With the sounds of “Viva la musica”, the singers of the Music 74 choir of the Evangelical Reformed Congregation entered the packed Reformed Church on Sunday afternoon. The choir celebrated its 50th anniversary with an anniversary concert.
The listeners could look forward to a “Best of” from the last 50 years – actually a “Best of” from the “Best of” as Tobias Halbach, who moderated the concert, explained, because “there were too many suggestions” . The result was a varied program that ranged from pop and film music to gospel and international melodies.
In a short quiz, the audience learned that there have been 29 coaches at FC Bayern Munich and eight prime ministers in North Rhine-Westphalia in the last 50 years. The choir directors of Musik 74 were “in office” for much longer – there were three in total: choir founder Ulrich Halbach, Jürgen Harder and currently Silke Schneider.
A “serenade” was followed by songs like “Tears in Heaven”, “Moon River”, a combination of “Lean on Me” and “We shall overcome”, “Hallelujah” and a few more.
Church music director Jens-Peter Enk, who also accompanied the choir on the piano, ended the first part of the concert on the organ. Tobias Halbach: “When Jens Peter Enk makes music, a smile that can actually only be seen can also be heard. We thank him for enriching our concert.”
“Back to the roots” – founded as gospel choir Musik 74
“The next part could be put under the motto ‘Back to the Roots’,” Tobias Halbach introduced the following block of music. Gospel songs like “Burden Down”, “Oh Happy Day” and “Deep River” thrilled the audience.
“We’re listening to Deep River again,” explained the moderator and played a recording of the choir that recorded this song in 1976.
Things went international in the next block of music, which included songs like the South African national anthem “Nkosi sikilele i Afrika” – which contains the country’s five most important languages – or Gabriela’s song from the film “So Close to Heaven”.
“Now we are heading for the big finale,” Tobias Halbach commented on the final part of the concert and promised a journey from Middle Earth via California to Africa. “It’s going to be a loud journey,” he said – with “Into the West” from Lord of the Rings, “Califormia Dreaming” and “Africa”.
The listeners rewarded the extraordinary concert with a standing ovation, and finally the choir sang “Thank you for the music” as an encore.
Afterwards there was a big thank you to everyone involved and the choir invited everyone present to the subsequent reception, to further stories, anecdotes and much more. After another encore, an impressive concert came to an end.
Half of the proceeds from the concert will go to the German Action for Hunger Relief in Sudan and half to the “Die Pusteblume” hospice service in Wuppertal.
By Ulrike Zietlow
