We had our final summer “rehearsal” at the Essen Haus on Thursday August 31. It was a somewhat smaller crowd than usual, but it was a busy week with lots of things going on.
We will resume our regular rehearsals on Thursday September 7, at 7:00 pm at Turner Hall.
We had our final summer “rehearsal” at the Essen Haus on August 31
Team Maennerchor participated once again in the 5 K race at the Middleton Good Neighbor Festival on Saturday August 26. Thankfully it was cool but it was quite humid. There were not quite as many participants as there were in the days before Covid, but there was a good turnout of both runners and walkers. After the race, of course we adjourned to the beer tent to replenish fluids.
Here are some photos of the post-race festivities. As always, click on the thumbnail image to see the larger photo.
Videos from the NASB Saengerfest in Madison are available on the MMC YouTube channel.
These videos are from the Capitol Rotunda Sing on Sunday June 11, 2023:
Virtual Lecture
“Wo man singt”
German-American Singing Festivals, 1849–1914
with
Heike Bungert
Wednesday, April 5, at 12:00 pm Central Time
Free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Email Antje Petty to receive a Zoom link: apetty@wisc.edu
Links will be emailed the day before the event.
Between 1849 and 1914, German-American singing festivals with thousands of participants and visitors were a constant yet changing element in the cultural landscape of the United States. They brought German and European music to America, helped immigrants construct a German-American (musical) identity, and contributed to asserting their status in society. This presentation will focus on the beginnings and the expansion of German-American choirs, especially Männerchöre (choirs for male voices), singing federations and their festivals, and the musical repertoire that was performed from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War I.
Heike Bungert is Professor for North American History at the University of Münster in Germany and has published extensively on the festivals of German Americans.
Click here for further information about this presentation
or contact Antje Petty (apetty@wisc.edu)
——
**The Max Kade Institute Virtual Lectures Series is made possible with the support of the Friends of the Max Kade Institute. To learn more about the Friends of the Max Kade Institute, including how to become a member, click HERE.
A visit from Sankt Nikolaus
Our annual Christmas Concert & Dinner will be held on Sunday December 11, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. This year the event will be at a new venue: St Bernard Catholic Church, 2438 Atwood Ave in Madison. After the concert, there will be a visit from Sankt Nikolaus followed by dinner at approximately 5:00 p.m.
Tickets for the concert and dinner are $25 per person. Tickets for the concert only are $10. There will be a cash bar. Tickets can be purchased at the door but we would appreciate it if you made a reservation in advance. For the full details, including how to make a reservation, please click on the link below:
Please make your reservations by December 4th if possible. Questions? Email us at xmas@madisonmaennerchor.org.
Note: if the concert is canceled due to bad weather (as has happened in the past) we will post the news here on our web site and on our Facebook page. We will also attempt to contact everyone on the reservation list if we have a phone number or email address.
We typically don’t rehearse over the summer months – we stop sometime after Memorial Day and resume rehearsals after Labor Day. But we do try to get together over the summer, if only to have a beer (or perhaps two) and catch up on things. And sometimes we’re asked to sing the national anthem(s) at a sporting event. As always, click on the gallery thumbnails to see the larger photo.
On June 16th we sang both the German and US national anthems at a friendly match between Forward Madison FC and Paderborn. It was a beautiful evening at Breese Stevens field, and we sang both anthems and then enjoyed the match.
We were invited to sing the national anthem (US only) at the WTC track meet at Middleton High School. After the singing was over we decided to stop at the Capital Brewery Biergarten to replenish fluids.
At Capital Brewery after singing the national anthem at the WTC track meet
On June 30th we decided to meet for a beer or two at the Biergarten at Olbrich Park. It was a bit windy but we had a good time.
Unfortunately, Covid-19 has still not left the building. Several of our singers, and our director, tested positive for the virus, so in the interest of safety of our concert attendees and our singers, we have decided to cancel the June 5 concert.
Join us on Sunday, June 5 at 3:00 p.m. for our first concert in two years! The Concert will be held at Madison Turners, 3001 S. Stoughton Road in Madison. Tickets are $10 at the door; children are free.
We’ll be singing a mix of old German favorites and a few new English songs in our repertoire. We hope you can join us as we re-start this annual tradition after the pandemic.
The WSB Kommers competition was held in Kenosha on April 23, 2022; this was the first Kommers since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event was hosted by MGV Harmonia and was held at the Holy Rosary Parish in the school gym.
It was a beautiful day and it was great to see all of the choirs together again! MGV Harmonia, who had won the last competition in 2019, came in first again this year. Gesangverein Concordia was second and Madison Maennerchor was third.
Here are some photos of the Madison Maennerchor performing at Kommers. Thanks to Geoff for sending the photos! As always, click on the thumbnail to see the larger photo.
Here are some more photos from Kommers:
On May 6, 2012 we sang at the Wisconsin State Capitol in celebration of the 160th anniversary of the Madison Maennerchor. We had a video recording made of the concert which was available on DVD. We’ve converted the DVD to MP4 format and posted the video of the concert on YouTube. The link is below:
Enjoy!
The UW Athletic Department invited us to sing the national anthem at the volleyball match against Penn State on Saturday October 23rd. We were happy to accept and about fifteen of us were able to be at the UW Field House for the event. We had a sound check around 4:15 and then we just hung out until we we sang at 6:00. Everything went pretty well, and most of us stayed for at least part of the match, which Wisconsin won in 5 sets – it was a close one!
There are a few photos below; as always click on the thumbnail to see a larger image. Thanks again to Ryan and all the folks at UW for inviting us and making us feel welcome – we had a great time!
