Admission
It is with great pleasure that we present to you the album – the result of the work and talent of people whose paths met in Olivia and were united by their love for music. It’s a unique album, woven from sounds, commitment of the whole band and authentic emotions.
Perhaps some of you will be surprised by the album released by the business center. However, this is one of those cases when we feel like a community in which the choir plays an important role.
The Olivia Centre Choir is a group of people working in various companies in the centre. It is a band that, after working hours, among everyday obligations, finds time to develop their talent and enjoy making music together. It is this joy that we wish to share today.
We present this album to you full of hope that the sounds recorded on it will bring you at least a little closer to the passion of the community that has been created around the Olivia Centre and is constantly developing.
Chapter 1
Baton Wanted
It started inconspicuously. From the musical sentiment of one person – Remigiusz Wojciechowski from Bayer. Music has always been important to him. Once, sitting in the audience of the philharmonic, he remembered the emotions that accompanied him when he sang in the choir. He thought he would like to have them in his life again. To do that, you needed people and a conductor. There was no shortage of people in the Bayer office, and a casting call for conductor was announced. Searches were made in the Tri-City and the surrounding area, messages were sent, telephones rang. After long talks, it was announced that Wiktoria Pagieła – a graduate of the Gdańsk Academy of Music, an experienced conductor and winner of numerous competitions – would become the choir’s conductor. This is how the Bayer employee choir was formed, and here we could write that the choristers and the conductor sang happily ever after. And while that would be true, it’s worth adding a few details.
Remigiusz Wojciechowski, bass
Mój ulubiony moment w chórze następuje chwilę po tym najtrudniejszym: kiedy rozczytujemy nowy utwór i każdy głos mozolnie klei nutę za nutą. Najpierw soprany, potem alty, tenory i wreszcie basy. Poziom energii jest niski, trochę wieje nudą. Aż w końcu przychodzi moment, gdy zaczynamy składać głosy ze sobą, choćby na kilka taktów. Wtedy zaczyna się muzyka i radość ze wspólnego tworzenia.
Chapter 2
Everybody wants to sing
The news about the newly formed choir spread widely – the unusual initiative was impressive and it soon turned out that amateurs of choral singing can be found among many organizations. Less than a year later, the Bayer employee choir became the choir of the entire Olivia Centre. And so the team was joined by women and men, managers and specialists, seniors and juniors. They wanted to sing and they did, and Wiktoria’s baton combined many voices into one tone.
Chapter 3
Concert debut
They sang morning, night, on the way to work and in the shower, they sang in the offices and on their walks, they sang at every rehearsal, with all their hearts, until it was time to sing on stage. A spring concert was organized under the name Olivia Camerata: All That Jazz! The first concert is impossible to forget. Dressed in evening clothes, they performed three songs in front of a wide audience gathered in Olivia Star. There was no end to the applause! The choir rode the wave and a few months later performed an even more demanding repertoire at a concert at the Open House Gdańsk. Joint attempts and first successes brought people closer together. They enjoyed spending time together. Something important (and beautiful) happened between Ania and Wojtek. No wonder, Shakespeare was right when he said that music is the food of love…
Anna Ficek, soprano
I have been part of the choir since January 2019. For me, the choir was a return to music, to singing, which had always accompanied me. Thanks to the choir, my, so to speak, childhood passion awoke in me again. I’ve met great people here and found love, not only for music.
Chapter 4
Quiet
And then the pandemic hit… From one day to the next, choir rehearsals were cancelled and meetings became impossible. There was no way to train our voices together, to look into each other’s eyes and enjoy singing together. But people with passion will always find a way to pursue it, so they set off… online rehearsals, at a distance. The effort and determination were not in vain! The choir recorded, completely remotely, their first video, singing the song Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics.
Chapter 5
Spring
Autumn and winter passed, and the time had come when the heart of every choir member was yearning for music. Indoor rehearsals were still not a sensible idea, so the choir hesitantly started outdoor meetings. Spring Oliwa delighted with its beauty, and there was no shortage of places to sing. From timid rehearsals, a bold project was created – the choir’s second video, recorded for the song Seasons of love by Jonathan Larson. The time of separation was a difficult time for the friendships that formed between the notes.
Karolina Rymarczyk, soprano
Z Ewą poznałyśmy się na przesłuchaniach. Najbardziej zintegrował nas jednak nasz pierwszy chóralny projekt – praca nad teledyskiem do Seasons of love. Później były wspólne dodatkowe zajęcia wokalne. Nic tak nie łączy ludzi, jak muzyka! Do dzisiaj lubimy razem spędzać czas, również poza próbami.
Ewa Bućko, soprano
Najpierw był casting, próby online i pierwsze próby na powietrzu. Tak zaczęła się moja przygoda z Chórem Olivii. Ważnym momentem było nagranie teledysku do piosenki Seasons of love w urokliwym leśnym otoczeniu. Z Karoliną złapałyśmy wtedy kontakt i wspólną energię. Piosenka z musicalu Rent do dziś jest dla mnie bardzo ważna. Wspólna pasja buduje i może być początkiem pięknych znajomości!
Chapter 6
Where Music Flourishes
Again together, undefeated, they met for weekly rehearsals, rehearsing a completely new, exotic repertoire. A year-round tropical garden filled with plants from all over the world has been opened in Olivia Centre. Such a green space, pulsating with colours, inspired new musical explorations. In Olivia Garden, among ficus and banana trees, with the audience sitting on the boards of moso bamboo, during the next concert, traditional African Zulu folk songs resounded. The foreign-sounding language did not hinder understanding – every sound, bar, tone resounded with pure joy.
