When the fun starts with rehearsals

The church in Fellbach, Germany, was filled with the powerful strains of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”, performed by a large choir of young singers. Young people from all over the district of Southern Germany had come for the rehearsal weekend of the youth choir. It was two weeks before the Day of the Youth (DOTY) of the Regional Church Southern Germany, and it was time for a joint rehearsal in order to put everything together that had been practised in the different districts under various conductors in the weeks before.

About a year before the DOTY, Apostle Martin Schnaufer had approached Larissa, who is a self-employed musician, her husband Patrik, and Stefan Halama through Sigi Hänger. Together with Thilo Oster, Patrik organised a choir team and Larissa brought Holger Kaufmann on board so that she did not have to lead the large choir alone.

All for one: singing seated

From an organisational aspect, Patrik and Thilo had their hands full. It was not so easy to think of everything and accommodate everything. But the young singers never failed to inspire: “It was totally cool how everyone pulled along,” Patrik remembers.

He was particularly impressed by how all the young people helped to actively involve the one young person in a wheelchair. “That was absolutely amazing. And then when he wished for the song ‘What a wonderful world’ from the Saturday night programme and the soprano section suggested, ‘Let’s all sing it sitting down’, it was awesome, a real goosebump moment.” Patrik wasn’t the only one in tears.

Composer comes to the première

The project did not stop at national borders either. Part of the programme were songs by the well-known New Apostolic composer Jeremy Dawson from London in England. “I know Jeremy from the pop oratorio in Leipzig, he was there at the time,” Patrik explains. “So I wrote Jeremy a WhatsApp: ‘Have you got anything?’ He said he had a song, but it hadn’t been released yet.”

The project did not stop at national borders either. Part of the programme were songs by the well-known New Apostolic composer Jeremy Dawson from London in England. “I know Jeremy from the pop oratorio in Leipzig, he was there at the time,” Patrik explains. “So I wrote Jeremy a WhatsApp: ‘Have you got anything?’ He said he had a song, but it hadn’t been released yet.”

Powerful and soulful

The choir impressed not only with powerful anthems, but also with soulful songs. “Do you know how many little stars there are?” was the question asked in the song before Holy Communion for the departed. “Is there a more fitting hymn than this? In our opinion not,” says Patrik.

Apostle Martin Schnaufer and his music advisor Tobias Metz had directly approved the programme for the Sunday service that the conductors had prepared for them. Apostle Schnaufer was only too happy to support the choir in rehearsals, and help out in the bass section. For the divine service on Saturday evening, which was conducted by District Apostle Michael Ehrich and marked the finale of the rehearsal weekend, the church was packed. Young people and interested people from the area came to listen to the large choir.

“Watching the conductors at work during the various rehearsals was already a lot of fun. And during the rehearsal weekend the excitement was especially palpable,” Apostle Schnaufer summed up. “The organisation and support from the choir team was fantastic. I really enjoyed the choir at the Day of the Youth.”