International
Sharing, Connecting Become Themes of South African Tour
By Katherine A. H. Pezanowski
“Music is a pathway into another culture, and allows people to welcome and receive others in a unique way,” says Tony Leach, director of Penn State’s Essence of Joy choral group, which performs sacred and secular music from African and African American traditions. Leach should understand music’s ability to open doors to new experiences. He has traveled internationally with Essence of Joy, most recently leading members of the choir, along with Penn State faculty members and local residents, on a concert tour of South Africa in June 2005.
The touring group of more than 60 singers gave six concerts in Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Grahamstown and Cape Town. The trip grew from the connection Leach had with Dr. Allan Boesak, former bishop in the Dutch Reformed Church, South Africa, and Hazel and Jake Bergsteedt, a South African couple who had visited the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., where Leach serves as a minister of music and organist.
The diverse make-up of the traveling choir, which included members of Essence 2 (singers from the State College area) and residents of Harrisburg, Pa., and Albuquerque, N.M., made the participants’ international experience even more special. “The group was an eclectic community of young and old from all walks of life, race, creed and generations. The trip was truly magical,” recalls music student Adam Berndt.
When the choir was not performing, the members visited local historic and geographic landmarks, such as the Addo Elephant Park, Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto and Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn. The choir members stayed with host families for much of the trip, providing them with a more intimate look at South African culture. Nathan Trimmer (’05 B.S. Music Ed.) says staying with a host family helped South Africa feel like “home.” “We talked about our lives, our struggles, our triumphs, politics, music, history and our individual cultures … South Africa felt like a significant home.
In addition to the six formal scheduled performances, the choir broke into song at several impromptu sessions. For example, one Sunday morning at tea, some of the Essence 2 members began to sing hymns, the students joined in, and then a drumming session ensued with students from the Louis Botha Multicultural School. Leach explains that the multicultural, multigenerational group became “one organism” as locals taught visitors African dances, resulting in a “great sharing session.”
Sharing was a theme throughout the trip. The choir was not just performing for others—the singers were sharing their renditions of African and African American spirituals in South Africa, and immersing themselves in a culture that produced that music. According to Leach, South African folk music is not just about the songs, but the movements and body language that go along with the words. Susan Boardman, a Penn State music professor who went on the tour as a professional soloist, says performing the spirituals in South Africa heightened her appreciation and understanding of the music. “When I stood with the Essence of Joy choir, and sang and moved and clapped, then suddenly I understood the African roots of that music, and felt the music in my cells.”
Leach hopes to return to South Africa in three years and take the entire Essence of Joy choir. He would also like to return on his own, perhaps with a Fulbright scholarship or to teach in high schools there. He says South Africans’ optimistic outlook is inspiring. “There is such a positive sense about the people in South Africa and what they have. Everywhere we went, people presented an optimism about their culture and country.”
Creating Art on a Roman River
From June 16 to June 21, 2005, students in the Penn State Department of Integrative Arts summer study abroad program in Rome collaborated with artist Kristin Jones in the creation of an installation art project, titled Tevereterno, on the Tiber River in Rome. The project included creating a series of lupe (the mythical she-wolf mother ofRomulus and Remus, the founders of Rome) images on the embankment walls of the river by hanging large stencils and pressure spraying the dirt off the walls surrounding the stencils.
On June 21, the integrative arts students (along with Penn State students in architectural engineering, nutrition and early childhood development who were also studying in Rome) helped place and light more than 3,500 large candles along the banks of the river between two bridges leading south from central Rome, a site roughly the size of theCircus Maximus (an ancient Roman stadium that could seat 300,000 people). Music was composed especially for the event and performed live by more than 70 individuals from various choirs in Rome.
“As a huge full moon rose on this summer solstice evening, this neglected site in the eternal city magically came alive with music, art and the warm glow of thousands of candles,” recalls Warren Wake, director of the integrative arts program in Rome, adding word spread through the city and a crowd gathered at the site to marvel at the newly created “Piazza Tevere.”
According to Wake, this was a capstone project in a course that explored the intertwining nature of the arts and Roman culture, and the roles played by the arts throughout Roman history, from ancient times to the present. “It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to gain first-hand experience in seeing the power of the arts to transform space and attitudes, a process that has gone on continuously here for 3,000 years. Within a few days, an enthusiastic group of students and volunteers used little more than Kristin Jones’ artistic vision, some water spray and some candles to transform a huge liability—a neglected cavernous space filled with garbage, graffiti and foul smells—into one of the most desirable places to be in all of Rome.”
Jones, who is based in both Rome and New York, has developed a multi-year plan for the site. Wake says he hopes the integrative arts program will participate again in the future. For more information and images, visit www.tevereterno.it.
