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OPOLE News

From August 2011 Newsletter:

“Roanokers Visit Opole”
Dr. Kris Slowikowski

Traveling to Opole in July, Arts and Music were on the agenda as Chico Harkrader represented Roanoke and Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, and Liz Lochbrunner and myself, chaperoning 5 young musicians, represented the Roanoke Youth Symphony.

Chico participated in an artist exhibition attended by several of Opole's many European sister cities’ artists. Their task was to paint several landscapes depicting views of Opole which were displayed to the public during their creation! Several of Chico's works were donated to the City of Opole to be displayed at the public library. He was later joined by his wife, Ellen, for a tour of Poland.

Liz and her group were met in Wroclaw by Mr. Wojciech Kopczak and others from Opole. They traveled to Opole by car and spent the first week touring Opole , Wroclaw, Krakow and Auschwitz. The children were hosted by Kamil Labusga and neighboring families whereas Liz was hosted by Ania Rozek (Opole chaperone in 2006).

Preparing for the music camp, children had daily private music lessons at the Frederick Chopin Music School. We were interviewed by local press & television and the group was formally greeted by the Opole administration. Mr. Janusz Karpinski, who visited Roanoke in June 2010, made sure that everyone's stay was as close to perfect as possible. It was!

Music camp was in a small town, Glucholazy, right on the Czech border. 55 German students from Potsdam along with 40+ Polish students also attended the camp under the auspices of the Polish-German "Good Neighbor" program. The culmination of the week's hard work was a concert in Wroclaw - part of the Wratislawa Cantans young musicians program- at the Cathedral of Mary Magdalene. The progam included Bizet's L'Arlesienne, Bach's Violin concert in D minor and Cesar Franck's Concert in D minor. The camp concluded the following day with a concert at the music school's beautiful concert hall which included popular music works from film and Broadway. The music was fabulous. No one could have guessed that all had practiced together for only one week.

Many friends were made, new foods tried, history learned, music and art exchanged and differences in culture experienced --- What better way to experience Sister Cities!

KS

Youth Symphony at the Frederick Chopin Music School concert hall
With Mr. Karpinski, the Roanoke kids and giant veal cutlets	The Roanoke group in a hall where Brahms played in Wroclaw.