Concordia Chor - concert "Gregorianica"

Ecumenical concert by 3 choirs in Warsaw

WPEK Award

Concordia Chor in Warsaw again!

This is not the end...

Eleven days, thirty wonderful people, plenty hours of common study, exercises and rehearsals. Effort, tiredness but also a great deal of positive emotions and tears, which appeared when the time of farewell came. This is only a small piece of what happened during our exchange. Let our words became the beginning of the following common actions. 

Kasia Anuszewska

"It was the first time when I took part in such project. It was fantastic! I would really like the ONE VOICE project to continue so that I could participate in it! Literally, I loved everything: beginning with classes and ending with hostel's staff. It may sounds a bit impossible but that is the truth. It was amazing! We have to repeat it!"
"It was an amazing experience for me - the opportunity to get to know interesting, creative people and different cultures. Especially that I have never had an opportunity of visiting Warsaw. I really liked this city, its atmosphere and colours."
"The opportunity of meeting people from Byelorussia and Ukraine who do the same as we show how much we have in common and how little separates us from each other. I have never thought negatively about other cultures. Nevertheless, the ONE VOICE project has brought loads of positives into my perception of Byelorussia and Ukraine."
"Thank you all who contributed to the accomplishment of this project, because we have received not only positive experience but also more positive impressions."
"During the project we were as one choir, good friends and as a big, happy family."
"There was a lot of singing beginning with folk, through classical and ending with gospel music. During my ten-day stay in Warsaw, I have learnt a lot. Despite the fact that we represent three different countries and religions, the differences were not important because we became one choir, and we got along well with each other. Heartfelt thanks to all who helped in carrying out this project and invited us to Poland. We would like to continue and develop the ONE VOICE project further."

One Voice

Werwyczka

Concordia Chor

Sienna Gospel Choir
photo: Michał Wąsiewicz

Resting time...

fot. One Voice

The great final

Friday - it was an amazing day. In the evening, the concert were to take place to which we were preparing at the time of the exchange, with all of our skills and energy. During the morning rehearsal, we heard last suggestions and comments from the conductors. After dinner, while rehearsing, we sang together with the instrumental section. The clock chimed 06:00 p.m. The audience reverberated with applause, and Aliona (a chorister from Sienna Gospel Choir) announced the beginning of the concert. 

The first to perform were Werwyczka choristers, then Concordia Choir and Sienna Gospel Choir. During the concert, one may have heard pieces of sacral music from Ukraine, Byelorussia and Poland. In the second part of the event, all the choristers appeared on the stage and sang as one choir - One Voice.

One Voice - Hvalite Gospoda z Nebes

One Voice - Ach Moj Jezu

O cudny dzień

One Voice - My desire

It was really easy for us to sing. We wanted to show the audience our joy which accompanied us throughout the project.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere words of thanks to every single one of you who contributed to this project. Our hearts are filled with loads of positive emotions.

Sviatlana Zadreiko

photo. Karina Krystosiak

Why didn't you come?

The classes led by Andrzej Głowacki left the most incredible and positive impression. Four hours of classes went by very quickly. I'm lost for words to describe how fantastic everything was. While talking to us, Andrzej used a beautiful language, forming the words in interesting sentences.
I really liked the fact that Andrzej didn't start the classes following a traditional, theoretical  pattern: interpretation - is .........
He prepared a fragment of poem for each group in their native languages. The task which he gave us demanded reading the poem and then singing out a part of it. In the next exercise, we had to impersonate the protagonist of the poem who wanted to find her father. During the summary of the classes, we realised that by those exercises Andrzej prepared us to understand the term interpretation and asked us four questions, which are indispensable while performing any of artistic or musical song.
The most interesting part of the workshop included an unconventional performance of the song "Ciom ty nie pryjszow?'' (Why didn't you come?). On the basis of this song, Andrzej presented many ways in which one may sing the same song.
This story presents the results of our efforts...

To sum up, I would like to bring back the memory of one significant moment of that day. Talking about interpretation, Andrzej recommended us to hear this song by Katarzyna Groniec.

Sviatlana Zadreiko

Let's dance

The half of our stay in Warsaw has passed. Every day, we have classes which equip us with new knowledge and positive impressions. The bonds between the participants getting more and more stronger day by day, and new friendships are formed. Every day, we spend a lot of  time together watching each other's, but every time we are together we are always happy and smiling. We exchange positive emotions, skills and experience with one another. Being all together, we have an impression as if we created one family, where there is some love for everyone.

