Early Music Hawaii’s season opener is called The Polish Renaissance, and will be held on Saturday, September 17th at 7:30 pm at the Lutheran Church of the Honolulu.

You may have already received this postcard:

The graphic shows a medieval view of Krakow from 1493 in a woodcut from Hartmann Schedel‘s Nuremberg Chronicle; view facing west, with Casmirus (Kazimierz) on the left

But if you ask the question, “What is the Polish Renaissance?”and check Wikipedia, you’ll find this answer:

The Renaissance in Poland (Polish: Renesans, Odrodzenie; literally: the Rebirth) lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and is widely considered to have been the Golden Age of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (from 1569 part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) actively participated in the broad European Renaissance. The multinational Polish state experienced a period of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars, aside from conflicts in the sparsely-populated eastern and southern borderlands. The Reformation spread peacefully throughout the country (giving rise to the Polish Brethren), and living conditions improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products enriched the population, especially the nobility (szlachta), who gained dominance in the new political system of Golden Liberty.

Aha, the Golden Age of Polish culture!

It was indeed former Early Music Hawaii director, Scott Fikse, who inspired and researched this program! A few years ago, he was at the Royal Castle in Warsaw and attended a concert featuring some of Poland’s finest early music artists performing 17th century works by Polish composers—with strings, voices, and a continuo section offering striking music.

Scott said, “I was unaware that Poland had a history of this kind of repertoire and I felt compelled to learn more and familiarize myself with some of the composers. I spent the next few months compiling a library of 16th and 17th century works to share with our Honolulu audience.”

I’d like to share a video of Concerto Köln performing “Nunc dimittis” by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczyck which will close out our program. See if you don’t think this is a spectacular performance!

The concert will be conducted by Dr. Alec Schumacker, and features singers and instrumentalists:

Erica Kyree Glenn, Georgine Stark, soprano
Sarah Lambert Connelly, Sarah Young, alto
Joshua Habermann, Tomás Ramos, Karol Nowicki, tenor
Buz Tennent, Michal Nowicki, baritone
Keane Ishii, bass
Darel Stark, Maile Reeves. violin
Katherine Crosier, organ

Purchase tickets at earlymusichawaii.org.

(By the way, my dear friend, organist Jieun Kim Newland is in Mercer Island, Washington this week and look who she ran into!)