WAYS - With All Your Senses

Some call it Gospel, others call it Soul, Rhythm&Blues or Popmusic.

We want to move along several ways in music.

We want to sing “Songs with a Meaning”!

With all your senses..

News

May 2023

With joy we look forward to our choir weekend in the first days of June. A choir weekend means to work full of concentration on the songs but it also means we get to spend lots of time together. Time for new ideas and changes. However it also means conversations about other topics than music, time to get to know each other better. A choir weekend always changes … both us as a group and our singing, our understanding of the songs. Singing the lyrics together moves us emotionally, and hopefully we’ll pass these emotions on to you, the audience.

Huh?? You ask what I am talking about?? Come to our concert on 17th of June and listen to what we achieved! Then you’ll want it, too : ))

March 2023

WAYS at Total Choral 2023

It was sooo phantastic!

After the long break due to the pandemic and two concerts last year, our choir finally took part again in the choir festival Total Choral. Thanks to the good organization we could fully concentrate on singing.

The house was full, the wonderful audience quickly turned enthusiastic, and we as a choir had a lot of fun singing. For our choir members Sarah, Julia and Eiko it was the concert premiere with WAYS, which they mastered with flying colours. You are a real asset to this choir! In general, we are a great and colorful mix of music-loving people. And if I ask friends, it’s exactly this enthusiasm we convey when we sing which our fans appreciate so much.

The partner choir inspired! under direction of Rebecca Tjimbawe delighted the audience with their gospels. And so, in the end, everyone went home happy.

A big thank you to the many volunteers from the Total Choral Festival and Cafe Schalotte. Thank you for the good sound, the great lighting and the good supply of drinks. You always make us feel welcome and we’d love to come back!

And of course a huge thank you to Gunars Kalnins - our beloved choirmaster - who brought this choir to life and without whom we would not be WAYS.

February 2023

How does it feel to be a member of WAYS? Our long-time member Heike lets us take part in the life of the choir with her personal inside view:

Rehearsal – Chorprobe – “Rehörsel” (*Denglish)

Our choir meets every Monday evening for three hours in a nice, comfortable rehearsal room. The rehearsals take part in a mix of German and English language. We sing songs which our choir director composed or arranged himself, and there are also songs with additional choreography.

For me, these hours together are a highlight each week. I would never have thought that making music together stimulates so many senses and awakens all these feelings. In the course of the choir rehearsal, all these tired, exhausted creatures coming from everyday Monday life become awake, highly concentrated people with bright eyes and a smile on their faces.

Of course, this is also largely due to the great, sensitive work of our choir director Gunars, who carries us all along, pushes our concentration and conveys a unique feeling for the music. In addition, his virtuosic piano accompaniment with improvisations and his liveliness is a sheer pleasure. His detection of discords is fascinating. He helps us to insert emotions into the songs until we are not only there with the technique but also with heart and soul … the choir’s name “WAYS - With All Your Senses” speaks for itself.

When I’m here I am in another world that enriches me and gives me moments of happiness.

I am very grateful that we can rehearse under normal conditions again, because during the zoom period we not only missed the music, but also each other.

A few words about the choreography: a challenge for the coordination of movement and music. Certainly not that easy for everyone, but by now even I think, yes great, that’s good, it trains the senses and the body. And it is fun.

I consider it a gift for me to be able to be there, and I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to everyone for the great choir work. And I’m happy that on Sunday I don’t think about the upcoming workday, but rather with great ANTICIPATION about REHÖRSAL.

January 2023

The year 2023 has started - time to look back: in 2022 the choir WAYS once again started doing what it sees as its mission: to rehearse live and to sing choir concerts. The concert at the Berliner Chortreff event in June and two concerts under the motto “Together Again” in the summer and autumn were a wonderful experience for all singers.

At the beginning of autumn, we moved from our former rehearsal room in the intercultural youth centre “Bus-Stop” in the “Thermometersiedlung” in Berlin- Lichterfelde to our current venue in the senior citizens’ leisure centre “Berliner Bär” in Berlin-Tempelhof. The room is spacious and modern, and the acoustics are good.

The number of members had decreased during the covid pandemic, which gave us some worries. We are therefore delighted that a number of new singers joined us during the summer and autumn. We are now confident for the future and are looking forward to our first concert in March at the “Total Choral” event.

December 2022

On 30th November 2022 we gave a little performance at our new rehearsal location, the neighborhood meeting point “Berliner Bär”. As thank you to the hosts for the warm welcome of our choir, fourteen WAYSies performed a few songs.

Unfortunately, our choirmaster Gunars couldn’t take part, so we had to sing along with a playback recording. We were worried that it would be awful. But surprisingly it worked out well and even was a lot of fun. And our audience absolutely loved it.

November 2022

What a party!

Due to high demand we repeated our summer concert “Together Again” on Saturday 12th November. The result: a full house in the Gustav-Adolf-Church in Charlottenburg.

We are overjoyed to be back on stage and to have a great audience!

We would also like to say a very special thank you to everyone who filled our donation box: we collected €470 which we transferred to the Berliner Kältehilfe!

Now we are preparing a new program for next year. You can already mark 17th June 2023 in your diary for a WAYS concert in the Martin-Luther-Church in Neukölln. See you there!

Addendum

We proudly present the tv contribution from the Late Evening Show of the RBB24 about the Berliner Chortreff 2022, which was kindly made available to us by the RBB. The article mainly reports on WAYS as an example for the participating choirs.