Today's morning started in a similar way as the previous ones: sleepy, with half-open eyes, we are preparing breakfast in the dining room, sharing our memories from the adventures of yesterday's evening. In the dining room, each one of us has their own place: some sat on the couch, others sat politely at the table. Someone is complaining about being drowsy, someone is laughing, and someone is just watching what is happening around. Today's morning wasn't special! As later appeared, it was the predictable beginning of something unpredictable. Oh God! I've forgotten! Today we play concert on Sienna with a choir from Finland. This message reached each participant eating breakfast, including those who hadn't started eating yet. We got together and rushed to classes in Stara Prochownia. Everyone knew the way well.

One new person joined to our group - Marcin. A sympathetic, young choreographer who after having given each of us a nice and honest glimpse, and he became acquainted with us. Next, we started scenic movement classes. Martin suggested that we should learn a choreography to one of the songs we were taught by our Polish friends. There was such a lot of happiness in it. At the beginning, we couldn't repeat the moves, we were forgetting and making a lot of mistakes. Marcin was coming up with fresh ideas, which we had to accept and put into practice really quickly. It seems to me that it was funny to observe our classes because the movement were completely asynchronous.

Our today's activity was observed by one more person - the ambassador of the Youth in Action programme who talked to Kasia and the leaders of the choirs. She spend with us more time than she had originally planned. I hope that she liked it. Of course, we carried on singing and dancing. Tired but happy and content, we came back for dinner. This part of the program is always eagerly expected by everyone.

Marta Plishylo

photo: Kasia Anuszewska

Improvisations on chestnuts mare

Since morning, we had been waiting for improvisation classes, which were led by two amazing people: Natalio and Kacper. In my opinion the classes were really well-judged. We started with a small warm-up in order to prepare our vocal tracts to singing. It was amazing. The warm-up incorporated a variety of interesting exercises which helped us not only to prepare for improvisation sessions but also cheered us up. I can perfectly remember one exercise in which everyone had to introduce a person from another choir. It was really funny and pleasant experience. One could have seen themselves through the eyes of others.

Another step included rhythmic classes conducted by Kacper. Beginning with simple rhythms, we mastered more complicated ones, and then Kacper divided us into four groups which were performing different rhythms at the same time - and in that way we created a quite good drum set band.

Actually, as it appeared later, improvisation needs careful preparation. We came across with two types of pentatonic scale (major and minor), which additionally helped us in improvisation.

We were taking on a lot of different tasks, however I liked the exercises the purpose of which was to tell a story of any kind. Igor and Milan improvised on chestnut mare. Have a look how they managed to do it :).

All our effort concentrated on creating our own short pieces which one could hear by the end of the workshops. I have to admit that despite very long classes, the time flew by very fast. We have seen a really interesting view on the world of music through the eyes of creators.
After resting and dinner we went back to the old Powder Magazine Theatre where Anna Bajak waited for us. I have to say that classes with her gave me a lot of strength and energy since Anna is not an ordinary conductor - she is a woman with surplus energy and great prospects. In the rehearsal, we quickly learnt the song "Cziom Ty nie prijszoł", and then we practised the concert songs. During the brakes, Anna told us some stories of gospel songs, which helped us in understanding how we should perform these types of songs.

Sviatlana Zadreiko

photo: Kasia Anuszewska

From classic to gospel - starring Marianna

On the first day of July, I was woken up by harsh sun, which meant that another thrilling day  had just begun. After classes, during which we practised our sense of movement, musical reflex, rhythmic improvisations, and loads of other things igniting imagination, it looked like an exciting day. The classes, as usually, started in the morning what was a great challenge for some people, especially considering the previous evening integration. Despite tiredness, all participants arrived on time and started the training diligently. The workshops were led by Anna Bajak, the conductor of Polish choir 'Sienna Gospel Choir'. When the choristers made the first sounds, one may have heard the difference in the tone of three different choirs. This connection was amazing, but we were far from cohesion and precision. We knew what was our next task for the following hours. The first exercises - the choristers of Sienna Gospel Choir - were obvious to us, but they appeared funny and unknown to our friends. The choristers from Lvov and Minsk, who sing in classical choirs on a daily basis, confronted significant challenge in making the sounds of entertainment musicians. However, our amazing instructor guided our voices so perfectly that after a short period of time we started to sound like a band singing together for ages. 

One of the most wonderful moments of the day was dinner, during which we were talking, listening to music and getting know each other better. The break time induced us to conversations and discovering language differences. 

