Written by Curtis Rossi

Don’t we all dream of a white Christmas? But when you wake to the worst snowfall in ninety years, you sometimes wish dreams did not come true! But with their usual pluck and true grit (useful for those travelling by car), ESME Singers braved the elements, travelling from as far afield as Donauwoerth, Aying, and even Ohio to our first performance of the winter season. This was our joint concert with the Koreanische Frauenchor at the Stadtteilkultur 2411 e.V. in Hasenbergl. These wonderful ladies, dressed in traditional Korean costume, sang beautiful traditional songs, two duets with hauntingly wistful solos, and finished with some local singalongs – Korean Karaoke style. ESME began the concert with an “Ersatz Gluhwein” warm up with a round of caroling, where we learned that when we sing “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”, contrary to popular belief, the gentlemen are not merry. Then the whole choir huddled on stage for our Winter set. There were jingle bells ringing, angels singing, flowers springing and even Emmanuel swinging. And amongst all that, we even managed a night of silence. Afterwards, mingling with the audience, they said they very much enjoyed our performance and were delighted to hear we would perform again: the metaphorical sleigh ride through all the snow was therefore well worth the effort. It would be remiss not to mention Annie Janssen for organising it all, thank the fantastic soloists – who repeated their wonderful performance in the Winter Concert, and are mentioned in the next write-up  – and, as ever, Léa Vernisse (reindeer horns worn proudly from start to finish) and our ever inspiring and charming conductor, Julia Chalfin! (Fermata, and “oooooo!”).