Trip to Poland

Last week I spent three days in Poland attending the premiere of my motet O salutaris hostia which was awarded second place in the Musica Sacrae Composition Competition 2012. The performance was given as part of the Gaude Mater Music Festival by the Camerata Silesia conducted by Anna Szostak. It was a great couple of days and a rare opportunity to be immersed in another country's culture and language. Częstochowa is a great place (shame they were digging up half of it) with great bars, churches and architecture. It also has the Jasna Góra Monastery which was amazing, and well worth going to see. The 03 May happened to be the national day of Poland, and with Częstochowa being the spiritual homeland of the nation it meant for a heady mix of religion, Catholic kitsch and contemporary music. Not what I necessarily expected. An amazing experience and I met some lovely people including Paweł Łukaszewski and Marian Borkowski. I also got presented with some flowers by an Archbishop which doesn't happen everyday.