Farewell concert: Choir of the Ebersberg rural women dissolves – Ebersberg

In this choir, the diaphragm is trained really intensively. When singing, of course, yes, but above all when laughing heartily. “Normally things are not so civilized here,” says one of the 20 ladies after the first two pieces, but today is a dress rehearsal, so you have to pull yourself together a bit. And promptly: roaring laughter.

These country women don’t take themselves and their ensemble that seriously, there is a pleasant exuberance. The community, the sociability is the most important thing, says one of the women, so that choir director Eva Mrosek immediately has to look serious: “And the singing?” Yes, of course that is also important. “It’s just good for the soul,” one hears, it makes you happy and releases unimagined energies. “Often I come here tired, but then I’m fine again,” explains one of the singers, while the others nod diligently.

Despite the upcoming farewell, the mood among the singers is great

So here is a good-humored hymn to singing – but actually everything else would have been expected. This choir has now decided to dissolve itself after 40 years. An anniversary concert next Saturday in Grafing will be his farewell. Nevertheless, there is anything but a grave mood at this last rehearsal, but enthusiasm and anticipation. The vocal depths and heights are sounded out together and a few “shaky candidates” practiced before the program starts as a whole. And if a detail, such as a dot, is not quite correct, choir director Mrosek is extremely pragmatic: “If we all do it like that, then it’ll be fine.”

Rural women from all over the district came to the agricultural school in Ebersberg that evening to sing together. The large windows are wide open, giving a clear view of the greenery and letting in the last rays of sunshine. The singers are grouped around a piano and their conductor. You see some gray hair and a few flowered tops, as probably in any other choir.

The traditional one Country women’s choir of the district of Ebersberg is under the umbrella of the Farmers’ Union. The aim is to maintain customs and dialect. That means: Bavarian songs are on the program, sometimes cheeky and funny, sometimes soulful, sometimes serious, but always presented in a beautiful triple movement and in a dirndl.

The choir was founded in 1982 under the direction of Hannes Zottl, followed by Adolf Reis and Elisabeth Hamel. Eva Mrosek from Grafing has had the singers under her leadership for five years now. “But only she managed to make us sing by heart – at least almost,” explains one of the women. And, of course, reaped great amusement again.

“Yes, I drilled her a lot,” admits Mrosek. But she herself has also learned something from her singers, because these rehearsals are an excellent Bavarian course. And the choir director was probably also amazed at how much singing and laughing together welds together, because this ensemble is quite integrative: Not all 20 women are farmers, just as little as all of them originally come from Bavaria. And the age range is also wide, the youngest singer is 39, the oldest 86 years old.

Like most other choirs, the rural women are struggling with aging and shrinkage

Nevertheless, a fate has befallen the Ebersberg Choir that very, very many singing communities have to contend with: aging and shrinking. The country women have also grown older together, six women in the current line-up have actually been with the choir since it was founded 40 years ago. But the voices don’t get better over time, so many loyal souls have already left the ensemble, the 20 active members of today feel like a more or less pathetic remainder. “We tried a lot to get new blood, but all in vain “explains one of the singers. “And if someone new comes along, he’s already 50 plus.”

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In addition, the pandemic has had a significant impact on all choirs over the past two years and has led to collateral damage. Singing together was sometimes not possible at all, sometimes only under strict conditions. “We also tried singing two meters apart, or divided into two groups – but that was all very difficult,” says the Ebersberg country women. In addition, according to Mrosek, longer breaks in choral work would immediately have a significant impact. Both vocally and in terms of the motivation to leave the sofa in the evening to learn and practice three-part songs.

So there was some frustration – when someone realized that the choir’s 40th birthday was just around the corner. The singers quickly agreed that they wanted to celebrate this properly with, surprisingly, the very first self-organized concert. Until now, the Ebersberg country women had always sung as part of some event, at May prayers, weddings or Christmas markets. The choir is now inviting you for the first time to the anniversary concert on Saturday, September 3rd at 8 p.m. in the evangelical church in Grafing. In addition to Bavarian songs, there is folk music by the – also purely female – instrumental group Flauti Diversi to hear as well as selected dialect poems.

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The motto of the anniversary concert is: “Wia’s life is so spuid” – and as is well known, everything has an end, now this choir too. The country women have found that the milestone birthday is a “great time” to say goodbye, even if this decision was not easy for anyone. But you have to leave at a moment when the audience says: “Schod is!” – instead of waiting until it really doesn’t work anymore, so the tenor among the singers. And so at the end of their concert they will strike up a song that will probably get under the listeners’ skin: “Because later it’s time, so say ma hiaz: Pfuat Gott! / Because later time is: Good night! / It’s wiring the world , it is so round, the most beautiful hour is over.” All that remains is the hope of seeing you again, as formulated in the very last verse: “I’ll have a good time again.”

40 years of the “Country Women’s Choir of the Ebersberg District”: Anniversary concert on Saturday, September 3rd, at 8 p.m. in the Evangelical Church in Grafing, admission is free.