The Falcon Choirs Sing at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Berlin on April 9 at 7.30 pm

On Friday, April 9, the Falcon Choirs are going to perform their finale highlight concert at a very special venue in Berlin.
The Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) is located on the Kurfürstendamm in the center of the Breitscheidplatz. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The present building, which consists of a church with an attached foyer and a separate belfry with an attached chapel, was built between 1959 and 1963. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall.
The foundation stone for the old church was laid on March 22, 1891. The competition for the design was won by Franz Schwechten who planned for a large church to be built in neo-romanesque style, including 2,740 square meters of wall mosaic. The spire was 113 meters (370' and 8.81") in stature and the nave seated over 2,000 people. The church was consecrated on September 1, 1895. By this time of the consecration the entrance hall in the lower section had not been completed. This was opened and consecrated on February 22, 1906. In the Second World War, on the night of November 23, 1943, the church was irreparably damaged in an air raid. The church was largely destroyed but part of the spire and much of the entrance hall survived. The entrance hall in the base of the damaged spire was reopened to visitors, having been consecrated on 7 January 1987.
Its floor contains a mosaic of the Archangel Michael fighting the dragon. The vault shows a procession of Hohenzollern princes, early and more recent. Other mosaics show important monarchs in medieval Germany, Reformation thinkers and Reformation princes. Bas-relief sculptures illustrate scenes from biblical stories, scenes from the life of Kaiser Wilhelm I and symbolic figures representing war and peace. In the north apse are 16 display panels which tell the story of the old church and its destruction. At the opposite end of the hall are three items which symbolize the history of the church. In the middle is a damaged statue of Christ which originally stood on the altar of the old church. To its right is the Cross of Nails which was made from nails in the roof timbers of Coventry Cathedral. This cathedral had been severely damaged in a German air raid on 14 November 1940. To the left of the statue of Christ is an icon cross which was given by the Russian Orthodox Church and handed over in 1988. Outside the hall are four sandstone figures made by Stefan Kaehne.

The pictures are from the official website of the church.

Falcon video from Bach's wedding church

The Falcon Choirs Perform at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on April 8 at 11.30 am

After exciting days in Rothenburg and Chemnitz, the Falcon Choirs will stop in Leipzig on Thursday, April 8. The singers are going to perform a recital at the Thomaskirche at 11.30 am. The church is a gem for fans of Johann Sebastian Bach. Have a closer look at it with Incantato Tours:

The Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) is a Lutheran church and it is most famous as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a cantor, and where his remains currently lie. There has been a church at the current site of the Thomaskirche since the 12th century. Between 1212 and 1222 the preceding church became the new St. Thomas Monastery of the Augustinian order. In 1217, The Minnesinger, or troubadour, Heinrich von Morungen bequeathed to the church a relic of St. Thomas as he entered the order of canons after a trip to India. After several reconstructions (remains of an earlier Romanesque church were found during archaeological excavations), the current building, an example of late Gothic architecture, was consecrated by Thilo of Trotha, the Bishop of Merseburg, on April 10, 1496. The reformer Martin Luther preached here on Pentecost Sunday in 1539. Today, it is a Lutheran church. The tower was first built in 1537 and reconstructed in 1702, leading to its current height of 68 meters. The composer Johann Sebastian Bach was choir director at St. Thomas Church from 1723 until his death in 1750. A statue of Johann Sebastian Bach that stands next to the church was dedicated in 1908. On December 4, 1943, the tower was damaged in an Allied bombing raid on Leipzig requiring repair. The roof of the church above the gothic rib vaulted ceiling is one of the steepest in Germany, with a roof pitch of 63 degrees. After the destruction of the Leipzig Johanneskirche in World War II, the remains of Johann Sebastian Bach were moved from there to the Thomaskirche in 1950. The current altar, installed in 1993, is the former Gothic altar of the Paulinerkirche, the university church of the University of Leipzig, destroyed in 1968 by the Communist authorities.
A statue of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who lived in Leipzig from 1835 until his death in 1847, was dedicated on October 18, 2008 when it was re-erected across the St. Thomas Church on the occasion of the year of his 200th birthday. The 6 meter (nearly 20 ft.) statue depicts the former Gewandhaus Orchestra director and composer in bronze. Celebratory speeches were given by Kurt Masur, also a former Gewandhaus Orchestra director, and Burkhard Jung, mayor of Leipzig. The original statue designed by Werner Stein was first dedicated on May 26, 1892. It had been located on the east side of the Gewandhaus until November 9, 1936 when it was taken down by the National Socialists (Nazis) because of the composer’s Jewish background.
The Thomanerchor, the choir of the Thomaskirche, was founded in 1212 and is one of the oldest and most famous boys' choirs in Germany. It is headed by the Thomaskantor, an office that has been held by many well-known composers and musicians, including Johann Sebastian Bach from 1723 until his death in 1750.
Another notable feature of the Thomaskirche is that it contains two organs. The older one is a Romantic organ by Wilhelm Sauer, built from 1885–89. Since this organ is considered "unsuitable" for Bach's music, a second organ was built by Gerald Woehl's organ building company from 1999–2000. This "Bach organ" was designed to look similar to the old organ on which Bach had played in the Paulinerkirche.

