Hello lovely friend! 🙂
I hope you are all well and enjoying the beautiful Spring sunshine!
I am really excited to announce that I will performing a special concert on 17th May as 21.30 at the Piazza A. Labriola, 03043 Cassino, Italy to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino in cooperation with The Kresy Siberia Foundation as part of the ‘Generations Remember Tour 2014.’ My concert has been funded and organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland in association with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Rome and town of Monte Cassino and takes place
Katy Carr performs at the Days of Poland Festival on 4th May 2014 – at 5pm Potters Fields Park, Tower Bridge, Southwark & Bermondsey, Tooley Street, London, SE1 2AA
April 2014 has been a great month and I’ve met some great people and visited some fab places !
On 10th April, I played a lovely concert at the opening of the ‘Our History-Our Story,’ Polish Heritage in the East Midlands exhibition in Nottingham. It was a very moving event and I met some fab people including Polish WWII veterans and families of the Polish I and II Corps, 303 Polish Air Force squadron and the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Merlita Bryan pictured below :
After my performance I met a member of the Nottinghamshire Polish community, Andy Zielinski, who told me about his remarkable Grandfather Ryszard Zielinski…
‘Cześć Katy – Great to meet you at the, ‘Our History – Our Story,’ exhibition in Nottingham. I thought your set was fantastic – ‘Dziś do Ciebie przyjść nie mogę,’ is one of my favourites, until I got you album, ‘Paszport,’ I hadn’t heard it since I was a boy. Thank you for mentioning my Grandfather Ryszard Zielinski I’m very proud of him. He was from Poznań and just 17 when war broke out. He was at the Officers Training School in Krosno (fighter squadron) and took part in the September Campaign. He escaped through Romania and made his way to France joining up with the Polish Air Force in Lyon, from there he came to the UK and flew with the Polish Squadrons 308 and 306 under the RAF, ultimately settling in Nottingham. He was my hero! Best Wishes Andy – here I am below with Andy and his grandad in the picture 🙂
For St George’s Day, I was invited to play at the beautiful ‘Churchill Arms,’ Pub in Notting Hill, London Town – Here we are with Gerry the manager singing a few good old tunes ! – a Big thank you to Lewis and Denise at the RAF Museum in Hendon for organising this XXX
I made a guest appearance on Johny Brown’s [The Band Of Holy Joy] – ‘Such a Nice Radio Show,’ on Resonance 104.4 FM with Nick Sweeney author of, ‘The Laikonik Express,’ which is a novel about a train journey from Istanbul to Poland and Central Europe – more info here . Johny played some fab music such as Chopin, Trans Siberian March Band whilst I played Polish patriotic songs.on ukulele. We all had great fun! ….
As part of my ongoing reminiscence outreach work I visited Age Concern in Nottingham before my concert at Nottingham Central Library on 10th April. Please see the picture below- here I am with carer Tracy Pearson – big thanks to all at Age Concern and Piotr for organising such a lovely afternoon 🙂
I was also very honoured to be asked this month to make statement in the Polish Daily – Dziennik Polski – Na Wyspach Brytyjskich od 1940 | Codziennie with regards supporting and raising awareness of the Armia Krajowa – Polish Home Army Fund. [ a big thanks to Ania from ‘Poland Street.’ for organising this,]
‘Remembering our forgotten ….,’ “It is of very great importance that we look after not only the memory and history of our Polish WWII Veterans but also assist financially through the Armia Krajowa – Polish Home Army Fund. To hear that some of our WWII heroes and heroines cannot pay for simple things like electricity and heating throughout the winter months simply breaks your heart. It’s an absolute disgrace that they should be allowed to live under such conditions and we need to do something about it as the young generation. These people who fought for our freedom are such special and brave honorary citizens of Poland and roles models for future generations and not only for Polish but British communities and the world at large.”
I leave you with some concert videos of my song, ‘Wojtek’ – we are so proud to be playing at Cassino and remembering all the WWII Veterans who fought for our freedom today – ‘For Your Freedom and Ours,’ – Za Naszą i Waszą wolność
Katy Carr on Trojka Radio – Wojtek
Katy Carr on the Taste The World stage at Womad Festival 2013
See you soon 🙂
Much love, keep in touch and take care Katy – Pozdrawiam serdecznie 🙂
Katy Carr’s music Quotes :