Chapter 7
Heart
On March 28, 2022, the words of the song Prayer for Ukraine flowed from the throats of more than a hundred choristers, including the Olivia Centre Choir. This is how the charity concert Heart with Ukraine began, organized in Olivia for refugees fleeing to Polish from the war-torn country. Its originator was Wiktoria Pagieła, a native of Zhytomyr. It was Wiktoria’s energy and persistence that allowed us to gather on one stage outstanding Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish artists, who together performed a piece that was a prayer for a good fate for Ukraine, for wisdom, divine protection and many years for the country and its people.
Wiktoria Pagieła, conductor
Gdy człowiek śpiewa, modli się podwójnie. Połączyliśmy siły i głosy w poruszającym dziele, jakim jest Modlitwa za Ukrainę, modląc się nie tylko o pokój na Ukrainie, ale także w Polsce.
Chapter 8
They sing happily ever after
Over the 5 years of its activity, the band has gained many new voices. However, there are also constant, unchangeable ones in it – one of them is the voice of Remigiusz – the initiator of the whole project. In the symbolic fifth year, the album is created. It is not only a record of the songs performed together, but above all of the stories of people who were unexpectedly brought together by a passion for music.
Chapter 9
Postscript
We hope that the album will not only provide you with musical and aesthetic impressions, but also inspire you to discover and develop your talents. The album was created as an expression of the desire to share with our friends and supporters the fruit of the passion of the Olivia Centre community. Thank you for being with us!
Track listing
- Sweet Dreams – Annie Lennox, Dave A. Stewart – arr. Sharon Deke, Anne Raugh
- To Yourself and to You – Marcin Bartosz Macuk, Katarzyna Nosowska – arr. Anna Barszcz
- Tell – Zbigniew Wodecki – arr. Anna Barszcz
- Seasons of love – Jonathan Larson – arr. Roger Emerson
- Stand by me – Mike Stoller, Ben E. King – arr. Mac Huff
- Help – John Lennon, Paul McCartney – arr. Mario Thürig
- The lion sleeps tonight – Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, George David Weiss
- Siyahamba (Traditional Zulu Folk Song) – arr. Anders Nyberg
- Shosholoza (Traditional South African Work Song) – arr. Albert Pinsonneault
- Ayangena (Traditional Zulu Folk Song)
Olivia Centre Choir
The Olivia Centre Choir is a group of people of different ages, representing many organizations. Their love for music brought them together. Currently, the team consists of almost 50 people and brings together representatives of Olivia companies, such as: Agencja Rozwoju Pomorza S.A., Avaus Marketing Innovations Poland Sp. z o.o., Bayer, Energa S.A. GRUPA ORLEN, EPAM Systems (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Lyreco Advantage Sp. z o.o., O4 Coworking, PwC Polska Sp. z o.o., PKN Orlen S.A., Randstad Polska, Skills Group Sp. z o.o., RICOH Business Services Polska Sp. z.o.o., Winning Moves Polska Sp. Ltd.
Olivia Centre Choir conducted by Wiktoria Pagieła: Dorota Bednarczyk, Alicja Błażejewska, Anna Bratko, Michał Broekere, Emilia Ewa Bućko, Samuel Conejo Amaguaña, Krzysztof Dolański, Yuliia Fedosova, Anna Ficek, Magda Kamińska, Michał Krzepkowski, Ida Kwidzińska, Karolina Lewandowska, Marta Moksa, Magdalena Odrowąż-Piramowicz, Izabela Paluch, Katarzyna Piętka, Radosław Piętka, Hamish Potts, Katarzyna Roskosz, Dominika Rossa, Aneta Rybkowska, Karolina Rymarczyk, Aleksandra Peszek, Raman Shcherbau, Joanna Sienkiewicz, Samuel Steinborn, Maria Szkatulska, Karolina Tetlak, Aleksandra Troskinska, Aleksandra Waluda, Remigiusz Wojciechowski, Angelika Żołnierczuk, Wojciech Żółtowski.
Accompaniment: Krzysztof Hnatiuk – bass guitar; Jakub Krzanowski – drums; Karolina Ewa Krzyżanowska – keyboards, Olaf Szczeluszczenko – guitar
Wiktoria Pagieła, conductor
Founder and artistic director of the Olivia Centre Choir Olivia Centre. A graduate of the Academy of Music in Gdańsk. St. Moniuszko, laureate and participant of numerous conducting and choral competitions in Poland and abroad. Including. Grand Prix at the International Choir Competition A. Dvořák in Prague for the SSW Mundus Cantat Choir, Grand Prix at the VIII Festival O Warmia Moja Miła in Olsztyn for the Tutti e Solo Chamber Choir, Grand Prix at the National Festival of Marian Song in Chojnice. Originator and organizer of many music events. President of the Gdańsk Branch of the Polish Association of Choirs and Orchestras (2012-2014). One of her greatest successes is her participation in the preparation of the Choir of the Academy of Music. Stanisław Moniuszko in Gdańsk to record an album Wojciech Kilar: Angelus, Exodus, Victoria. Puck received Fryderyk 2014 in the category Album of the Year – Symphonic and Concert Music.
#razemmożemywięcej
Cinematography: Olivia’s Photography Club and friends – Sylwester Ciszek, Krzysztof Hewelt, Iwona Karpińska, Marta Moksa, Mariia Roiuk, Maciej Roszkowski, Karolina Rymarczyk
Graphic design: Mateusz Laskowski | Graphic proofreading: Elżbieta Nowak
Creative team: Aleksander Demski, Katarzyna Halicka, Maciej Olszewski, Małgorzata Tomaszewska-Szumała
Reports with residents: Patrycja Chracewicz, Dawid Glamowski, Monika Matysiak, Katarzyna Niedziela, Katarzyna Szymańska
