This has been a very busy month for us. Our first performance was on Friday 7th at the wedding of John Hopkins at Christchurch on Oystermouth Road. Then we had a busy weekend with 2 weddings and a concert. Friday 21st saw us singing at St Hillary’s, Killay, for the wedding of Sian Hopkin and then on Saturday 22nd we sang at St Peters, Newton, for Lisa Morgan. We have added ‘Pan Fo’r Nos Yn Hir’ to our repertoire and were asked to sing it at this wedding. It was very pleasing to see over 30 choristers for each of the Friday weddings, especially as so many members are working on those days. Then, in the evening, we sang at the Gala concert for the ‘All Saints Alive Music Festival’ at All Saints Church, Oystermouth, where we were joined by Joshua Mills and Celline Forrest.
‘GV Teutonia 1862 e.V. Mannheim-Feudenheim’ – 150 Years Jubilee
On Thursday September 27th we left Swansea for a 5 day trip to Germany following an invitation from GV Teutonia 1862, a male voice choir from Feundenheim on the outskirts of Mannheim, with whom we have had a long relationship over the past 20 years. As their title suggests they have been in existence for 150 years and they were celebrating with a number of events over the weekend.
On Friday we went to Oppenheim to visit the underground labyrinth of cellars and were fortunate to have the opportunity to sing at the church of St Katerine. We gave a rendition of ‘Cwm Rhondda’ where we were able to use the amazing acoustic, with the ends of phrases ringing around the building for a number of seconds (see video below).
We stopped at Nierstein for lunch and from there we went to Bad Durkheim. We visited ‘Weingut Wegner’, a winery, where we were treated to a meal and a wine tasting session. In all, we tasted 6 different wines, and were given a guided tour around the winery.
We had free time on the Saturday morning, so most of us went into the city of Mannheim. There was a festival taking place in the gardens by the Water Tower with a variety of musical acts performing on the main stage. We then returned to our hotel to change for the main concert in the evening. We arrived at the SportHalle in Mannhein-Feudenheim and were supplied with a meal where we met up with the 3 other choirs that were singing at the concert. The choirs were ‘GV Teutonia 1862 e.V. Mannheim-Feudenheim’, ‘Teutonia 1854 Pittsburgh’, a German Ex-Pats choir from USA and ‘Chor Kronshagen’. There was an audience of around 1000 at the hall and we started the second half and gave a wonderful performance, getting a number of standing ovations after individual items. One came after we sang ‘You Raise Me Up’, the copies of which were bought for us by the Teutonia choir following our previous trip in 2007. We finished with ‘An American Trilogy’, which again brought the audience to their feet and a request for ‘more’. We duly obliged with ‘I’m Gonna Walk’ arranged by Alwyn Humphreys. Our chairman, Clive (Cliff!) Walters, then spoke on behalf of the choir, aided by chorister Nigel Norman, who was able to translate into German. A number of presentations then took place, and the concert continued with Chor Kronshagen, an excellent mixed choir from Northern Germany. They ended their set with ‘Ar Hyd Y Nos’, in Welsh, which they learned following their trips to the Harlech area. The evening ended with all the choirs singing ‘Klinge Lied, Lange Nach’ which we learned in German for the event. The concert did not finish until 11.00 o’clock, but we were able to get back to our local pub to finish off the evening in style!
We unfortunately had an early start on the Sunday when all 4 choirs sang again at the morning service at the Kulturhalle, which adjoins the Sporthalle, and this was followed by more food and drink (!) in the form of a Bavarian Afternoon. An excellent band, ‘The Happy Bavarians’, played for many hours containing a number of the traditional Bavarian items and also some more modern songs. Dancing and socialising continued and some impromptu performances from the choirs also took place. We ended the day by all going back to our local pub for an evening meal, but a reasonably early night was had due to the tiring weekend.
This was another great weekend for the choir. We took 40 choristers, and a number of wives came along as well. Huge thanks must go to our secretary, Alan, and chairman, Clive, for organising the itinerary, which ensured that we all turned up at the right time and at the right place! Also to our musical team of Nick, Rhian and Steve for their hard work in preparing the choir, which gave such a wonderful performance.
We sadly announced the passing away of Frank Quinn. He had a lovely top tenor voice and we were very sad when he left the choir due to ill health. He will be remembered most for his job as a ‘Lollipop Man’ at Oystermouth Primary School and he also acted as Father Christmas for many years at events over the festive period.
