New Years Concert

Much to my surprise there are several hundred Fulbrighters in Germany this year, but only six of them are exchange teachers like myself. Fulbright sent us the complete list and I discovered a young scholar and a school language assistant right here in Münster. From the scholar I learned that there is a German-American Society here and went to one of their events recently. If only I had known of them sooner, I could have enjoyed a full Thanksgiving Dinner. But that was simply not meant to be. So at the New Years Concert I had hoped to perhaps run into an American or two but instead found myself in a senior citizens residential center. The concert performers were pianists from the music conservatory who absolutely soared. The program went from Scarlatti to Siegfried Ochs. What profound beauty! What a privilege to get to sit in the front row on the left, right behind and to the side of the performers. Each of the musicians held me entranced in their own unique way. As the young Korean woman with red-tinted dark hair took us from Scarlatti to Haydn we were impressed by her modest demeanor. The Selbach twins, identical sisters with dark hair pulled back in a small bun, dressed in lacy black tops and dark slacks, played in absolute precision a four-handed Allegro by Schubert called "Life's Storms". It was many pages, in fact a whole book, long and they had to be assisted by a page-turner who turned out to be one of the later performers as well. The program was moving us next into the Romantic era with Brahms and Grieg, contemporaries who each reflected the spirit of their own national heritage. This young woman had an incredible amount of poise in spite of her light brown dreadlocks pulled back loosely to reveal a concentrated face. Then, since an American composer needed to be on the program, we were treated to two Gershwin Preludes followed by Shimkus' Parody Paraphrases of Mozart's Turkish Rondo. These were powerfully presented by the sole male performer. Finally we were treated to a re-appearance of the twins who once again, four-handedly stole the show. It was eleven humorous variations on a familiar German folk melody: "s' kommt ein Vogel geflogen" in the styles of various old masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Strauss, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Schumann, Verdi, Wagner and a Military March. This was so thoroughly entertaining that people just wouldn't stop clapping. All of this and no entrance fee. There was however a pink ceramic pig waiting for us on the table as we exited and we all knew that the money collected would go to support the activities of the German-American Society which takes care of visiting American students so people were generous. As I signed the guest book, noting who I was, I could see that the officers were interested in making contact. So as we remained behind sipping champagne there were people to meet and contacts to be made. I spoke with several people who had lived and/or studied in the U.S. and it was especially fun to find someone who had lived near Modesto and been involved with the Church of the Brethren. After all, how many Brethren are there in the world? I am amazed how many folks I have run into this year who in some way know about the Brethren. On day after school I was wearing my Manchester College pullover and discovered at the bike rack a student in grade 13 who said he knew about Manchester because he had spent a year in Indiana. Then there is the colleague at school who spent a whole week visiting friends in North Manchester, folks he had met at the U. in Marburg, where Manchester has a junior-year-abroad program. It was definitely an uplifting and joyful evening!