Germany choir tour

Many of you know that I have been singing with the Concordia Community Chorus for the last several years.  This 125-voice choir is centred at Concordia University College, a Lutheran-based university, and is made up primarily of community members as well as some Concordia students, under the direction of the wonderful and talented Dr. Joy Berg.

The year before I joined, the choir made a trip to Vienna, Austria, and a few years before that they travelled to New York City and sang at Carnegie Hall!  I have been waiting and waiting for another choir tour ever since I joined the group, and finally that trip is about to happen. 

Next month, a small group of us (about 23) are heading off to Germany for two weeks.  We arrive in Berlin and then spend the first week in and around Wittenberg, where Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church, protesting the church practice of selling indulgences as a means of absolving buyers from purgatory ("As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.")  This is the event that sparked the beginning of the Reformation in 1517.

The second week includes the city of Eisenach, where Luther spent a year in hiding following his excommunication, and the birthplace of J.S. Bach; a visit to the Buchenwald memorial site; the city of Dresden; and finally ending in Prague, Czech Republic.

Several of us are arriving in Berlin a few days before our tour actually begins to give us a chance to get over our jetlag, and also staying a few days longer in Prague at the end of our tour.  I'm really looking forward to Prague, which I've heard is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

We'll be singing four or five times throughout the tour, both in English and in German.  We've recently started practicing a couple of German Lutheran hymns, and all I can say is, thank goodness I learned a bit of German as a child.  This is one tongue-twister of a language!  Some of the hymns are versions of English ones that I'm familiar with, including Ein Feste Burg (A Mighty Fortress) and Auf, Auf Mein Herz (Awake My Heart), but there's just enough variation to keep me on my toes.

If you're interested, check out the clips here for Ein Feste Burg (this one is by Bach; we're singing a slight variation by Crüger) and Auf, Auf Mein Herz.