her professional life.