December, 2004 - Nr. 13
Dick reports...
Carolling at the
Hansa Haus
Since 1999 the Hansa Choir traditionally holds the annual ‘Christmas Carolling’ event on the first Sunday in December. The purpose is for song and music loving members of the club to get together, enjoy each other’s company and delight in the familiar sounds of seasonal melodies by the in-house choir. This was one of the occasions were Henry Bunge, past and departed president, was never absent. He loved to listen to the singing.
Elvira Kordan, the choir’s president, mentioned that there is never any admission charge, and that the club provides the venue free for the grateful participants.
In the past the caroling was staged in the much smaller Hansa Stube upstairs with about 40 – 50 guests. This year it was held in the large hall, because the Stube was booked out for another event. This was good news and caused a windfall, escalating this year’s visitors to over 100.
Choirmaster
Wolf Schepp led the audience and choir in familiar and well-loved melodies
of the Christmas season, ably accompanied by his wife Inge Schepp on the
keyboard.
Jeffrey
Erbrecht played his flute in solo performances to the delight of all, and
Sarah and Katie Waliczek skillfully performed a piano composition for four
hands.
Coffee, home-baked cake and cookies were made available free of charge during intermission to all present.
The second part the concert continued with a great deal of audience participation.
Old memories were recalled and new ones made. Everyone
departed happy!
Christmas Party at the Hansa Haus
This
must be one of the highlights shortly before Christmas for the many children
and grandchildren of the club’s members.
There
seemed to be more this year than ever before, of course many of them are now
a year older, more confident and more active.
The festivities started with the Hansa Choir and some of the best-loved seasonal melodies. Choirmaster Wolf Schepp also asked the audience to sing along with the choir.
Later
on he gathered some of the small fry around him to sing more Christmas
songs, especially the ones that the children were familiar with. They just
loved it and tried to best each other. Especially with ‘Jingle Bells’,
‘Frosty the Snowman’ and ‘Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer’. It was great –
and not only for the kids. The grown-ups loved it too.
At
one point Inge Schepp, who accompanied the choir and sing-alongs, had to
vacate her bench at the keyboard to make room for the ‘four-handed’ piano
recital by Sarah and Katie Waliczek, which got great applause by the
audience already at the choir’s get-together.
The
Juniors of the Weiss-Blau Bayern folk dance group entertained with a
bell-ringing performance that was very well received by the young guests.
For many of them this was a brand-new experience – "bells that sing songs"
is what one of the youngsters called this presentation.
By that time everyone was very anxious to meet Santa Claus, since most of the kids knew that he was coming and that there were presents in the offing. Finally – finally he appeared, bringing along one of his elves and a few cartloads of presents and bags of goodies.
This was what everyone (!) had been waiting for. Never mind the Christmas cake and pastries provided by the club, of course they were great – so was the coffee! But to the children this was the highlight of the whole affair.
Santa and his elf
After Santa had arrived and sat down on his ‘Throne’ the
names of the children were called so they could receive their presents. As
they stepped forward – some sat on Santa’s knee – the gifts were handed out
together with a bag of goodies. Each child very quickly left to find a quiet
spot in the hall to unwrap the loot. Needless to say that there were many
happy faces that afternoon. And the adults? Well, they probably had almost
as much fun as the kids.
Merry Christmas
Dick Altermann
Comments to: dick@echoworld.com
