Spring 2020​

„Music in the time of Corona“

Dear VivazzA friends,

We are hoping that you all are healthy and well during this extraordinary time.

After the shock of seeing so many of our friends and relatives being affected by this pandemic, as well as seeing the artistic landscape change in so many unbelievable ways, we are bringing you a „delayed“ newsletter for late spring to give you some updates of what has been happening with VivazzA.

Before the lockdown, we were able to perform 2 wonderful concerts

 

January

On the 10th of January we presented our program „Französiche Impressionen“ with chamber works from Poulenc, Chopin, Debussy and Farrenc in the Bechstein Centrum in Düsseldorf. The program was built around the piano and important composers for this instrument, which is normally not in the instrumentation of our ensemble. It was an amazing experience to play with the full format of our ensemble as well as to have the glorious pianist, Carmen Stefanescu, again as our soloist for the Chopin Piano Concerto Nr. 2.

In addition to photos from the concert, we have uploaded a video of the Poulenc Nonet, as well as our encore, „Drig, drig, drig“ from the opera Tales of Hoffmann from our hometown composer, Jacques Offenbach.

You can click on the links in Youtube to see them (or go to our video section on our website) and please subscribe to our channel to see more videos as they come in.

Francis Poulenc Mouvement Perpertuéls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxqPOnHEPnE

Jacques Offenbach „Drig, drig, drig“ Tales of Hoffmann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=211GL0bB2Lk

March

On the 4th of March, we gave a performance of our „Erdnüsschen“ program in the Theatermuseum of Düsseldorf to very excited kids from the Sankt Franzikus Schule. They were even singing our main song „Los, brüllt in Chören“ before the doors opened to come into the theater – we felt like rock-stars!
It does give one a great feeling to see how appreciative the teachers as well as students were for this program and to know that we are bringing the love of classical music to them as well.

Afterwards, we received this lovely letter from the teacher:

„I want to thank you very much for the wonderful concert „Erdnüsschen“. The children were full of enthusiam and sang with complete happiness „Los singt in Chören“- even afterwards. That they could see their own „Fantasy-Animals“ was absolutely the best! They also talked afterwards about their animals and described how each one looked. This was a great idea to connect the kids to the program!! I think this is how one can fill children with enthusiam and bring them closer to music. We definitely will speak later about the different instruments.

Not only the children were happy, also my assistants as well as myself were impressed at how you were able to connect with the children and keep a positive disposition.

Many thanks for the nice morning. I hope that we meet again.

Andrea Mengeringhausen, Sankt Franziskus-Schule- Düsseldorf

And then Corona hit....

We hope and have great faith that we will be able to perform our postponed Erdnüsschen concerts as well as give our chamber music course in the 2nd weekend after school starts in the fall in NRW.

VivazzA especially thanks the foundation, Landesmusikrat NRW for supporting our 4th chamber music course.

 

Beethovens 250th birthday celebration a ́la VivazzA

VivazzA has planned a lovely program in celebration of Beethovens 250th birthday for this fall. Our program includes the Nonet from the french composer, George Onslow, who was nicknamed the „french-Beethoven“, our first composition commission from the peruvian- dutch composer, Alejandra Castro as well as a Nonet arrangement of the venerable Eroica Symphony Nr. 3 of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Scheduled concerts include the Tersteegenkirche in Düsseldorf, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung in Cologne as well as the Stadthalle in Hürth and have been partially funded through the Kulturämte of Köln and Düsseldorf as well as the Verein, Kom!ma e.V. in Düsseldorf. This is a really happy occasion for us, because

1. it is the first time that our Verein, VivazzA e.V., has been alloted grants to organize a concert program and
2. we are one of the first freelance chamber ensembles in Cologne that specializes in purely classical music (not modern or early music) that will have ever received a grant from the Kulturamt Köln. Until 2020, groups that have spezialized in the other branches of music, including jazz and global music have received the grants. So.. Hooray for us!

Of course, we have many anxieties in completing our program, which of course are based around the Corona virus. Our search for further sponsorship from firms and business have been hindered by the uncertainty of the changing economic situation.

As our artistic director and clarinettist, Pamela Coats, said at our January concert „It takes a village to put together such lovely and complex programs and to further the ensemble.“

If you wish to help VivazzA by giving a monetarial donation, you can contact us at email: info@vivazza.com to give a donation on the account of our non-for profit organization VivazzA e.V.

For more information about VivazzA e.V. click on this link: http://vivazza.com/en_vivazza- ev.html
Every donation is tax-deductible and much welcome.

We hope that this newletter is a message of hope for you - we have been inspired by our artistic colleagues from all over the world. VivazzA, with your help, will continue to be a force for wonderful chamber music and bringing people together today as well as in the future.

Best wishes,
VivazzA