Category: Music

The countdown to the 63. Bamberg sandkerwa runs. On thursday at 7 p.M., the burgerverein IV. District will open this year's sandkerwa together with the tapping of the keg beer by mayor andreas starke (SPD) in the marquee at the leinritt. The fairgrounds were already bustling with activity in all corners and ends during the construction work.

The marquee at the leinritt has been up for a few days and almost all of the 4,000 pennants are already hanging over the streets. Also the first "festgaste" have, for example at the crane, discovered the beer table sets and conquered them for themselves. There was no beer, sausages or fish, but there was a "free" food stand seating with a view of the marquee and little venice.

The exhibitors are also busy with screws and hammers. During our tour, the planes of the carousel in front of the university library were still on the ground, but showman georg fischer assured: "in two hours, everything will be ready and you could already take the first ride."

It all started with him eight years ago, and since then the trombonist and singer richard roblee has graced the habfurt cultural office live in the "jazz times different" series about every two years. At his fourth concert under the motto "richard roblee swings again together with hubert winter (saxophone), bernhard pichl (piano), felix wiegand (bass) and paul hochstadter (drums) he was in the best of moods and received a lot of applause and bravos from the audience.

Richard roblee, who comes from seattle /USA and has played and sung in the local symphony orchestra, the honolulu symphony orchestra and the del courtney big band, among others, came to germany in 1988, where he has since devoted himself primarily to church music. He composes and writes arrangements, gives workshops, plays in his "verylitllebigband" and was professor for jazz and big band at the university of music in wurzburg from 2003 to 2009. As such he remarked mischievously in habfurt: "it is a great pleasure to be here again, with such great musicians. They were once my students and today they are full blooded musicians." They all work as teachers, play in various formations, compose and arrange, and each enjoys an outstanding reputation on their instrument.

Together they performed many compositions by richard roblee, such as "are you ready??", "chirpy" and "down home", but also the stalwart "bernie’s tune" by bernie miller "perdido" by juan tizol",S wonderful" by george gershwin and the traditional "green sleeves" to obey. In between, the musicians fascinated the audience with the advent song "wir sagen euch an den ersten advent" and the luther song "aus tiefer not schrei ich zu dir" (out of deep distress i cry to you), arranged in the blues style of richard roblee.

Wolfgang hain is satisfied on sunday afternoon: the chairman of the animal protection association speaks of a very good attendance at the kulmbach animal shelter festival, which took place over the weekend.

Although the weather on saturday was anything but good, the turnover was better than last year, the chairman explained.

Games corner set up

The event attracted around 1000 visitors to heinersreuth on saturday and sunday. The visitors listened to the music of "the traveling man" with beer, bratwursts and blaugsudna (saturday) and the band "new sound (sunday). They bought loose items for the raffle or stumbled on the flea market.

When the piano gallery pohlmann opened its doors for the first time almost two years ago in a former factory building on bahnhofstrabe in lanzendorf, piano master reinhold pohlmann certainly didn’t know quite where the "journey" would take him goes to. Today he states: "I must say I am very satisfied. In 2016, when I dared to take the step, it was already somewhat pre-sketched, but how it is developing now, that actually amazes, I must say."

For pohlmann not only repairs and maintains pianos in the gallery, it has itself become a place of art, as the winter art weeks now taking place demonstrate. The master piano builder sees the reason for this in his reliable work: "there is a lot of precision on my part." And if you do a good job, the word will get around. In addition, a piano, like a car, must always be given into the hands of an expert. For pohlmann, word-of-mouth advertising is especially important: "for me, this is the door opener for the next household where music is being played or where there is a desire for a piano." He gets around a lot, in the coburg and bamberger area as well as in erlangen, the northern upper palatinate, the fichtegebirge and of course bayreuth and kulmbach as focal points.

Today, according to pohlmann, the piano gallery has long become a fashionable place for instruments in need of overhaul or repair. Parallel to the work in the piano gallery, various concerts also developed or – as now – the concert on sunday, 3. February, beginning winter art weeks. The piano-gallery has long become a "stell-dich-ein" as well for many artists.

What do you do when you want to dance and the cassette with the music is stuck?? "Play yourself" decided a quarter of a century ago friedrich ruhl and his colleagues of the (today’s) gleibenberger volksmusik. Because what is the use of the most beautiful folk music dance course, if afterwards the rehearsing is garnished with all kinds of technical mishaps?.

Ruhl and his friends had an easier time than others when they made their decision: they were already playing their instruments. "We are brass band pensioners", he says about the current line-up with martin linz on tuba, the two tenor horn players ottmar schmidt and gerhard ziegler, the three trumpeters monika kohler, georg heinlein and ruhl himself, the clarinettists sabine schenk, alena frischmann and claudia formella, and karlheinz krieger on accordion. The current ensemble is made up of former musicians from the dreifrankeneck band, which emerged from the burghaslach youth brass band.

"The many performances were too much for us", ruhl explains the "retreat". Now the gleibenberger are limited to a few performances a year. "We usually rehearse twice before each performance; that’s six to twelve times a year." They can afford it, because they play in a traditional way and get their sheet music from the french folk music association. This has two advantages: this is traditional music, which is royalty-free. And: "we are not under pressure because of the latest hit like the bierzeltblasmusik."
Round dances like waltz or mazurka are on the program and especially figure dances. One of the most famous is certainly the kreuzpolka. "And we stay with it", ruhl voluntarily limits the repertoire to traditional melodies and dance forms. He has no favorite among them, but he has a favorite appearance. The hour at burghaslach’s marketplace before the kerwafest procession starts. "Where do we have 600 listeners at once?."

The powerful-voiced tenors of the "liederkranzes fechheim met at the hofmann inn to celebrate an evening of song with their families and friends instead of a normal evening of honors. "Singing should always be fun", choir director ralf fischer points out the direction "perhaps a guarantee of our success". And so they buried their guests, among them honorary choir director willi rosenbauer, with the newly rehearsed song "this is a great day, which we celebrate together".
But the father of this success is also the long-serving members, whose voices give the choir its volume. "We're honoring full-blooded rangers today", who has fronted the choral singing for years, thanked chairman gerhard baudler in a stylish setting.
Hans-dieter bauer is one of them. He's been singing with the liederkranz for 40 years.
The honorary member sings in the 2. Tenor and has been active in the entertainment committee since 1989 until today. "Since moving into the community center, he has held the job of our club host for 25 years now", baudler praised his singing brother hans-dieter bauer.

Rough commitment

Honorary member gerhard heymann joined the liederkranz in 1993 and has been a sanger for 25 years in 1. Tenor and has been involved as a music director for many years. The singers' commitment to their work is also reflected in their participation in choir rehearsals. They are very well attended, said fischer.
A total of 24 active members are in the ranks of the liederkranz, and there are also members in demand.
"Music alone is the language of the world, it makes bridges and makes us forget our everyday worries", the chairman of the muppberg singing circle, gunter georg, emphasized before awarding the long-serving members.