PSU Magazine Fall 1990

As the PSU Chamber Choir parades through the streets ofTallinn , Anthony Hardt (center) holds their sign while Barb Galewski smiles on his right. Waving from behind is choir director Bruce Browne. Palm also works with Professo r Earl Molander and the PSU Soviet and East European Business Administration program to bring Estonian MBA students here to study, and he is involved with other exchange programs around the country and in Canada as well. He writes a co lumn for an Estonian business newspaper boasting a readership of 50,000. And he is look in g at prospects for joint Estonian-American ventures, with hopes one day to introd uce Estonian exports into the orthwest market. Much of Palm ' s recent work in Estonia has been conducted while on sabbatical leave from PSU , where he continues to teach. With the changes in the Soviet Union , Palm has an eager and interesting new group of pupils there. But distance, time and money are probl ems, and so is despa ir over the slow pace of economic reform. "The longest visit I had was fo r one month last autumn," says Palm , "and frankly I found that three weeks is my limit. I just can' t stand it after a while. It isn' t the work that bothers me, it is the peoples' sense of hopelessness about the ir material existence. A visitor like myself knows he's leav ing, but the Estonians st ill have to deal daily with an idiotic, senseless set of economic constraints. This seems to be a system that was designed to make things bad for absolutely everybody. It isn' t changing fast enough." But thi s doesn' t keep Palm from returning to the little Baltic republic as it experiences a cultural reawakening. Despite the economic gloom, events like the Estonian Song Festi val (featured in the fo llowing story) point to the indomitable ethnic spirit of the Estonian people. This year's festival , a gathering of 40,000 singers and dancers entertaining an audience of over 350,000, brought almost half the ethnic Estonian popul ation together in one city - a heart-warming spectac le for all Estonians - espec ially for Thomas Palm. D A joining of voices The PSU Chamber Choir was the only American group invited to participate in the 1990 Song Festival of Estonia. P articipants in thi s year's 100-year-o ld Song Festival of Eston ia - including the PSU Chamber Cho ir - threaded the ir way through the streets of the tiny European country' s capital city, Tallinn, enroute to the festi val stadium . Some 300,000 Eston ians witnessed the parade. Many leaned from the ir windows throwing flowers to the visitors, shouting "America! " " Mu sic!" and "We love you! " " Nowhere in the Western World , in my ex perience, do a people treat mu sic with such great love and compelling intensity," said Bruce Browne, PSU professor of music and director of the onl y American choir invited to participate in the festival. From June 27 through July 4, the 30 choir members were guests of the Estoni an state governme nt. They joined 40,000 singers and dancers, playing to audiences that numbered over 350,000 for an experience they fo und most revealing. " For me, it was the connection with the people there that reall y made the difference," said choir member Heather Smith. " I had no idea they were go ing to be that warm." When the PSU students stepped off the pl ane, the local Olevine Choir greeted them with singing, flowers and hugs. Olev ine Choi r members took their hosting role seriously. They provided fes ti val passes and 100 rubles for each American, brought them into their own homes one evening, and took them to a meadow picnic where a PSU 13