On Friday I wrote about the opening of the exhibition at the Calabro Gallery in Zurich, and today I will write about what starts tomorrow. Ahead of me is the first rehearsal with The Spirit of Hope Gospel Choir.

I am very excited about the coming weeks. The choir sings brilliantly and has over 50 very committed choristers. It’s going to be a wonderful journey through gospel, pop and the more familiar classical sacred music. As a musician, I have always been drawn to singing. I loved working with choirs. But the life of a choral conductor in Poland is not colorful. The level of overall music education is alarmingly low, making the chances of forming, or leading, any musical ensemble made up of amateurs, that would maintain as such a level of performance, very unlikely. There are ensembles that sing brilliantly, but this is usually preceded by a minimum of 10 years of incessant work by the conductor on the choristers’ voice emission and, of course, media work on attracting members. The choir in Poland is associated exclusively with the church. And yet it is much, much more than that.

I don’t know what conducting a choir will look like here in Switzerland. At this point, I can only speak of superlatives. I will find out about the rest in the near future. Keep your fingers crossed!