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The Chorale Saint-Michel, founded in 1850, has been placed under the direction of Chorale Saint-Michel r since 1960. Men's choir at the start, the formation has gradually developed in a mixed choir of fifty members. The choir draws from a repertoire including mainly works of sacred music and has performed many concerts in Luxembourg and abroad.
In the brochure published on the occasion of the centenary of the choir in 1950, the parish priest Lucien Schaack mentioned the difficulties that the directors of the Saint-Cécile choir had to meet following the creation of the parish of Pfaffenthal (1847), then that of Clausen with Neudorf (1867) and finally of the parish of the Sacred Heart (Lux-Gare). The district and the parish were emptied of the population and the Chorale Cécile de l’Église St.Michel.
The whole story on the beginnings of the Chorale Saint-Cécile (1850-1982) can be consulted in the beautiful book that the Chorale Saint-Michel published during its 150th anniversary and for which Professor Jemp Kunnert wrote the Chronicle.
Gerry Welter, member of the Chorale Ste Cécile since 1954, took over the direction of the small men's choir in November 1960 and transformed it from 1967 into a mixed choir. In 1975, the choir celebrated the 125th anniversary with a very varied musical programme. If the frontispiece of the programme still bears the denomination "Chorale Sainte-Cécile", the last page already announces the "Chorale Saint-Michel“. As the number of religious offices at the logo created by chorister Alice Zahlen became its her official logo. The traditional link with Église St. Michel is maintained, but the new name also allows the choir to-evolve more-easily in the extra-ecclesiastical world.
During the millenium of Église St. Michel in 1987 the Chorale Saint-Michel performed George Frideric Handel's Messiah in the original version. Success is such that we must repeat Messiah the tomorrow ... and a week later, the city of Metz welcomes the choir in the "Temple neuf" with the same program.
In 1992 Gerry Welter consolidated his idea to give regularly a concert on the Day-of-the-Dead with a repertoire appropriate to the circumstances. The two first "Allerséilen-Concert" were recorded by RTL and broadcast live on RTL-Hei elei. In 1995, Luxembourg became for the first time European city of culture, and the project of the Chorale Saint-Michel was selected and it is in the auditorium of the conservatory that the famous oratorio Die Schöpfung by J. Haydn is given with great success. The program of the traditional Day-of-the-Dead concert in 1997 features Nils Lindberg's Jazz-Requiem. La Norbotten Big Band and 3 excellent Swedish soloists contributed largely to the success of this very interesting work.
The year 2000 gave the Chorale Saint-Michel the opportunity to celebrate its 150th anniversary with the program of W.A. Mozart' famous Mass in C minor KV 427. Since then, the choir gives every spring concert, its traditional "Allerséileconcert" and on Christmas eve, a Midnight Mass. In addition to its presence during many Sunday masses, many wedding, baptism and burial ceremonies, the choir participated in television shows and has toured abroad.
In 2010, to celebrate his 160th anniversary and at the same time the 50th anniversary of its director Gerry Welter, the Saint-Michel choir performed various cantatas of J.S. Bach, together with the Baroque orchestra La Banda from Augsburg and internationally renowned soloists. |
