"Poland" Independence Concert on ORP Lightning

On 12 August 2020, on the week of the Polish Army Festival and the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, the Internet premiere of the "Poland" Independence Concert will be held, which is carried out on the ORP Lightning ship, the legendary Polish destroyer from the period of the Second Republic and veterans of World War II. The honorary patronage of the project was taken by the Minister of Defence Mariusz Błaszczak.

In the article

It is a Polish edition of the Polish Independence Concert, an event presented in the NATO Multinational Combat Group Database in Adaža, Latvia, during which soldiers of nine nationalities, artists with music and a word told the story of Poles fighting for "Our and Your Freedom".

Independence Concert This project was created almost 12 years ago, the creators of which are Polish-Canadian singer-songwriter Ola Turkiewicz and Jacek "Wiejski" Górski, screenwriter and producer. The event premiered in 2009 at the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The current achievements of the Independence Concert are 33 editions in Poland and abroad, 156 compositions and arrangements and nearly 20 separate scenarios. The project consists of an international team of session musicians, consisting of 230 artists from Poland, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Ukraine and Armenia over the years. When performing under the name Polish Independence Concert, the team carries out multilingual international editions: in Australia and Canada, Lithuania and Latvia.

For Ours and Your Freedom

The theme of the narrative of the Independence Concert "Poland" is the service of Poles under foreign banners and their fight for the freedom and independence of Poland and other nations. In the selection of repertoire and narratives, the creators focused on the extraordinary history of Polish knighthood and soldiers – since the time of the Śląski Piast Crusades, beginning, and on the history of Lech Zondek, a Pole in fighting the Soviet Army in Afghanistan, ending. Symbolically, the historical space of the Independence Concerto is determined by the sword of Władysław III Varneńczyk, found in 1863 at the Battle of Varne on the one hand, and on the other hand the "Poland" patch of Polish soldiers in the west during World War II. Next to Tadeusz Kościuszko and Kazimierz Pulaski – heroes of Poland and the United States, or Henryk Dąbrowski – the creator of Polish Legions in Italy, the Independence Concert commemorates dozens of national heroes he does not learn about in history classes. One of them is Franciszek Gabryszewski (Francis Gabreski), who, as one of the few, managed to get a plane into the air during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

A surprise for many listeners is the résumé of Polishman Mateusz Urbanowicz (Matt Urban), considered the bravest and most decorated soldier of the American Army and Witold Urbanowicz, pilot of the legendary Flying Tigers operating on the Chinese-Japanese Front. Another surprise will be the figure of Vladimir Mazurkiewicz one of the world's first military airmen, fighting on the Bulgarian-Turkish Front in 1912, one of the co-creators of Chinese aviation. A bitter story, which is still a taboo theme, will also be shown today – these are the dramatic fates of Poles forced to serve in hated uniforms, who have never renounced their Homeland. Many of them later formed staff of newly created Polish armed groups.

Independence Concert on the legendary ORP Lightning Ship

ORP Lightning, now serving as a ship-museum, is still serving as part of the 3rd Fleet of Ships, the largest tactical union of the Navy. Lightning is a legend ship, the oldest surviving destroyer in the world. She entered service in 1937 as one of four Polish countertorpedists. At the time of the launch, he was one of the most modern ships of this class in the world. Almost on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, on August 30, 1939, as part of the Beijing Plan, three destroyers, ORP Lightning, Storm and Thunder were evacuated from the Baltic.

Tracked by German aviation and navy, they happily reached Britain on September 1, 1939. Lightning, along with its crew, went through the battle route from the first to the last day of World War II, operating in the Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean. She participated, among others, in the Norwegian campaign, during which a twin destroyer of ORP Grom was sunk under Narvik. Lightning participated in the evacuation of the British Expedition Corps from Dunkirk's beaches, the Battle of the Atlantic and the naval landings in North Africa and Normandy, as well as the Battle of Destroyers at Ushant.

To this day, the merits of Lightning sailors are remembered during a battle against Luftwaffe bombing British cities as part of Operation Baedeker Blitz. When nearly 160 German bombers flew over the town of Cowes on White Island on the night of May 4, 1942, they unexpectedly encountered a massive anti-aircraft fire, located by the crew of Lightning standing in the port. The Polish p-lot fire was conducted with such intensity that sailors had to cool the barrels of the cannon in fear of overheating, and from the nearby Portsmouth it was necessary to bring extra ammunition for our sailors.

The powerful fire force of the Polish destroyer forced the Germans to operate at high altitude, so the bombing did not have the intended effect. After resisting the attack, the sailors of Lightning joined in extinguishing fires in the city. The residents of Cowes still remember the brave Poles, the figure of Lightning is present in the urban symbolism, and one of the city squares received the name of the commander of the ship, Lieutenant Commander Wojciech Francki.

Hybrid music on Lightning

During his many years of work, the creators of the Independence concert developed their own style called hybrid music. It combines into a coherent whole old songs with many currents of contemporary music, such as jazz, rock, classical and electronic music, singing poetry or techno-house. The repertoire of the program "Poland" consists of contemporary arrangements of Polish hymns, military songs and patriotic songs, including: Gaude Mater Polonia (1253), Goes Soldier Borem Lasem (XIV century), Gorge Somosierra (1905), Infantry (1917), Karpacka Brigade (1941), From Klaipeda to Szczecin (1941), the anthem of 307 hunting division - Lviv Puchacze (1943), Red poppies (1944) and songs by Jack Kaczmarski: Our Class (1983) and Source (1978).

Historical songs are accompanied by instrumental compositions of the Longingnota (2010), Nadir (2014) and Enigma (2014), and perfectly included in the theme of the edition of "Poland", Mazurek Dąbrowski (1797). The special edition of the Independence Concerto on the ORP Lightning is performed by Ola Turkiewicz (music director, compositions, arrangements and singing) and Tomasz Bacajewski (singing), accompanied by the ensemble of the Independence Concerto composed of: Paweł Jabłoński (acordeon), Marcin Riege (keyboard instruments), Piotr Krzemiński (trębka), Krzysztof Kowalewski (guitar), Marcin Ritter (bas), Karol Domański (drums), Sergei Vokotrub (I violin), Mikołaj Kostka (II violin), Malwina Kęsica (altówka), Kinga Chudzikowska – cello. The prosator narrative of the event will be led by actor Robert Czebotar. Written and directed by Jacek "Wiejski" Górski.

Independence Singer – sister project of Independence Concert

As part of the evaluation of the Independence Concert, in 2017 the Foundation for the Heritage of the Republic created the historical and educational portal of the Independent Songboard. It makes available the achievements of the Polish patriotic song together with tools for independent learning of their performance and examples of interpretations of the Concert of Independence. The songs are accompanied by literary and historical commentary, and the portal is friendly to people with disabilities.

The innovative project highly appreciated the online community. In total, the Singer brought together more than 500 thousand individual users (mainly youth and cultural animators) who made nearly 1.5 million views. The portal provides an individual generator that allows each user to create their own personalized Independency Singer, downloadable in print version or any mobile device.

Honorary patronage: Mariusz Błaszczak, Minister of National Defence

The project was financed from funds National Cultural Centre as part of the Culture Program in the Network.

Organizer: The Heritage Foundation of the Republic of Poland,

Concert partners: