Category: News

Last Sunday morning some members of the choir joined other singers and a wonderful orchestra with really lovely soloists for the “Bach Cantata from Scratch” service in St Finian’s church, Adelaide Rd, Dublin. The musical aspect was organised by Werner Blau and with the service led by the pastor Florian von Issendorff. We performed ‘Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan’, BWV 100 (What God does, that is well done) and it was just one of those perfect mornings. We were an ad hoc group, but I think sounded well and definitely had a lot of fun. Thank you everyone for participating!

After a break of 3 years due to the Covid pandemic, we are delighted to be returning to the National Concert Hall in Dublin on December 8th 2022 for our annual Christmas concert.  Entitled ‘Rejoice! A Christmas Celebration’, the concert will feature works by Handel, Kuhnau, Vierne, Schütz and Bach, as well as a selection of European carols.  The choir and orchestra will be conducted by our musical director John Dexter, with vocal soloists Ami Hewitt, Sharon Carty, Gavan Ring and Rory Dunne, and organist David Leigh.

For more information and to purchase tickets costing €20 (€15 concessions), go to the National Concert Hall website at https://www.nch.ie/Online/article/Goethe-Choir-08Dec22

The Choir, under John’s expert direction, sang a range of pieces to celebrate Culture Night on Friday evening. It was very enjoyable and I think we sang really well. Thank you John, Werner (for organising this lovely event) and all the singers. Here some pics.

A group of 19 members of the choir, accompanied by a number of partners and led by guest conductor David Leigh, made a very enjoyable and sociable visit to northern Germany from July 9-18, 2022.  The focus of the trip was a visit to Loccum Abbey in Lower Saxony, where Corinna and Joachim Diestelkamp, former members of the choir and previously joint pastors in St. Finian’s Lutheran Church, Dublin, are now pastors.   They have instigated an annual performance in the abbey church each summer of a Bach cantata as part of the morning service and we were delighted to be invited by them to take part in the performance this year, which took place on Sunday morning July 17th.

After flying to Hamburg, we stayed in Zarpen, near Lübeck, in Stade, an historic Hanseatic town near Hamburg and finally in Loccum.  In addition to singing the Bach cantata in Loccum, we also gave concerts of our own to welcoming and appreciative audiences in the churches at Hamberge (near Lübeck), Gnarrenburg (near Bremen), Groß Berkel (near Hamelin) and ending with a concert in Loccum Abbey church on Sunday evening July 17.  We also sang during the morning service in Zarpen church on July 10 and after the midday prayer service in St.Michael’s church (the Michel) in Hamburg on July 12, as well as taking in some sightseeing and leisure time in Lübeck, Hamelin, Stade and Hamburg.

To see photos of our trip and videos of some of our performances there, go to goethechoir.ie/gallery.

Corinna and Joachim Diestelkamp are returning to Ireland for a visit later this month with a party of travellers from Germany and will be at St. Finian’s Lutheran church in Adelaide Road in Dublin for the morning service at 11am on Sunday August 14th.  Members of the Goethe Choir are delighted to be able to welcome them to Dublin by joining the service to sing some of the pieces that we recently performed in Germany.

The Goethe Choir is delighted and honoured to be taking part in an evening of music in aid of Ukraine, being held in St. Finian’s Lutheran Church, 24 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 at 7pm on Thursday 12 May.  We will be performing a number of works from our recent concert in Christ Church cathedral in Dublin, as well as some additional pieces.   The concert will also feature Cuore Chamber Choir along with other performers.  All donations received will go to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Following our resumption of normal rehearsals earlier in the year the Goethe Choir is delighted to announce a return to the Dublin concert scene after an absence of over two years with our Spring Concert for 2022, which will be taking place at 8pm on Sunday 24th April in Christ Church cathedral in Dublin.  The programme will consist of a range of choral and instrumental works by composers including Bach, Eccard, Fauré and Telemann, ending in a performance of the final chorus from Bach’s glorious B minor mass – ‘Dona Nobis Pacem’ – which gives our concert its very appropriate title.

Tickets cost €20 (€15 for students and unwaged) and may be obtained via choir members or booked online via Eventbrite at https://bit.ly/3DbZneP.    Tickets unsold in advance will be available for purchase at the door.  Go to our website Events page for more information about the concert programme and about those taking part.

Following our recent recording of a Prayer for Ukraine (see our website blog entry for more info), three choir members – Werner Blau, David Denby and Geraldine Hynes – were invited in to the RTE Radio studios in Dublin to talk about the piece and the recording, as part of the Leap in Faith programme which was broadcast on Radio 1 on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th.

If you’d like to hear the discussion, which is followed by our performance of the piece, go to https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/the-leap-of-faith/programmes/2022/0317/1287074-the-leap-of-faith-thursday-17-march-2022/.  The item starts 33 minutes into the programme.

Like people all over the world, members of the Goethe Choir have been shocked and appalled by the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine.  During our rehearsal on 1^st March, the members of the choir, directed by John Dexter, decided to learn and record Mykola Lysenko’s Prayer for Ukraine as a sign of solidarity with Ukrainian friends and colleagues, and all the Ukrainian people under siege in their own country. You can view a video of the recording here.

Please remember the suffering of the people of Ukraine when you listen to it and share with friends.

Many thanks to choir member Brian McIvor for producing the recording and the video.

 

Despite our disappointment in having to cancel rehearsals and our annual Christmas concert in early December due to the increasing Covid infection rates, some members of the Goethe Choir met on Sunday December 19th to sing a piece of seasonal music which was due to be sung by the choir in the cancelled concert, as it is in our Christmas concert every year – ‘Stille Nacht’ with verses in English, Irish and German.

The choir gathered in the open air on the steps of the 1937 Reading Room in Trinity College in Dublin, suitably attired for the December weather and wearing masks as a cautionary measure, which may have had an impact on the visual appearance of the choristers but in no way affected the clarity and quality of the singing.   The performance can be seen and heard at https://youtu.be/qdMYGT9qtxA.

We hope to be able to perform again for an audience as soon as possible in 2022.  In the meantime, happy Christmas from the Goethe Choir!

Nollaig shona!  Nadolig llawen!  Frohe Weihnachten!

 

 

Unfortunately, due to the serious increase in Covid infection rates in Ireland and the government advice to reduce social interaction, we have decided to cancel our planned Christmas concert on December 6th 2021 in the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

In the light of medical and other advice we determined that it would be too risky for choir members to continue with rehearsals in preparation for the concert and that it would also be unsafe for choir members and audience members alike in the concert itself.  We have therefore very reluctantly decided that it would be in everyone’s best interests to cancel the concert this year.   The National Concert Hall has informed us that the cost of any tickets purchased from them will be refunded in full to the account from which the online purchase was made.

We’d like to apologise to all who were looking forward to hearing us singing, but hopefully we will be able to perform live again as soon as possible in 2022.