Regular Meeting May 2023
Our last regular meeting in conjunction with the Annual General Meeting took place on 10 May 2023 in the Villa Bonn. Our Parliamentarian Sigrid Christ announced the Executive Board election results and all candidates were elected with a large majority. Sigrid congratulated everyone very warmly on their success and thanked the election committee led by Yong-Hi Yim-Siegels.
The surplus club money will go to the German project Ambulanter Kinder- und Jugendhospizdienst Löwenzahn, and the foreign project beneficiary will be German Doctors e.V.
Our guest speaker Dr. Markus Fein, artistic director of the Alte Oper since Sept. 2020, posed the Gretchen question: “How can a traditional concert hall be led into the future?”
"Fratopia"-Frankfurt and utopia: Finding the balance between maintaining tradition and new ways of communicating music to attract new audiences.
Based on the new program for the 2023/24 season, he presented his ideas that include:
• Smaller concert formats, such as a lunchtime concert followed by a snack, or daytime discussions concerts at the weekend are only some of these new formats.
• Children from the age of 10 and young people should not pay more than €10 to attend a concert in order to attract them as listeners, regardless of whether Lang Lang is playing or the Berlin Philharmonic.
The enthusiasm generated by his lecture was infectious and the applause was accordingly great. Of course, such ideas have to be financed, especially since the Alte Oper receives only one third of its funding from the public purse. Therefore, cultural institutions like the Old Opera House are dependent on sponsors and private donations. For more information, please visit www.alteoper.de
While enjoying a glass of sparkling wine after the lecture, our club friend Ekaterina Kitaeva enchanted us playing the piano with two beautiful melodies by Chopin, one of her own spring compositions and a piece by Piazzolla. Our club ladies were delighted and applauded her for a long time for this beautiful performance.
Seven members were honoured for their many years of membership. Our president Charlotte Weitbrecht highlighted their achievements individually.
A spring menu with strawberries and asparagus rounded off this beautiful meeting.
