Scientists will sing Lithuanian and Czech songs

Have you ever wondered what scientists get up to after hours? The University Post took a look at one such ‘out of the lab’ activity, a holiday choir from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences (PLEN) at the Faculty of Science.

The choir, who call themselves the PLEN Christmas Choir, formed last year for a special performance at the PLEN Christmas party, and have reconvened this year for the same purpose.

”We are a friendly group of enthusiastic singers. Some are more experienced than others, but we all enjoy meeting each other every week, and have a great time together, relaxing with music at the end of a busy week of research, work meetings and experiments. It clears the mind marvellously,” says PLEN choir member Martina Picmanova, a University of Copenhagen (UCPH) PhD fellow in Plant Biochemistry.

See a preview of their performance in the video below!

Coming together

The choir has brought together a wide range of people from within the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, being comprised of Masters and PhD students, as well as lecturers, professors and other members of staff from within the department.

Moreover, the twenty strong group is a mixed bag when it comes to nationalities, with members from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, China, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic.

”It’s nice to meet people from different sections of the PLEN department and gain new contacts and make friends. And I love the feeling of being creative together, working together towards a common musical goal and having fun along the way,” says Martina.

Talent for languages

The choir primarily sings Christmas carols in English and Danish, arranged in a four-part mixed choir a cappella. This year they have, however, been more ambitious, venturing to sing in both Lithuanian and Czech, the mother tongues of some of the group’s members.

”It has been fun, especially struggling with the intricacies of Czech pronunciation, but our singers are coping extremely well. Biologists and chemists seem to have a special talent for languages,” says Martina, of this year’s expanded lingual repertoire.

The PLEN Christmas Choir will perform on Friday 28/11-14, PLEN Christmas party at UCPH Faculty of Science.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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