2016

At the annual Christmas concert of the USAFE Band, the choir presented a few pieces from its seasonal repertoire. Accompanied by musicians from the USAFE Band, we celebrated “Christmas Around the World” by performing: Andorinha gloriosa (Portugal), Eyenga Mbotama (Congo), and Shengye Jing (China), which featured Cooper Collins (boy soprano) and Rebecca Collins (clarinette) as soloists. In his concert review (Die Rheinpfalz, December 19th), Reiner Henn writes:

Regarding vocal purity, tonal homogeneity and expressiveness the Rheinland-Pfalz International Choir was able to enhance its performance even further, compared to the already memorable concert in Bann (as reported).

The impressive concert finale, jointly performed with the USAFE Band an the Ramstein and Kaiserslautern High School Choirs (see picture above), featured Es wird ein Stern aus Jakob aufgehn, aus Christus (Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) and a Singalong-Medley of favorite German Christmas Carols.

For our Christmas concerts in Bann and Kaiserslautern, our program was laid out in five blocks with the following themes: “Jesus Christ is Born”, “Christmas Around the World”, “Shakespeare’s Words of Winter”, “For the Refugee Children”, and “American Christmas Favorites”. In his Bann concert review, Reiner Henn writes:

“On Saturday, a choral ensemble could be heard that rose to new artistic heights and whose multicultural background led to a dramaturgically skillful program. … Every program item was presented with perfect style and was exemplary in intonation and diction.”

The SonntagsChor Rheinland-Pfalz performed a benefit concert for the „Initiative Kinderglück“ of the Lotto Foundation Rheinland-Pfalz. Profits went to refugee children in Rheinland-Pfalz. As a guest choir, we performed three songs: Prayer Of The Children - Kurt Bestor, Arr. Mark Hayes; Glorious - Stephanie Mabey; Gib’, sagt der kleine Bach - Arr. Justin W. Lewis.

Program event of the Long Night of Culture 2016 in Kaiserslautern - jointly with the Radio Drama Community and the Choir of the Musikvereins Kaiserslautern 1840.

The Missa in angustiis “Nelson Mass”, Hob. XXII:11 in D-Minor for solos, choir and orchestra by Joseph Haydn was composed in 1798 and represents, together with “The Creation” and “The Seasons”, a crowning achievement of Haydn’s works and liturgic classical music in general.

This was Stephanie Benton’s farewell concert as our choir director, as she is returning to the US after her multi-year stay in the “Pfalz”.