Geretsried: Mixed Voices sing modern and "a little something for the heart"

Created: 09/11/2022, 20:00

By: Doris Schmid

Christmas greetings in the living room: The Mixed Voices gave their last big concert in Geretsried in December 2021. At the weekend they will return to the Maria-Hilf-Kirche for two performances.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

The vocal ensemble Mixed Voices has been around for 30 years.

Conductor Roland Hammerschmied is looking forward to the November concerts: the choir can finally sing in front of full rows again.

Geretsried - It was a novelty and a small consolation for the many hours that the Mixed Voices had invested in their rehearsals: the Christmas concert in the Maria Hilf Church, which was broadcast via live stream last year.

Due to the corona pandemic, only 20 guests of honor were able to follow the technically very complex concert on site.

The traditional November concerts will take place there next weekend.

The singers are finally allowed to perform in front of an audience again - and director Roland Hammerschmied is hoping for full rows.

We are currently rehearsing in the Holy Family Church

The Corona period was not easy for the Mixed Voices: At first the 30 choir members were not allowed to meet, later there were online rehearsals.

"Then we practiced outdoors," Hammerschmied looks back.

Rehearsals are currently taking place in the Holy Family Church.

"We are very grateful to our pastor for that," says Geretsrieder.

He hopes to be able to return to music school with his ensemble next year.

That's actually where the choir is at home.

Spiritual program with a work by Heinrich Schütz

Basically, the Mixed Voices are rehearsing for their third year for their spiritual concert, which they originally wanted to perform in 2020 and were unable to present due to the Corona crisis.

It is titled "Give us peace".

This is also the title of a piece by Heinrich Schütz, a forgotten early Baroque German composer who died in Dresden 350 years ago.

Schütz published the piece in 1648 - the year in which the Thirty Years' War finally ended with the Peace of Westphalia.

The Mixed Voices rehearsed it.

It fits the current times more than ever, says Hammerschmied, with a view to global crises and the war in Ukraine.

Roland Hammerschmied is a founding member of Mixed Voices.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

The song "Oh Lord, Have Mercy On Me" is also special.

The German composer Alwin Michael Schronen wrote it especially for the Mixed Voices.

"We took part in a competition four or five years ago and won it," Hammerschmied explains how it came about.

According to the 54-year-old, the piece will be performed for the first time ever in the weekend concerts.

The most time was invested in an eight-part song: "Let My Love Be Heard", a work by the American Jake Runestad.

Of course, spirituals and traditional works would also be on the program, "where we come from and a little something for the heart," announces the conductor.

Concert tour to Finland planned

The choir has been around for 30 years now, and with Klaus Forster and Hammerschmied, the ensemble also includes two founding members.

"With Corona, we've repressed that a bit," says the Geretsrieder on his milestone birthday.

There will be no celebrations this year.

But next year, when the choir will shift its focus back to secular pieces, that should be made up for.

A concert tour to Finland is also planned for 2023.

The mixed voices also want to perform in the state capital of Helsinki.

"If possible, in the Felsenkirche," Hammerschmied hopes.

"That would be a dream."

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The weekend concerts are followed by rehearsals for the Advent season.

On Sunday, December 11, there will again be two Christmas concerts together with the Gartenberger Bunkerblasmusik - live and in color for everyone who wants to be there.

Two concerts over the weekend

The Mixed Voices concerts will take place on Saturday and Sunday, November 12th and 13th, at 8 p.m. in the Maria-Hilf-Kirche.

Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

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