A pair of concerts

I feel like I have been running non-stop for the last month. Budapest, Easter with the Ruds, the Half-Marathon, Paris, and then...

this past weekend, a concert with the Akademia Rolniczej choir. It was my first concert with the group (I already missed one while I was off gallivanting in France...), and what a debut. We sang for the X Małopolska Konkurs Chórów (10th Małopolska Regional Choir Competition). It took place in a castle complex just outside of Kraków. First of all, it was neat to perform with the group and secondly, to sing in a castle! I thought we sounded good, and I'm pretty sure we looked good too. Our concert dress is a satiny green wrap top and a black skirts. I, the domistically adept person that I am, forgot to iron my outfit, and so there I stood in the front row with a crease where the skirt had been folded on the hanger. I hope we didn't get docked points because of me...

Anyway, we sang a trio of contrasting pieces: "Hucełko Kseniu' (or something sounding like that in Ukrainian), "Totus Tuus" (a piece written for JPII's first papal pilgrimage to Poland), and "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." The last piece was both a source of fun and embarrassment - fun because it was a groovy, old-school spiritual with a great solo line but embarrassing because guess who often had to sing in front of the whole choir by herself so everyone could hear how the pronunciation should be. I am not cut out to be a soloist...

After we sang, we got the chance to listen to some of the other choirs. I felt a slight pang of guilt when a Jagiellonian University group took the stage at my not being with them and instead being with the landscape and forestry students. But I got over it real fast.

Sometime soon we are going to sing in the Maryacki Basilika. Wow.

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Last night, a friend from my choir invited me to a concert of Jewish music in Kazimerz that her friend was performing in. I'm not exactly sure on the name of place where we were, but it clearly was (or maybe still is) a synagogue. The music was GREAT. All the guys were fabulous musicians, especially Dominika's friend, the accordionist, but I don't know if they quite gelled as an ensemble. Regardless it was moving and beautiful in the haunting way that Jewish and Balkan music is.

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Spring is here, and I feel like I have a reason to live again! Warm breezes, honest-to-goodness sunshine and the damp smell of flowers in the air. I think it's time to read Anna Karenina again. :)