The main event of this year's Star of Kindness was a holiday concert featuring Olga Szomańska, Janusz Radek and Jacek Wójcicki at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (MBNP). Admission to the concert was almost free—the mayor's idea was to collect cleaning supplies for the Children's Home in Bolesławiec in exchange for an admission ticket.
The people of Bolesławiec generously donated to the institution. Before the concert, Sister Director Agnieszka Wieczorek thanked the donors. “I am unable to thank everyone individually—so many people have supported us,” the nun said. “But I embrace you with my heart and prayers. We have enough gifts for the first quarter of next year. For everyone who gave us gifts, I have ordered a Mass at this church on Sunday, December 23, at 10:00 a.m.,” the director of the Children's Home announced.
The people of Bolesławiec who came to the concert were welcomed by the parish priest of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Monsignor Dr. Stanisław Kusik. Inviting everyone to sing carols together, he recalled the important role that carols play: they pass on to successive generations the tradition and faith contained in the words of Christmas songs.
Olga Szomańska opened the concert. She sang three songs and ended her performance with “For the First Time in Forever” from the Disney film “Frozen.” “Although it is a secular song, when I sing it, I think of the light that Jesus Christ is for me,” the artist said, and invited Janusz Radek onto the stage.
Radek sang “Love Is Faithfulness to a Choice” as a duet with Szomańska. Then the artist, who often performs in Bolesławiec and—by his own account—feels at home there, presented four more songs. He ended his performance with “A Ballad about the Miraculous Birth of Bolesław Krzywousty.” The audience said goodbye to him with thunderous applause, which died down when Jacek Wójcicki appeared on stage.
The artist conjured up Kraków atmosphere in the church, as if he had arrived in Bolesławiec in an enchanted cab straight out of a poem by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński. During his concert, he was a caroler, a magical devil, a charming singer performing a carol by Preisner, and a Kraków townswoman teaching people how to buy the best carp at Kleparz market in Kraków for the Christmas Eve table.
For the finale, the artists sang the Song of the Birth of the Lord together with the audience: “God is born, power trembles, the Lord of Heaven is laid bare…”
After the concert, city mayor Piotr Roman wished everyone a Merry Christmas.
(information: GH)