By Emily Burnell Petrou
Once in a while, ESME members get a chance to participate in exciting choral events outside of our organization and even outside of Munich or Germany. Recently, a group of ten of our ESME Singers participated – for the second time for many of them – in composer/conductor Eric Whitacre’s spectacular Sing Along Concert in Barcelona’s stunning Palau de la Música Catalana. Two days of intense and fun-filled rehearsals took place with hundreds of participants from around the world, with a concert culminating on the evening of Saturday, 13 September. Like ESME, the repertoire was varied in genres, from some of Whitacre’s most beloved pieces (“The Seal Lullaby”, “Sing Gently”, “Cloudburst” and selections from his composition “The Sacred Veil”), as well as a few rousing Moses Hogan gospel classics (“Elijah Rock”, “The Battle of Jericho” and “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”). Both the audience and the singers were moved to tears by both “the Sacred Veil” and Bach’s “Come Sweet Death”, both dealing with grief and loss. There was the added delight of singing along with some of the singers we shared our very first joint ESME Weekend Away with this past April, from former ESME Singers conductor Eric Weddle’s Rheinland-Pfalz International Choir. Our first experience in this beautiful venue with Whitacre was in September of 2023 – also with about ten ESME Singers in all – and there were hints that in two year’s time, there will be a repeat event, possibly with a piece written by Whitacre himself for us! It’s always worth signing up to the newsletter for Interkultur to see what other wonderful opportunities there are in Europe for similar events. Combining our mutual love for music, socializing and travel make these events the perfect fit for ESME.
The very first outside choral event some of our ESME members participated in was Sir Karl Jenkins‘ “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace” in November of 2018, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. This took place in Berlin, and was conducted by none other than the famous composer himself. Like the Barcelona event, this was a unique opportunity to work personally with the very man who wrote the music, and meet hundreds (in this case, thousands!) of singers from around the world. And, once again, the audience and performers were brought to tears by the moving music (and images). A truly unforgettable experience, and you can view it in its entirety here!
Last November just a small crew of us (four singers, to be exact, one of whom came along simply to watch the concert) also participated in a long weekend in Vienna, sponsored by Kunst & Kultur, rehearsing and performing most of Händel’s Messiah in the awe inspiring setting of the historic St. Stephen’s Cathedral. As the Christmas markets were starting up during our stay, we were also able to combine the rehearsals with the festivity of the season and partake in the pleasures of Glühwein and such, surrounded by sparking lights and jolly stands selling the usual variety of lovely goods. It certainly put us all in the holiday spirit!
And, looking further back yet on that difficult era of the onset of the Covid crisis, many of us certainly had plenty of opportunities to join virtual choirs to keep our vocal muscles and brains flexed during a time when in-person rehearsals for ESME were a challenge. A few of us have enjoyed the Stay at Home Choir, now rebranded as the WorldChoir – they just celebrated their 5th anniversary in London with a gala concert at Cadogan Hall , and thusly singers who had only seen each other’s faces in Zooms for years were able to make music together in person, and it was thrilling! Founding ESME member and dedicated alto Emily Tuffley took part in this exciting event, as well as some of other Stay At Home Choir gigs with Sir Karl Jenkins in Germany and Austria. Amazingly, the WorldChoir has continued with virtual projects featuring very esteemed conductors and choristers (VOCES8, The Swingles and the King’s Singers, to name a few) and will continue to do so, so please check their website for upcoming projects (there is even a good chance that their next big in-person concert weekend will take place in a German-speaking country next year!).
It’s a small world in the choral community; one of our Armed Man Berlin conductors and former members of the World Choir for Peace , Alexander Koller, has his own Austria-based organization, Konekto, putting on similar events, which also employs the co-creator of the WorldChoir, Tori Longdon. Tori will be conducting a “Come & Sing” event in Ingolstadt the last weekend of November, featuring European Christmas carols. And yes, a few of our Singers have signed up! Seeing as Ingolstadt is only an hour’s train ride away from Munich, this was a hard one to pass up. There are still spaces available – male voices in particular are always welcome, of course!
We are keeping track of other possibilities to spread our wings and voices across the continent and maybe even the world…so stay tuned, no pun intended!