Live in Concert - 2005 Poland Tour

Track listing:
1. Dumedefò, Robert G. K. Ndo (Ghana)
2. Wilt thou unkind now leave me? Robert Ramsey (c1595-1644)
3. Y’susum midbar, D. Zahavi (Israel), arr.Alice Parker
4. Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt (Psalm 100), Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
5. Góralu, czy ci nie zal, M. Balucki, arr. Jacek Sykulski (Sykulski conducting)
6. Leaves of Grass / Ode to America, Thomas Lloyd
7. My Good Lord’s Done Been Here, arr. Lee Cloud
8. I’ve been ‘buked, arr. Hall Johnson

Together with the Adam Mickiewicz University Academic Choir:
9. Elijah Rock, arr. Moses Hogan, Thomas Lloyd, conductor
10. Lec Muzyczko, arr. Jacek Sykulski, Jacek Sykulski, conductor

Encores:
11. Michelle, Lennon/McCartney, arr. Gene Puerling
(recorded 11/6/04 in Thomas Great Hall, Bryn Mawr College)
12. Zbojnicki, arr. Jacek Sykulski
(recorded 11/5/05 in Thomas Great Hall, Bryn Mawr College)

A night we will long remember
The firstconcert of our 2005 Poland Tour couldn’t have been a more exciting occasion. The historic Philharmonic Hall in Poznan had the most wonderful acoustics we had ever experienced, a large, friendly audience to fill it – and we were sharing the program with a top Polish university choir who had toured the world with a remarkable repertoire of challenging arrangements of Polish folk songs and original music by their director, Jacek Sykulski.

We sang one of these arrangements with them (Lec Muzyczko on this CD) and one by ourselves under Jacek’s expert direction (Góralu - if you listen closely, you can hear the audience singing along with the refrain!). We also sang one of our African-American spiritual arrangements together with them, Moses Hogan’s Elijah Rock! On top of all this, the Polish students had shown us the town, taking us to a soccer game, political discussions, clubs, cafes, and a post concert dinner where the singing went on into the wee hours. We left with a lasting impression of a vibrant young society with a proud and ancient history now “feeling its oats” in the post-Soviet era. Our Polish friends couldn’t have made us feel more welcome.

In addition to the Polish songs we prepared, we brought along repertoire that represented something of our own backgrounds. We opened with an unpublished song from Ghana (Dumedefo), the home of Haverford sophomore Joel Kwabi. We also brought two works representing Jewish musical traditions (the folk song Y’susum midbar and Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalm 100), connecting the familial heritage of several of our students with the important Jewish legacy in the history of Poland. We brought a new piece of music, Leaves of Grass – Ode to America, reflecting on our current national situation in the world through three American musical icons. And we brought African-American spirituals, which are an important part of this choir’s recent history and the music most expected from American choirs.

The two “encores” on this album include the Beatles’ Michelle, which we sang as an encore on the concerts we did on our own in Poland (and later that night at the restaurant) and a performance of the wild Zbojnicki. The recording of our joint performance of this piece from the Poznan concert was truncated, but here is a recent performance on our own after the returning students took on the challenge of teaching it to the new choir members. We were quite proud to have brought back a piece that we didn’t think we could do by ourselves before our Polish friends “showed us how the music goes”! We hope this CD gives you some sense of the spirit, camaraderie, and high energy of this memorable night. – TL

The Chamber Singers tour to Poland was funded in part by a major grant from the Haverford College Center for Peace and Global Citizenship.