After short rest, there was also the rehearsal of Polish songs to hold. All together, we went to the old Powder Magazine Theatre where we had classes that day. In the rehearsal room, Anna Bajak had already been waiting for us, and she was to conduct the second part of the workshops. The conductor chose a gospel song for us with Polish lyrics, titled 'Oh wonderful day!' and two songs in English. It was a great surprise for us when Marinna from Concordia Choir performed solo the song "My desire". At the beginning her voice sounded very classic, but she felt more and more confident with every next performance, and she surprised us with her new ideas and her voice sounding like the one from a real gospel choir. The third song which was very energetic brought us a lot of joy. The tough, however fruitful day finished with the learning of "Let Freedom Ring" song. Feeling tired, but happy as well, we could rest and recollect another day. 

We went to Jam Session to "Barometer" pub where we spent a really nice evening. It's a pity that these days are over...

 

 

Svieta's dream

The day of integration and cross-cultural classes had already been over. On Saturday morning, when I woke up, I was very curious because then we were to start music classes. I was walking along the sunny old town and I was wondering, what the day would bring. 

The room in Centre for Cultural Education was full of mirrors. We were sitting in a circle and Mrs. Magda Stępień, who looked very inconspicuous, every minute turned into a real master of eurhythmics. There was a lot of laughter but learning as well: we were beating various times, creating canons, miming gestures and even dancing Cracovienne - Polish folk dance. Mrs. Magda was literally flying over the ground. Wandering among us, she evoked humility in us, since we realized quite quickly that eurhythmics is not as so easy and obvious as it seemed to be at first glance. 

After dinner, the first classes of Byelorussian songs called "Oh My Lord!" took place, and everyone liked it. The song was performed wonderfully and with dignity, and Svieta proved to be a great conductor. By the end of the classes, I was proud of myself because I memorised the words and notes very quickly. 

We timetabled going to theatre at Pascal Schumacher Quartet concert, which took place in the Old Town Plaza within the scope of XIX International Jazz  Festival. The music was beautiful, and at the end of the day we treated ourselves to a long walking and ice-cream because Svieta  had been talking about ice-cream for two days. 

And that was just the beginning of wonderful time, which I was able to spent thanks to this project. I knew that it would be awesome, but I didn't realise I would have such amazing time. Tired after semester finals, I wondered if I had enough strength to fully participate in the project. It appeared that One Voice was exactly what I needed at that time. 

The last memory I have from Saturday, 29th July, were Svieta's eyes which were looking joyfully at me from behind mass of curly hair. 

Maja Kurpiewska

 photo: Karina Krystosiak

The first day

Undoubtedly, it was the most expected day for me, and maybe even for each participant of the project. In general, I considered this day the most important because we spent in on integration, while we, representatives of different countries, traditions and faiths, meet in the name of common religion, Christianity and passion for music. Of course, we started the day with the preparation of food and breakfast. The thing that surprised me the most was the fact that I got to know almost everyone from Byelorussian and Ukrainian group yet before I had finished breakfast. Next, we started our omnidirectional classes containing integrative games conducted by Hania and Iza. Thereon, Mrs. Galina, the conductor of the Ukrainian group, out of nowhere, bestowed gifts on not only Kasia Anuszewska, the organizer of the project, but also the leaders of the remaining groups, showing her joy and gratitude for the organisation and being the part of the One Voice project. Since that moment I had known that out group was the best for such a phenomenal undertaking. Additionally, Mrs. Galina together with her band performed a beautiful song, which added some musical expression to that uplifting  moment. 

After the classes, there was the last challenge of the day - photo shoot. Despite the photographer's calls for spontaneity or natural posture, in the first few pictures, everyone looked serious and boring. However, in the end all people felt at ease and they went crazy what allowed us to see another part of others. 

When the session was over, everyone spent the last hours of the day as they wished: some, in groups or individually, went to visit the old town, and others, so did I, went to our hostel to eat supper and went to bed.

Truly, we've learnt a lot new things about ourselves, our cultures and countries. However, I didn't have enough, and I hoped that the things we had discovered that day, were only the small pieces, and during the project we would get to know each other better and better...

Milton Vicent and Maciej Turlejski 

photo: Kasia Anuszewska

3,2,1 ... Start!

Thursday, 27th of July - that day we started our great, international, musical adventure. At 5 o'clock p.m. the Polish group gathered to greet our guests at the bus station. As it usually happens, the couches arrived a bit late. The group from Lvov showed up about 7 o'clock p.m. At that time, we were waiting for the group from Byelorussia, and we had already started introducing one another. When the group from Minsk arrived, we immediately went to the European House of Youth Meetings, where we were to live during the time of project. In the evening, there was a short briefing. In spite of the fact that our guests spent all day travelling, they were eager to join us for a walk across Warsaw's old town. The first evening which we spend together was the announcement the great atmosphere throughout the One Voice project. 

Ola Wieczorek

photo: Darya Dyatko