Verdi Requiem, Zanne Stapelberg and Forest Gump... Zanne and the high B… You don’t get closer to heaven. What a privilege to be part of this glorious experience... 20th Anniversary of the Centre for Ecumenical Christian Spirituality Thursday night is choir night. Of course. But this one was different... Libertas Choir reach out to Porterville The day started with a two hour drive to Porterville, but every kilometre was worth the while... |
Volume 1, Issue 3
For more information, on the Choir’s program for this year, see www.libertas.co.za |
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Christmas
Concert
For more information on the Stellenbosch Libertas Choir, we invite you to visit our Website at www.libertas.co.za To remove your name from our mailing list, please E-mail us at info@libertas.co.za. |
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Zanne and the high B… You don’t get closer to heaven. What a privilege to be, like a normal Forest Gump, part of this glorious experience. I would have liked to fake some minor illness at one of the dress rehearsals, so that I could listen to the whole, but I could not tear myself away from the choir. It is just too great to be accompanied by the sound of trumpets, open up and in my own modest way contribute to the whole. Thank you Verdi. Thank you Johan, I am sure you enjoyed it just as much. Like they said in the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.” When I studied Latin at school, I never imagined that one day I would be able to quote complete Latin phrases, let alone singing them. If one considers the translation, the music acquires even more meaning and glory. This Requiem has so much depth, the more we sing it, all the more beautiful it becomes. I regularly listen to a fantastic American recording in my car and it makes the normal dreadful N2 between Strand and Cape Town such an enjoyable experience that I actually wish for traffic jams. Even more reason for thanks is that we shall do this work on 6 December again. I still wish that I could split myself in two en sit in the audience for a while. Enjoy that Johan. For once you can sit next to your wife, on her birthday, and enjoy this heavenly experience! - Quintus van der Merwe (Bass) |
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20th Anniversary of the Centre
for Ecumenical Christian Spirituality |
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Thursday night is choir night. Of course. But this one was different. It was the start of the third chapter of 2007 choir year: after the Misa Criolla and Navidad Nuestra in March-April and Verdi’s Requiem in August only the permanent members of the choir was there. For our performance later, we rehearsed a few songs from our well-known repertoire and then we started making plans for the rest of the year – our weekend out to the platteland, the music for the Christmas Concert (amongst others another arrangement of the Navidad Nuestra!), the final Verdi-performance in December, choir socials – and Louwina delivered her unique interpretation of our fan mail. And then, luxury of all luxuries – half an hour to chat to everybody! After this, we performed in the Endler Hall, where the audience already experienced an interesting evening to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Centre for Ecumenical Christian Spirituality. We were the last item in a program that included different facets of spirituality and a message from former Archbishop Desmond Tutu. After the great Spanish and Latin works it was great to sing our favourite indigenous Spiritual Music, which is actually the mother tongue of the Libertas Choir! - Nelleke Meintjes (Alto) |
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The Choir sings Traditional South African Spiritual music and an arrangemeng by Gerhard Niemand (bass). |
Photos:
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Rouzelle Gryffenberg |
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The day started with a two hour drive to Porterville, but every kilometre was worth the while. It was wonderful to see the joy on people’s faces as we have sung the songs. We have performed for an audience where we made 100% of them happy. There was so much appreciation that they stood up after some songs shouting and clapping hands. The liveliness of the audience inspired the choir to give more of ourselves with each song. It was wonderful to experience the joy on the audience’s faces. Some had tears in their eyes, and so did I. Oh what a wonderful, wonderful day. A day I will never forget. A day that we could spend with the people of Porterville and also in the presence of our Lord. It felt as if Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. With such an experience it really felt as if your night will turn into day. Viva la musica, viva la Libertas Choir! - Clyde Koopman (Tenor) |
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Photos:
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André Engelbrecht Michiel de Koker |