City choir from the twin town as a guest at the street party
Rheine. The visit of the city choir Bernburg to Rheine at the weekend was a very productive meeting from the point of view of the town twinning association Rheine. Above all, the performance at the street party on Sunday showed how the guests from the city on the Saale were able to entertain and enthral the audience on the Bornesquare. Hundreds of visitors listened to the hour-long performance and acknowledged the repertoire, which ranged from German rock to African folklore, with lots of applause.
The Bernburghad arrived at the Bentlage recreation area on Saturday. There, the Rheinenser first showed the guests the history of salt mining in Bentlage. The tour guides Ruth Franke and Monika Knüppels used the technical facilities and the graduation house to vividly describe salt extraction and the significance of the white gold in the town’s history. The group then drove to Salzbergen and moved into their rooms at the Kolping Educational Center.
After a barbecue in the impressive half-timbered building, the focus was initially on rehearsals. Choirmaster Ronny Strübing practiced a few more works intensively with the ensemble of youth choir and town choir. But that wasn’t all: together with the hosts from Rheine, they sang for another two hours – including, of course, the Bernburg song “An der Saale hellem Strande…”
Sunday began after breakfast with a guided tour of Rheine. Deputy Mayor Karl-Heinz Brauer showed the guests the current projects, from the redevelopment of the Ems-EEC area to the new hotel building on the former Karstadt site. During the guests’ requested visit to Bernburgerplatz, the obligatory photo had to be improvised somewhat due to the construction site….
The highlight was the performance on the Bornesquare, where the city choir Bernburg also opened the Sunday program of the street party. The broad repertoire delighted the many visitors who had settled down and were entertained for an hour. Choirmaster Ronny Strübing managed to get the audience singing along and joining in with his charismatic style. Mayor Peter Lüttmann, who took a short break from the electoral process, and Jan-Christoph Tonigs, Head of City Culture, were also visibly impressed. “I was particularly impressed by the tremendous energy of the choir and the choirmaster. Vocally, they were also very good and the mixture of older and surprisingly many young voices harmonized with the broad repertoire that was sung,” said Tonigs afterwards. He would very much welcome the opportunity to create programs together with one of the dedicated choirs from Rheine or a twin town project choir in the future. “We will have these discussions at the next opportunity,” announced Reiner Wellmann, Chairman of the town twinning association Rheine, in conclusion. www.friendsineurope.com