The Falcon Choirs Visit Leipzig on April 8

On their way to Berlin, the Falcon Choirs are going to stop in Leipzig on Thursday, April 8.
Leipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony and in the New states of Germany. It was after East Berlin the largest city in East Germany before German reunification.
Johann Sebastian Bach worked in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, at the St. Thomas Lutheran church, and Richard Wagner the composer was born in Leipzig in 1813, in the Brühl. Robert Schumann was also active in Leipzig music, having been invited by Felix Mendelssohn when the latter established Germany's first musical conservatoire in the city in 1843. Gustav Mahler was second conductor (working under Artur Nikisch) at the Leipzig Theater from June 1886 until May 1888, and achieved his first great recognition while there by completing and publishing Carl Maria von Weber's opera "Die Drei Pintos", and Mahler also completed his own 1st Symphony while living there.

Falcon Choirs Tour Photo Album

The Tour Thus Far

With more than half of our tour over with, I realize this is an odd time to start blogging, but due to various technical difficulties I haven’t been able to blog until now. So instead of completely skipping the all of the previous days I figure I’ll do a bit of a summary of how everything has been going.

First of all, this trip has been a very humbling experience for me. With each new city that we stop in I don’t know which streets lead where, where the restaurants are, how to get to the shopping center, how to get to the pharmacy or drug store if I need to pick something up, etc. I’ll admit I even struggled with the TV the first night because let me just say I was not taught how to read a German TV menu in school. Back at home I’m so used to knowing how to get anything I need and get wherever I need to go, so it has definitely been interesting.

So far we’ve sung in some absolutely incredible and indescribable places that have blown away any expectation I had prior to coming on this tour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such massive and ornate buildings ever before. Today we even had the privilege of singing in the church where Bach had his first full-time gig and the church where he got married. And although we didn’t get to sing in it, we visited a church that was built in 1270 in a town that has been around since the late 700s. Now there’s some history for you. We also visited Rothenburg, one of the most important German cities during Medieval times, which still has its original town walls standing and intact enough to walk on and explore.

This has definitely been one of the most educational experiences of my life. The significance of the history of all of the places we have been seeing is difficult to comprehend, but everything starts to come into perspective when an elderly German couple comes up to you after a concert, holding back tears, and says, “what you all have is a gift from God. Cherish your voices and don’t ever let them go. Thank you so much.”

If Bach is listening, I hope he likes what he hears.

-Cody Chase

more pictures at www.codyshoots.blogspot.com

Germany Day 7

Hello again everyone. I have to write quickly because our curfew is in only a couple minutes, but i wanted to let you know what happened today. Today we went to the city that Bach first worked in. He was an accompanist in a beautiful church, which we sang a couple songs in. Then we went to the church that Bach actually got married in. We had a full concert for a HUGE audience. The tiny church was packed. The audience was so appreciative, they really enjoyed our preformance. I love German audiences. Our preformance went great, and then we had a reception with the Bach historical society. It was a long drive to and from where we were preforming, but it wasn't so bad. The drive was absolutly beautiful. We went through a beautiful coutryside. It was the second most beautiful drive yet. (The one to the castle a couple days ago was the most beautiful. Right by the Alps.) We're staying at the same place tomight and are leaving tomorrow for Berlin. It'll be our last long drive of the trip. It's strange, time really does fly when you're having fun. :)

<3 Annie Lawler