TEN DAYS ON A SINGING TOUR

In May 2015, Dnipro Choir participated in the 10th International Choir Festival in Gerzat, France.

Yet the mentioned festival was not the only event Dnipro Choir took part in during the tour. Prior to France the choir had a stop in Poland.

In Szczecin, the friendly Prof. Jan Szyrocki Academic Choir (“CHAPS”) welcomed us. Dnipro Choir gave a concert in the hall of Szczecin Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle. The audience enjoyed psalms, Ukrainian folk songs, works of national and world classics, and, finally, the anthem of Ukraine.

Paris was waiting ahead! It was midnight as the choir members, standing directly under the Eiffel Tower, sang Ukrainian lyrics, accompanied by Ukrainian Cossack Vitaliy Moroz, who is a chorister, and also both bandura and sopilka virtuoso. Despite the late hour, many people gathered to listen to Ukrainian songs. Moreover, this happened everywhere the choir went together.

Further the journey led to the south of France – province Auvergne, and a beautiful town Gerzat. Our friends, the organizers of 10th Anniversary International Choir Festival, were waiting for us. Besides Dnipro Choir from Ukraine, and French “Battant” choir, participants of the festival were “ANT Choir” of municipal conservatory of Antalya, Turkey, and “Meli-melo” from Belgium.

The festival program was rich, so the participants enjoyed performances of foreign choirs, and experienced exchange.

While we were performing “Shchedryk”, all spectators and guests of the festival, all – the French, the Turks, the Belgians – sang the tune along, irrespective of text knowledge.

It is not the first time Dnipro Choir participated in the International Choir Festival in Gerzat. In 2010, we came to Gerzat for the first time, and our performances were a great success.

Natalia STOROZHYK