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Islington 
Meistersingers

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Islington Meistersingers

The Islington Meistersingers are a small German Choir based in Islington in the North of London. I was part of the founding group  and quickly became the sole conductor.

We started in 2004 in the German Saturday School in Islington where our children were  learning how to read and write the language of their parents. While we were drinking coffee, eating cakes and Prezels sold by the German baker and generally enjoying some German culture, we had the idea to form a choir and in 2024 we were celebrating our 20th anniversary.

We gave ourselves the name Islington Meistersingers, an ironic play on Wagner's opera ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.'' who were not as masterful as the name suggests and neither are we.

Mehr singen auf der Wiese Juni 24.jfif

came into their own during the pandemic when the Saturday School had to close. We started to meet outdoors, singing under railway bridges enjoying the beautiful acoustics. We sang, talked and drank wine together, a wonderful oasis of hope and togetherness in the dark days of lockdown. At times we called ourselves jokingly the Lockdown Choir. Still to this day and weather permitting we meet outdoors to sing and socialise.

Now we are starting our third decade, inspired as ever by the wonderful tunes and words of the German and Austrian greatest wordsmiths and composers. We hope you'll enjoy some of the results.

The Meistersingers...

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We perform regularly...

at the German Saturday school at their seasonal celebrations like Easter and Christmas, as well as singing in the German YMCA, German churches like Christuskirche in Knightsbridge and St Marien in Sandwich Street. We love singing in various Christmas events and give recitals in places like the St Augustine Tower in Hackney central. We have also guested for the Anglo German History and sang in various book launches.

For our 10th Anniversary  we recorded the CD Wein, Weib und Gesang, loosely translated as Drinking, Love and Song. For our 15th Anniversary we recorded a CD with German Christmas music and now at our 20th we have  created a Youtube Channel to share our music.

On occasions we have only ladies singing and that's when we call ourselves ''Die OrphFeen''. Feen are obviously Fairies and Orpheus is a character in Greek mythology who could sing so beautifully that wild beasts were tamed and stones started to cry. So those two words combined suggest we are the Fairies that sing as beautifully as Orpheus.

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Please visit our Youtube Channel

  • Youtube

@islingtonMeistersingers

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Hildegard Maier

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