Celtic voices in the middle of nowhere

How could it happen that the Celtic Choir has been around for three years already and no one had thought of going on a choir trip together?

It was beyond our grasps, too, so from October 21st to October 23rd 2011 we finally went with 22 members on our first choir camp.

In order to prevent any distractions we went right to the middle of nowhere: into the green district of Oberbarnim, to Klosterdorf near Strausberg to be exact. It's a small village with about 460 people on the edge of the Märkische Schweiz. This is where we stayed in the cosy guesthouse of ÖkoLeA. ÖkoLeA is a commune with 17 adults and 9 children, who own the guesthouse on the former property of the farm Wenzelhof.

Located about 45 kilometres East of Berlin Klosterdorf was close enough for us to get to easily but still far away enough to enjoy fresh air, large meadows and fields, and to just breathe again freely far from the city hustle and bustle. To make the inhaling and exhaling as effective as possible, our choir member Vincent took over the teaching of the breathing exercises, while our choir director Lizzy Ahrens-Assem later rehearsed the new and old songs of our repertoire with us.

Divided into different groups soprano and alto voices had a chance to practice separately to come together as a united choir again on the last day. It was a spontaneous decision to let the choir trip end in a little concert for the people of the commune as well as their choir "The Sunday Singers", which we all enjoyed.

But as it is common pracitice on choir trips the rehearsals are only one part, the social part of the trip did not go short either. After our cooking team supplied us with culinary delicacies on the first evening, we kept the rehearsal short to save our voices for the following "campfire" singing.

Since the next only single groups rehearsed other groups had a break, which gave us plenty of opportunities to chat, exchange singing and knitting advice and enjoy long walks in the countryside. In the evening we bravely stuck to our plan to have a barbecue despite the cold and darkness. Afterwards we just relaxed and sat together, though, to chat and get to know each other a bit better.

A short rehearsal, concert, cooking and a big cleanup made time fly on the last day of the choir trip. "Short but really awesome" was the conclusion of the choir weekend and the consensus: It has to be continued next year!