Sharmanka's multilingual performances

As part of the Merchant City Festival, a unique story telling walk culminated at Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre where multilingual performances accompanied by Eduard Bersudsky’s marvellous mechanical sculptures celebrated Glasgow’s present, past, and its welcoming openness to the world beyond the city.

Performers in order of appearance:

Stepan Zatkulak
Ivan Nieto
Alok Samartha
Pawel Glowienka
Adnan Shamdeen
Lyn Krige
Charlie Doran
Sophie Casimira Kromholz
Marzanna Antoniak
John Cavanagh
Jo Bowie
Mo Asif

Verse Universe (audio)

photographs by Robin Mitchell

Verse Universe at Sharmanka 07/04/2016

Thank you everyone who took part in our evening of song and poetry from around the world the 7th of April! It was a truly inspiring gathering of great people who share a passion for music and art. Here are some photographs of the event by Robin Mitchell. 

Shehab, originally Egyptian, Clare Irish,
both part of a band called Olifant Collective,
performed an Arabic poem by Ahmed Shawky.
The poem is about missing and longing for home.

Sergiu Rotaru reading a Romanian poem by Mihai Eminescu.

Owen McAulay singing a song he wrote himself.

Olga Dominiquez reading her own poetry in Spanish.

Maria Bartosova performing in Slovakian.

Prabha Kuruppu singing a traditional Sri Lankan song about a king and his bad brother.

Marzanna Antoniak and John Cavanagh hosting the event.

A song workshop where participants learned traditional songs from Poland, Russia, Czechia and Scotland.

Once again, a huge thank you to all who attended and performed at our Verse Universe event at Sharmanka! 

Verse Universe recording

Here is a recording of our Verse Universe from the 4th of June.
We had the pleasure to hear performances in 8 languages.
Our performers in the order as they appeared on the day:

Fuad Alakbarov - traditional Azeri song
Inga Sempel - a poem in Italian

Owen McAulay and John McAulay - 'The Story of Shaker Aamer'

Amparo Fortuny - a poem in Spanish

Fadi Alchairi - an Arabic song

Macgillivray - a performance in Gaelic, English and ... 

Ivonne Iser - her own poem in German

Anna Strzałkowska - poetry in Polish

John Cavanagh - poetry of Ivor Cutler

Marzanna Antoniak - a poem in Polish

 

Rhymes From Home - recording

Here is the promissed recording of all performances from our evening of songs and poems from many homes around the world, brought to Glasgow by those who've made a new home here. Staged at Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre on 6th November 2014 amidst Eduard Bersudsky's marvellous mechanical sculptures. Enjoy! Share!

Rhymes From Home by Robin Mitchell Photography

Thank you everyone who took part in our evening of song and poetry from around the world! It was a truly inspiring gathering of likeminded people who share a passion for music and art. Here are some photographs of the event by Robin Mitchell.

The green room where our musicians' rehearsal turned into a feast of delicious food, laughter and collective singing.


Anna and Marzanna (in purple) made sure that the event ran smoothly.

Then we moved next door to the magnificent Sharmanka for the real show! 

John Cavanagh - the master of ceremony
Casting a spell on the audience...


We started with some music by our lovely musicians:
Stepan Zatkulak, Wilf James, Jill Leavey, Sadie Whitecoat and Miro Cuba


We've had eight wonderfully unique performances in eight languages. All of them will be available to listen to on our recording which will be published very soon.



Jill Leavey sang "The Slave's Lament"



E karika Djal performed a Roma song "Shukar Shukar"



Juana Adcock read Spanish and English poems from her new book "Manca".

 

Mary Forbes performed a Nigerian lullaby "Aye Adba"

photo: John Cavanagh



Kamilla Ravnsfjall sang a song from Faroe Islands, "My Mother"

photo by John Cavanagh

 

Gerry Loose read poetry from his new book "Fault Line"

 

Ali Tupa sang in Farsi

Sigita Morkūnaitė, Rūta Kukulskytė and Kristina Žalytė 
performed a traditional Lithuanian song "Ant kalno jovaras stovejo".

Then there was more music and a song workshop in different languages led by Marzanna...

Someone said that this photo "looks like the devil is speaking to the mic"...
Well captured, Robin.

That is some tattoo!



Saying good byes...

Our thanks to BEMIS & Homecoming Scotland 2014 for their support of this event!
Multicultural Homecoming is a partnership between BEMIS Scotland, Visit Scotland and The Scottish Government.

And, once again, a huge thank you to all who volunteered, attended and performed at our Rhymes From Home event in Sharmanka!

If you'd like us to inform you about our future events, email us at cosmopolis10@gmail.com

Traditional Song Workshop at Rozelle

Join our workshop and learn traditional Polish, Scottish and Yiddish songs. This time we will add some new songs to our collection.

All welcome! We will sing songs that are easy to pick up. You don't need to be able to read music. If you think you can't sing - come anyway and enjoy the atmosphere and get inspired by the artworks in the Gallery!

The workshop is free. Let us know that you're coming by emailing maclaurinfestival@gmail.com or via Facebook.

Thursday 28th August, 7 – 9 pm
Rozelle House, The Maclaurin Galleries
Rozelle Park, Ayr, KA7 4NQ.

Song and poetry at Rozelle

Join us for this memorable evening of songs and poetry in different languages at Rozelle.
 

Sunday, August the 17th
6 pm - 8 pm

The Maclaurin Galleries

Rozelle Park

 Ayr, KA7 4NQ.

If you'd like to join the group of our performers please get in touch at maclaurinfestival@gmail.com

This event is part of the Cultural Connections festival. 

There will be also a poetry writing workshop earlier on the day, starting at 3 pm.

To see the full programme of free workshops and events go to: http://www.themaclaurin.org.uk/cultural-connections.asp

 

 

Three songs

Those three recordings below are a little taster of our Songs in Many Tongues evening at Sharmanka. You can listen to all performances HERE. Enjoy!

Joanna's song on Soundwave

Joanna Matwiejczuk's song 'O moja matulu' (Oh My Mother) can be heard on John Cavanagh's latest SOUNDWAVE! :)



John's Cavanagh Soundwave

More SONGS IN MANY TONGUES

photographs by Pawel Glowienka

The host of the event - John Cavanagh

Musicians

Stepan and Wilf

Fiona

Stepan

Miro

Wilf and Jill

 Singers

Joanna

Hamish accompanied by Becca

Marzanna and Ula

Meray and Ceylan

 some of the audience