Greetings 2018 ESME fans,

We are excited to start the new year off with an exhilarating repertoire of music!

All of ESME have been working hard to show you the best of what ESME can offer during our 2018 season.  We hope you are as excited as we are!

Starting off the new year, we want to invite you to our Annual Spring concert “ESME Unplugged” – join us on April 22, 2018 at Einstein-Kultur at 16:00! This is a special time for our singers to perform a wide range of musical genres from around the globe and to welcome to the stage a number of small ensembles that members have put together independently. It’s going to be an evening of musical delights!

 

Photo credits: Michael Mosch

Where can you get tickets? So glad you asked! You can find a link from our Facebook page and website, Twitter and Toytown or directly here: https://esme-ev.de/tickets.

Adult ticket: (15,00 Euros)

Reduced tickets for children up to 12: (5,00 Euros)

Reduced tickets for students: (10,00 Euros)

We can´t wait for you to hear the talented members of ESME, so save the date! We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Summer 2018 concert teaser…

The Summer Concert with the theme of “Mystery and Intrigue” will be on July 7, 2018 at the Münchner Künstlerhaus.

All three ensembles will perform their individually selected repertoires, and then come together for a few special pieces as an extra treat! The singers are rehearsing with the Orchestra our West Side Story Choral Suite, inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Be inspired and moved by the brilliance of Leonard Bernstein’s scores and the poetic assiduousness of Stephen Sondheim´s lyrics.  And the Big Band and Orchestra are collaborating on a special piece to do with our spy theme… come to find out!

Again, you can find a link from our Facebook page and website, Twitter and Toytown, and directly here:   https://esme-ev.de/tickets.

 

Save the Dates:

April 12, 2018 – Jazzbar Vogler

The Lions Club of Munich is sponsoring a benefit performance of our Resident Alien Big Band at Jazzbar Vogler (http://www.jazzbar-vogler.com/) — donations welcome, proceeds go to the Münchner Tafeln e.V.  Tickets available at https://www.lions.de/web/lc-muenchen-muenchner-kindl/

 

July 14, 2018 –  Prinzregent-Garten

Spend an evening with ESME e.V.’s Resident Alien Big Band and groove to a musical journey of Swing, Funk, Latin and Rock to get your feet tappin’ and hips swingin’!

December 9, 2018 – Gasteig Carl- Orff Saal

Join the Orchestra,Singers, and Resident Alien Big Band for our annual Winter Concert at Gasteig Carl- Orff Saal!
Save the date, more details will follow!

Fall of 2017 Update:

As we prepared for our Fall/Winter Christmas concert, the ESME choir and orchestra had the opportunity to take part in a charity event at Ludwigskirche on December 3, 2017. This event was organized by the Munich Irish Network and DIF Bayern to help raise funds for severely sick children in Munich. How exciting it was to perform the Hallelujah Chorus (amongst other items) in such a grand, (albeit cold!) venue! And to appear directly after the Paul Daly Band, featuring our Mayor OB Dieter Reiter!

Only a week later, all musicians took to the stage again, this time at the Künstlerhaus, for our ever-popular Winter Concert, entitled “A Christmas Festival”.

From Bach to Karl Jenkins, from Bruno Mars to Beethoven, this show offered the usual mix of traditional and modern. The Big Band thrilled the audience with their sensational tunes, whilst the choir brought a certain festive spirit to the occasion (headgear included!). The orchestra played many delightful pieces, including The Complete Harry Potter, featuring a cameo from the young wizard, Harry, himself!

Our thanks go to our three conductors, Davy Kazan, Benedikt Lorenz and Robert Gardner, and to the many members who contributed to make this season such a great success.

Photo credits: Tom Hafner and Jorge Benitez

Annual General Meeting March 3, 2018

The board was thrilled this year to have more than one candidate vying for more than one office!  The job of Artistic Manager was hotly pursued, as was Auditor, with two people running for each.  Highly gratifying to see such eager participants!  Marije Nieuwenhuis won the election to Artistic Manager, and Sabine Gaumert won for Auditor.  Elaine Cole and Genevieve Cory ran unopposed for Treasurer and Chair, respectively.  We did again run out of time to discuss everything we wanted to talk about, but we are arranging for a Forum sometime this Spring / Summer to talk about new projects (Maybe a Vereinsheim?  Maybe selling sausages at a summer session?).

Speaking of projects, we continue our drive to get more members involved in the running of the organization with a cloud-based Agile project management system (Meistertask).  As many projects as possible are listed as tasks that any member can take on — from deciding which glockenspiel case to buy, to writing this newsletter, to designing the program for the next concert, or planning get-to-know you games for the next Weekend Away (in May!).   We hope that this greater transparency will encourage more active participation – and give everyone a chance to experience Agile, which of course can only be good for anyone’s career… even if it’s only the business side of things, and not the musical side.  We do need both though…

And finally…

We are currently in need of more tenors, viola- and double-bass players!!! If you know anyone who might be interested please send them our way.  https://esme-ev.de/join-us/

By Michelle & Frances