You can find the article now here on the website in our video section.

September 2022

After one year of friendly welcome at the youth club “Bus-Stop” in Lichterfelde, we have now found a new home in Tempelhof. We ended the summer break with our first rehearsal in the very nice room of the neighborhood club “Berliner Bär”.

We are happy and also proud that our summer concert was so well received that we can offer a second date. If you didn’t have time in July, didn’t get a ticket or just want to see and hear us again, you can do so on Saturday, November 12th, 2022 in the Gustav-Adolf-Kirche, Herschelstraße 14-15, 10589 Berlin. For ticket reservations please email concerts@ways-choir.eu.

June 2022

Our performance at the festival “Berliner Chortreff 2022” in FEZ Wuhlheide was live documented by the RBB evening news show. You can find their summary in the ARD media library for a week.

The short video, which we made in advance of the spectacle as official announcement, was rated by jury and audience as the best video of all participating choirs. You can find the YouTube video here.

April 2022

After a 2-year Corona break, we are finally back on stage with a full program:

Together Again
(click here for more information)

We look forward to seeing our audience again. With new songs and new singers, but as groovy as usual and in a good mood, we will make the St. Lukaskirche at Anhalter Bahnhof ring out.

March 2022

The time for open rehearsals continues: the first Monday of each month everyone interested can participate in a rehearsal. At every other rehearsal there also is the opportunity to listen silently, but unfortunately not to sing along.

So next rehearsals for participation are Monday, 4th April 2022 and Monday, 2nd May 2022, from 6:45 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Anyone who would like to attend a rehearsal is cordially invited. Please make sure to contact us in advance (telephone +49 1575 0984161 or email info@ways-choir.eu).

February 2022

If you are interested in singing with us we invite you to join our rehearsal on Monday, February 21st, February 28th, or March 7th 18:45-22:00. Please contact us in advance (phone +49 1575 0984161 or mail info@ways-choir.eu) so that we can plan accordingly.

Please note that we follow the mandatory COVID regulations for choirs:

• mask required (medical or preferably FFP2)
• COVID-19 QR-code required
• negative test of the same day required

Attention: the event will be indoors.

November 2021

A few days ago we had a WAYS choir weekend in Bad Saarow. With our individual hygiene concept, of course. The last time we were at Scharmützelsee together was in 2019 - and Corona was still a beer … It’s still so beautiful here. The youth hostel is our home base. Friday 6pm to Sunday 1pm actually resulted in almost 15 hours of singing together. Thanks to vocal training and liters of ginger tea, nobody lost their voice. After rehearsal we still had to talk and dance and scrap-secret-santa and eat up all the goodies we had brought with us. And all this in beautiful golden October, a dream!

October 2021

WAYS rehearse analog again

Good news: We found a new, huge rehearsal room with a close connection to S-Bahn in Lichterfelde-Süd. AND: We’re singing again in 3D, color, with real sound, and with Gunars. Yeah! It’s so good to meet as a choir again. Finally! You can look forward to concerts in 2022.

For safety reasons we have agreed on 2G and masks. Therefore, unfortunately not all WAYSies can take part again. (We miss you!) But it’s a start. And it will get better!

May 2021

Yay! The incidences are falling, more and more people of WAYS are vaccinated, too, and the regulations for choir singing in Berlin are loosening. Will the Zoom times end soon? Even when “tea time digital” is fun and much better than not seeing each other at all …

However, we long to sing “for real” again and put together the new songs we learned during the Zoom voice group rehearsals.

Some of us took up their Sunday rehearsals in the park, as before (well distanced!).

We hope we can sing for you again soon!

If you would like to join us: simply call us on +49 178 2440085 or use the contact form.

Your WAYSies

December 2020

Yes, of course WAYS continues to sing all through the winter lockdown. And we don’t even wear masks – Zoom has made it possible for us to meet with Gunars each Monday and practice new songs diligently in three different voice groups. True, everyone is singing by themselves at home and we can’t hear each other, but we can see and hear Gunars at his piano, ask any questions we might have, and gaze into the dearly missed faces of fellow WAYSies.

Though, we are all very eager to hear how the new songs will sound when the patchwork someday comes together in “real-life” rehearsals. Surely, there will still be a lot to work on, you all know how we love all the details. We can’t wait to introduce you to our new repertoire delivered in rich WAYS sound, somewhere “on the other side”. We so miss our concerts and you!

Anticipation begins now!

If you would like to join us: simply call us on +49 178 2440085 or use the contact form.

Your WAYSies

October 2020

Even in Corona times WAYS keeps going: from time to time we rehearse with our choir director in different locations outside (full 3 hours) or inside (2 times 30 minutes with a ventilation break). And on Sundays we sing in a small group in the park. When it rains we meet under the trees or in the parking deck. Most importantly, we all have fun and the sound is great!

If you feel like joining us: simply call us at +49 178 2440085 or use the contact form.

May 2020

Dear friends,

because of the COVID-19 crisis, WAYS is also pausing until further notice with the rehearsals in the library of “our” retirement home on Kurfürstendamm. The health of our hosts of course is more important!

We will let you know when and where we will meet again, as soon as we know ourselves.

In the meantime, we continue rehearsing using video meetings so that we can be there for you again soon - with new songs.

Until then: you all stay healthy, keep some distance, watch each other and don’t forget to sing.

With All Your Senses!

Your WAYSies!