Today we’d like to introduce you to Marianna Kosaya.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Campanella Children’s Choir was founded in the spring of 2000 and currently acts as the core of Campanella Educational Center. The choir consists of five levels: Beginners, Prelude Choir I & II, Treble Choir and Concert Choir. The first three choral groups are largely made up of Russian-speaking children who primarily perform Russian-language songs. The Concert Choir, on the other hand, consists of children from a variety of cultures and sings a diverse repertoire that focuses on classical music.
The ensemble participates in competitions and performs in numerous community events throughout the year. In recent years, it performed at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, Northbrook Public Library, Wheeling Park District, and Skokie Public Library. Campanella Concert Choir has been a participant of National Heritage Festival since 2006. Achievements at the festival include highest ranking and Gold Medal in 2016, 2012, 2011 and 2010, Gold Medal in 2009 and Outstanding Choral Group award in 2008. In May 2012 and 2015 the group was featured on “Introductions,” a program on Chicago area’s WFMT Classical music radio station. This year the group also will be featured on “introductions” program on classical radio station WFMT.
The Concert Choir collaborates actively with well-known Chicago musicians, giving regular performances at the St. Giles Episcopal Church in Northbrook, IL.
Our repertoire focuses on classical music. We perform pieces by Pergolesi, Lotti, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Grechaninioff, B. Britten. But we do more than just sing. For the past four years, we developed several multimedia projects that pair classical music with literature and classical works of art. These performances mix music and literature, with thematically appropriate artwork project behind us as we perform. With these projects, we seek to expose as many children as possible to classical music and show them the beauty of world-famous art.
This year our choir took part in the YMCA cultural celebration, where we presented the Russian folk songs and put together a Russian art and culture display. And, most recently, our younger choir created the musical-literary composition based on the poems by French poet Robert Desnos and music by Jean Wiener. Through our musical-theatrical performance, we told the story of the author himself and his beloved city, Paris, where he was born, where he grew up, where he wrote his first poems. We used Desnos’ words, the music by Jean Wiener, as well as dolls, masks, costumes, reproductions of the works by 20th century artists, and a whole bunch of other things.
This year we will close with annual concert where all levels of Campanella Children’s Choir will perform their programs. It will happen on Sunday, June 18th, 1:00 PM at Techny Towers Chapel (2001 Waukegan Road, Techny, IL 60082)
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It wasn’t a smooth road. I had a lot of passion for creating the choir and share all my knowledge and love to music, but I needed to learn how to organize the business. It was not easy to find the venue. We are very thankful for pastor and administration of St.Giles Church for letting us rehearse in their space. We have been using it for 8 years.
Please tell us about Children’s Choir Campanella and Children’s Educational Center Campanella.
I was born in Kiev, Ukraine. My passion for choral music comes, in large part, from the participation in the world-renowned Shchedrik children’s choir. I went on to study at the Kiev State Pedagogical University, graduating with an M.A. in Music Education and Choir Conducting. In the mid-1990s, I immigrated to the United States, where continued my music career. I formed Campanella Children’s Choir in 2000, shortly after moving to the Chicago area. It started out as a group of toddlers, but it slowly but surely grew, becoming a multi-choir group for children and teenagers. We have 120 students overall. We currently meet in Northbrook’s St Giles Episcopal Church. The choir has become a competitive ensemble that performs widely throughout Chicago.
As a classically trained musician and educator, I know the power of music’s ability to change lives first-hand. Art has the power to uplift the soul, to bring entire communities close together and make us all better people. At Campanella, we believe that every child has a potential to do well in art – we just need to figure out their niche and nurture their talent. That’s the major reason why we decided to expand beyond the choir, creating the Campanella Children’s Education center to offer a variety of arts, history and language classes. In recent years, we’ve also done several projects that bring together all of our programs, organizing combined classes and creating multimedia performances that feature music, spoken word and artwork.
I would say that there are three things that set us apart from other choir. First of all, we take pride in focusing on classical music. Second, we have a unique sound thanks to our kids’ Russian-American background, which lets them draw on the beautiful sound of Russian language. And, finally, we try to do more than sing – we want to use our performances to promote all arts in all of the glory, and the rich cultural legacy that informs it.
Ultimately, we want to develop and inspire creativity in every child by setting high standards in education and promoting the fine arts.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
It was at the rehearsal of the choir where I sang when I was a child. We were rehearsing G. Pergolesi “Stabat mater” with the chamber orchestra. While singing, I heard the voices of all of us kids coming together into one sound, and it was such a strong, such a profound feeling When the rehearsal was over, everybody left the room in silence, no one shared any thoughts with each other. We all went to our homes. And when I meet my choir friends many years later, this moment came back to the surface, and everyone shared their feeling about that rehearsal. We all experienced the same things.
Contact Info:
- Address: St.Giles Church. 3025 Walters avenue, Northbrook, IL
- Website: http://www.campanellacenter.com/
- Phone: 847-361-7989
- Email: info@campanellacenter.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CampanellaChildrensChoir/
Image Credit:
1. Campanella Children’s Choir (Concert Choir) at the WorldStrides festival (Gold Series) performing at Strathmore Music center in Washington DC
2. 1. Campanella Children’s Choir (Concert Choir) at the WorldStrides festival (Gold Series) performing at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California
3. All-Choir performance in June 2016
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Campanella Children’s Choir winter performance at St.Giles church in the program “Fascinating Rhythm”
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