DAVID TROIANO, CHRISTMAS CAROL LESSON, POLISH ART CENTER

David Troiano may have an Italian-sounding last name, but when it comes to Polish pronunciations, he’s all Hamtramck.  In fact, Troiano is half Polish, a fluent in his mother’s tongue, and makes an understanding of the often-confusing syllables easier due to his innate sense of humor.  His easy wit is that spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down!

Add to that, he’s a consummate musician: a tenor soloist, organist and conductor, and his dedication to the Polish community couldn’t be more obvious  when, in 1999, he was invited to participate and present a recital of sacred music for the International Sacred Music Festival in Warsaw, Poland. In 2000, he was the Narrator in the world premier recording of Paul Paray's Christmas Oratorio.  Again, owing to superb sense of humor, the Comic Opera Guild of Ann Arbor, he is participating in the presentation of the entire Victor Herbert canon of Operettas in concert format with recordings to follow.

We filmed his recent ‘lesson’ in Polish pronunciations at the Polish Arts Center,
(one of the country's premier emporiums of Polish cultural and traditional goods, run by good friends to ‘Our Polish Story’ Raymond and Joan Bittner), which proceeded Troiano’s teaching of numerous traditional Christmas carols.  As always, the Arts Center was busy, and countless ‘passersby’ stopped in a grab a seat and learned the nuances of Wsrod Nocnej Ciszy (In The Night’s Silence) and Pojdzmy Wszyscy Do Stanjecnki (Let us Go To The Manger).

The carefully crafted lesson gave the Visionalist crew a much firmer understanding of the often confusing Polish alphabet.  Not that we claim expertise… not yet, anyway.  We’ll wait until we visit Poland, and see how our new-found vocabularies work in a real-world situation!