I sang the Christmas Oratorio with the Schiersteiner Kantorei directed by Martin Lutz. It’s been so great! I am loving singing it. I love listening to it and practicing it but more than that I love singing it. Martin Lutz is very great. I think he’s my favourite choral conductor now. He’s very personable, cool and relaxed but demands high quality. And gets it.
http://www.bach-wiesbaden.de/programm_sk.htm (German)
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/SK.htm (funny English translation)
1st Rehearsal: The plan was to get there early to introduce myself to Martin Lutz but I got lost getting there. And so I did this big detour, got stuck in some traffic on the autobahn and then drove around town three times by the time I found the right road. So I was a little embarrassed arriving late. They were in the middle of warming-up so that was at least less intrusive. After the warm-up was done I snuck over to the soprano section and just sat down. At break-time I introduced myself to Martin and apologized but he was so cool about it, said he figured that that was me and we’d talk after. I thought maybe I’d do a little audition or something after rehearsal but that didn’t seem to be necessary. At the end of the rehearsal after the last piece for which we were all standing and Martin introduced me to the choir as a guest who’d come the farthest. He had everyone else sit down and invited me to explain where I’d come from and why I was here. It felt very welcoming. After choir we had a little chat, he told me about their September concert with Andreas Scholl. I bought a CD. Then when I went back to the car I couldn’t get it to start. Panic. What to do? I walked back down to the rehearsal hall. Everyone gone. I stood in the road for a while thinking when Martin and his wife drove by and stopped. I told him of my dilemma and he came up to the car to help. He enlisted a neighbour’s help as well. Turned out, the car wasn’t in park position which I ended up figuring out myself. It’s probably one of the only automatic cars in Europe and you can turn it off and take the key out without it having to be in park. Bizarre. I was embarrassed about that too.
2nd Rehearsal: I arrived 20 minutes early. I didn’t get lost. I was pretty much the first one there in fact. Friendly greetings met me. People came and sat next to me and chatted with me. The woman who sat on one side of me was very friendly. She’s the daughter of the founder of the Schiersteiner Kantorei. She kept me in the loop and ended up helping me at the concert with the little ins and outs of where to go and how to stand and where to leave your things. Martin’s rehearsal style is great. He’s fun and serious at the same time. He seems to be a bit of a Spitzbub. He has a bit of a mischievous streak in him.
Dress Rehearsal: Walking through the market to get to the church while the bells were ringing was cool! The rehearsal was very exciting. It was amazing to hear the orchestra so close. Trumpets and timpani were sitting right in front of me. I felt very good.
Concert: So fun! The church was packed full. It looked amazing. And it’s a beautiful space. Martin was cool and relaxed. At times when the soloists were singing and playing their little bits he stopped conducting all together and crossed his arms, or put his hands in his pockets and just leaned up against the podium bar. It was exciting to sing the music I’ve loved for a long time and have gotten to know better in the last few years and especially now. I did have to concentrate very hard too though. Other people were excited for me too. They wished me much fun before the concert and asked me how it was after. To them it was like doing the Messiah for the millionth time.
The bizarrest thing that happened was right before we went on as we were lining up. Martin brought a man over to me and introduced me to him somehow because he knew one of the viola players is from Canada too. But this man kind of got stuck on my name. I had to repeat it a couple of times and there was a bit of confusion on his face. He said something about Edmonton. I corrected him, telling him I was from Toronto. Toronto? And my name is Schemeit? Where in Toronto? He had stayed once with a Schemeit family in Toronto, in Scarborough. Now I was looking confused. They owned a dry cleaning business. I was stunned. And then we had to go sing. After the concert we figured out that he was the third guy that stayed with us when the band from Germany came on exchange with the Birchmount Band. Thomas, Karli, Kim and I hung out together all the time while the third guy who was older and less interesting did his own thing. Christoph, the Waldhorn player, was his name. Thomas was stunned too by the coincidence. We were a little embarrassed at how we didn’t even really remember him.
I’m so glad I had this opportunity. It was so great that Thomas could organize it for me. I’m hoping to sing the Oratorio again in Freiburg in a couple of weeks. That plan is still in the works. Oratorio and Christmas markets are perfect December activities.
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