Short report from the "Completorium - Gorczycki: Chórtownia Workshop Choir" project

All's well that ends well. On Sunday, September 3rd 2023 project “Gorczycki - Completorium” of the Chortownia’s Workshop Choir ended with a concert in Gliwice.

This was a multidimensional event - both for participants of the project (that is the choir, instrumental band and the soloists, who were also instructors during the vocal workshops), and for the public, who came to the concerts to St. Jacek’s church in Bytom and to All Saints Church in Gliwice.

An overriding intention of this project was connecting people from different places and different generations, students with teachers, performers with the audience, old with new, professionals with amateurs, Germany with Poland through Gorczycki’s person, who was born in times when Rozbark (or Rosenberg) was german, and through choristers from Germany, who were singing along with us.

This project is my own birthday present: since I have known Gorczycki’s Completorium, I have always wanted to sing this work. But I haven't had that opportunity for over 20 years. The idea for the project was born in March this year at the workshops of Mixed Choir Klaster, in which I sing under the direction of Łukasz Łoboda, and it was immediately clear that it would be Gorczycki.

Chortownia's Workshop Choir was created by 35 people, who arrived to Gliwice from different places: we had guests from Germany, Australia, as well as from various parts of Poland: from Szczecin, Łańcut, Kielce, Poznań, Pruszków and from all over Silesia. Before we met at rehearsals, we all learned our parts at home. Most of us took a vacation to completely submit to this music project for these four days.

During very intense rehearsals workshop participants, who didn’t know each other before, immediately started making friends among themselves. A German explaining Polish pronunciation of “Bogurodzica” to an Australian is a quintessence of this project in terms of international cooperation ;)

With the choir worked fantastic vocal teachers - people with great knowledge and great class, who are able to extract all the best from amateurs, sharing with them their experience in the master-disciple relationship: Barbara Tritt, Damian Suchożebrski, Bartosz Gorzkowski and Magdalena Nogańska. These artists understand how important the community is during the process of creating music - and we could feel it at every step of it.

The workshops leaders’ also performed as soloists during concerts. Alto part in Completorium and Laetatus sum, as well as two solo parts in a concert in Bytom has been recklessly performed by a countertenor Daniel Oktawian Piotrowski. In Gliwice he was replaced - in emergency - by Magdalena Nogańska, who thus made her stage debut as a soloist ;)

The choir and soloists were accompanied by the instumentalists of Academic Music Ensemble of the Silesian University of Technology, usually playing as a chamber string orchestra, composed of fantastic amateur musicians. The whole thing was led by Łukasz Łoboda, who is a very talented, well-educated, empathetic conductor, working with several choirs in Gliwice and Zabrze.

Three songs were added to the workshop repertoire. The first of them is a modern version of Bogurodzica, developed during the pandemic by Małgorzata Kalinowska-Przybylska especially for Chortownia. It was the premiere of this piece,because so far this song in the above-mentioned arrangement could only be heard in a recording made by Chortownia’s Virtual Choir during the pandemic (in 2022). The second and third pieces were respectively: Laetatus sum and titular Completorium.
The feelings of the entire group are clear - Gorczycki rules! In our heads we can still hear the beautiful melodies of Completorium and Laetatus sum! We laugh in our internal chat, that one more concert and we would sing by heart ;)
Organizers of the Gorczycki Festival after the concert in Bytom told us they didn't expect such a high level of performance of the workshop choir, considering that the participants met during rehearsals just two days before the concert. The audience, who filled both churches to capacity, was captivated by the professionalism and commitment of the performers, what was expressed with a standing ovation.

The organizing committee included both people who have been working together for years, as well as those that didn't know about their existence until recently and who met by an independent People of Culture Forum recently established in Gliwice. Thanks to them, and also to many volunteers, who supported the project with their time and skills (e.g. preparing music tutorials) the whole organization went smoothly. We are still waiting for the report, which is being edited. We will publish it as soon as it is ready!

What have we achieved? First of all, great satisfaction from the performance of the beautiful, but difficult songs at a very good level, in interesting places, for a large audience - including for friends, for whom it is always good to sing. We have proven that amateurs can perform great works no worse than professionals. We recalled Gorczycki's songs, which were enthusiastically received and they also left a mark on us, the performers. Finally, each of us brought home new friendships, from which there is no telling what will be born next!

Who has once joined a choir and tried singing together, usually remains a member of some choir forever. And if they stop singing for a moment, they immediately miss it. And when they miss it and don’t know where to go, Chortownia will show him the way. It is like a light that illuminates the choral paths and - sometimes - the wilderness of our lives. It gives hope that what is created out of the need of the heart, out of the love of singing, out of the love for human beings, is of great value to today's music world and not only it. In this way, an audience base of choral music recipients is also created, and of course with no recipients musical endeavors would be pointless. The Chortownia portal is a choral home on the Internet, who has an open and hospitable heart. We ask you to visit and support it.

The project received project financial support from Fundacja Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej and Centrum Kultury Victoria w Gliwicach as a part of the "Cultural Start-up" program, as well as from Gmina Bytom. The project Partners were: CHORALSPACE - Academy of Choral Arts from Berlin, Stowarzyszenie Gorczycki.pl, Stowarzyszenie Schola Cantorum Posnaniensis, Akademicki Zespół Muzyczny Politechniki Śląskiej, Stowarzyszenie Kulturalne „Pod Blaszanym Kurem”, Klub Twórców Górnośląskich „Karasol” and Szkoła Języków Obcych "Britam".

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Short report from the "Completorium - Gorczycki: Chórtownia Workshop Choir" project

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