We’ve been trying to make contact with former Choir members who sang in the 1989 Christmas Concert in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham to celebrate and to let them know about this year’s special event. The programme from 1989 lists 59 singers; there are 10 still singing in Goethe Choir, another 15 of whom we can contact and 5 deceased. The website is a way to keep up to date on what’s happening and anyone interested is welcome to register to receive our regular newsletter by going to http://goethechoir.ie/about-us/newsletter. The newsletter mailing list will only be used for the specific purpose of sharing news about the Goethe Choir’s activities and interests. Remembering the Kilmainham concert brings to mind those who are no longer with us, in particular Dick Cooper and John Curran, two tenors who died earlier this year – may they rest in peace.
November is also the month when we make the annual trip to Glencree for the service of peace and reconciliation, this year 17/11. Last year Ambassador Potzel spoke movingly about the aftermath of war – ‘so many families, so many hopes destroyed, so many lives not lived.’ Her family experience of war, partition and reunification suggests that however bleak things look on the political front, change is possible. So while we are looking forward to Bach on 16th December, we have been practising “Freude schöne Götterfunken” and planning to perform the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with John O’Connor in the National Concert Hall on 3rd May 2020, as part of the Beethoven bicentenary celebrations.
