Status: 04.01.2024, 19:09 PM
By: Anne Franziska Rossa
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In full splendour: the choir has around 90 members. 30 of them will rehearse over three days in New York before performing on Monday (15 January). © Peter Volkmann
Iffeldorf - An exciting start to the new year: Members of the Iffeldorf "KlangKunst" choir perform Karl Jenkins' Peace Mass in New York's Carnegie Hall.
"I've never been to New York." 30 members of the "KlangKunst" choir from Iffeldorf (Weilheim-Schongau district) can no longer sing this song at the top of their lungs after the planned flight to the USA. From Thursday (11 January) to Tuesday (16 January), a third of the choir members will travel to the US metropolis.
But they will certainly sing the peace mass of Karl Jenkins "The Armed Man" from the bottom of their hearts. Because if you've ever been invited to Carnegie Hall – as choir director Andrea Fessmann reverently calls it in an interview with this newspaper – you're doing your best.
The choir, which was founded in 2002 by Fessmann, who was born in Tölz and has already performed abroad, will sing with 80 other singers at the concert on the occasion of the composer Jenkins' 170th birthday. The organizer of the international choral project is the "DCINY" (Distinguished Concerts International New York).
Andrea Fessmann from Iffeldorf founded the choir in 2002. © Hans Hoche
What lasts a long time...
Wait a long time and be patient was the order of the day in the run-up to the concert planned for Monday (15 January). Originally, the Iffeldorf Choir had already been invited to New York in 2019. At that time, "Carmina Burana" was on the program. However, due to Corona, the concert was cancelled in April 2020.
The fact that the project, in which, according to Fessmann, choirs from England, France, Holland and the USA also sing, can now finally take place and that this time the Peace Mass is on the program, is "actually perfect," says the Iffeldorf choir director. Because the message could not be more timely – the hope for peace.
The excitement for the big day is thus somewhat weakened, "because we already have what it takes," says the director. Because it is not a new piece for the choir. Listeners in Iffeldorf have already enjoyed "The Armed Man" at three concerts. The choir has also performed the piece in Munich's Isarphilharmonie.
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The composer conducts
They are "well prepared," assures Fessmann, who will exchange the conductor's baton in New York for a place in the choir. Composer Karl Jenkins is "directly on site" and takes the baton in his own hands. When the hall is filled, 2000 pairs of eyes will lie on the well-traveled choir and 2000 pairs of ears will listen to the music.
This is Fessmann's first visit to New York. "I'm really excited," says the Iffeldorf native, looking forward to the trip. She plans to see the opera "Carmen" at the "Metropolitan Opera", or "Met" for short.