Sakura 2018 – with the Goettingen Boys Choir

Once a year, the Goettingen Boys Choir makes a concert trip. Such trips strengthen the choir community in a special way and create unforgettable memories for each member. Immersing yourself in a foreign culture is an exciting challenge and a source of musical inspiration. This is especially true for a country like Japan, which is at once high-tech, but also very tradition-bound.

A choir and choral music only work with a team. And we are only at our best all together. For this reason, we really want to ensure that every engaged singer in the choir can be a part of the Japanese concert tour.

Cultural and musical exchange is an important element of our choir work. Music is an excellent route to cultural understanding. For this reason, we also do workshops with other youth choirs on our trips. We know that in Japan, German and European classical music is highly valued and performed by many choirs. We are also curious about Japanese music. We look forward to meetings and workshops with Japanese choirs. We are appealing to everyone who wants to support musical exchange and thus also promote understanding of other cultures.

For many years, the theme „war and peace” has been an integral part of our musical repertoire. In 1965 our founder, Franz Herzog, composed the impressive cycle “The Curse of War”, based on the poems of Li Tai-Pe, and performed it several times with the Boys Choir. In honor of Franz Herzog’s 100th birthday, we again recently performed this cycle at a gala concert. The recording of this concert is available as an exclusive CD as a thank you for our crowd funding donors. We will perform parts of “The Curse of War” on our Japan tour as well. We just recently performed “The Armed Man. A Mass for Peace” by Karl Jenkins. The basis for one part of that mass, that deals with the dropping of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, is a poem by the Japanese Toge Sankichi. We were very moved by this. After visiting the Peace Park and meeting with a Hibakusha, a survivor of the bombing, we will perform a concert in Hiroshima.

In addition to classical music and serious themes, German folk songs and modern music will also be a part of our performances. And several Japanese songs, like the one about the cherry blossom – Sakura. Together with our audiences at our concerts in Tokushima, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kamakura, Tokyo and Hitachi, we look forward to seeing how music can form a bridge connecting people across cultural divides.

A concert tour with a large choir is a financial challenge that cannot be managed by youngsters on their own. We seek public funding and also the support of sponsors. However, the cost of living in Japan is high. Despite all savings efforts, the required personal contribution will exceed the financial possibilities of one or the other choir member. But we do not want to leave any of our capable and motivated singers behind. No one should have to miss the Japan tour for financial reasons! Therefore, we are asking for your support.

How do you benefit from supporting us? You will feel good in the knowledge that you have helped youngsters learn about other people and cultures, and have enabled their contribution to better understanding and communication. We would also like you to enjoy our music: as a thank you for your contribution, join us at one of concerts in Germany or Japan, or select one of our CDs or the album “Japan 2018 with the Goettingen Boys Choir”. We would also like to show our gratitude with the other attractive thank you gift selections.

If financing is successful, all income will be used exclusively for the Japan trip. Our 1. funding goal is 6.000€. At that level, our singers can travel to Japan with a reasonable and manageable personal contribution.

Our 2. funding goal is 10.000€ - because we would really like to take 2 more people with us who will enrich our concert tour very much regarding artistic and organizational aspects. With our pianist Natalia Bachmann we can greatly expand the diversity of our repertoire and perform some ambitious songs composed by the founder of Goettingen Boys Choir, Franz Herzog, in which the piano part is essential.

Takahisa Yamamoto, who has been a fan of the Boys Choir since his student days in Goettingen, already helped us with innumerable hours of work organizing the tour. With his support we will safely manage all intercultural challenges.

Neither of them will accept payment for their services and are also donating their vacation time. Therefore, we want to raise the expenses for their travel via crowdfunding.

If even larger sums come together, we want to participate in workshops of traditional Japanes music as for example Taiko and learn about and be inspired by it.