History of our Chorus - Page 9

weekend, for the past 18 years, members have traveled to Florida on the Herrentour (gentlemen's excursion). Performances are given at the German-American Club in Hollywood, FL, and as "The Sunshine Boys", these same gentlemen generously help to make the Rheinische annual concert more of an evening. "The Bahama Mamas" (the ladies who help the survivors of the Herrentour recuperate in the Bahamas) have done their bit as well.

In the past twenty-five years, the RSB has traveled to Germany four times. Hans Matz and Bernhard Bartsch made arrangements for the club's July 1976 trip. Earlier trips had been arranged by Fred Hoefer, Sr., who in 1976 succeeded to the presidency. In the Allgäu, the persistence of Hans Matz, prevented what would have surely been a disaster, when he persuaded the management of the brand new Hotel Domropa to honor the club's reservations, however reluctantly. The chorus then presented well-received concerts at Kleinwalsertal and at the Kurpark in Oberstdorf where the RSB performed to an audience of 1,000. The trips to Germany in 1984, 1989 and 1993 were also undertakings on a large scale. When friends and relatives joined the group in Germany, the RSB and its entourage sometimes numbered as many as a hundred. They remained together for a week and traveled by bus, often two. Sekretär Edelbert Hoeher, starting a year in advance, competently handled the extensive arrangements for travel and lodgings. He also made sure that the trips were an agreeable combination of singing and sightseeing.

During the 1984 trip the group stayed in Heppenheim where many attended the world premier of the comedy "Die Schöne und der Schelm" (the Beauty and the Scoundrel). There were day trips to the cathedral in Speyer, to Mannheim and Landau, and at Königsbach-Neustadt an der Weinstraße, natrually, a Weinprobe (wine tasting). The sights in the scenic towns of the Odenwald were taken in and there were enjoyable meetings with local German choruses. The tenor and soloist Heinz Giegrich was formerly an active singer with, and now an honorary member of, the Singverein 1870 Laudenbach and there was a pleasant meeting with that club. Also among the RSB singers was bass and soloist Gerhard Mohr, who had once belonged to the MGV Mutterstadt. In Mutterstadt, the RSB was treated to a splendid reception at the new, modern Rathaus. A memento of the happy meeting with the MGV Mutterstand still adorns the wall of the rehearsal room.

The 1989 trip took the club to Southern Germany, where it met with the MGV Hochlandchor. This fine chorus had responded to an ad placed by the RSB in the Bayerische Sängerzeitung and graciously volunteered to host a get-together. With them, the RSB gave two performances: a Kirchenkonzert in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and a Kurkonzert in Mittenwald. Taking in the spectacular landscape, the group also visited the castles Schloß Linderhof and Schloß Neuschwanstein.