FC Schalke 04 are one of the most popular football clubs in Germany, but on June 5 their stadium will not be hosting a match, but performances by choirs, including Galway’s Cois Cladaigh.
Essen in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of western Germany has been chosen as the European City of Culture 2010. To mark the occasion, a special feast day, entitled Sing! Day of Song will be held on Saturday June 5.
The award winning Cois Cladaigh choir has been invited to represent Ireland at the event, where it will participate along with 600 other choirs and 22,000 singers in Schalke’s Veltins-Arena stadium in Gelsenkirchen. The choir will also perform in the Zollverein Coal Mines, a World Heritage Site, in Essen.
Closer to home, Cois Cladaigh will perform at the Alumni Awards in NUI, Galway’s Bailey Allen Theatre on March 6 and will host a number of visiting choirs including the Irish Chamber Choir of Paris in April and Danish choir Frederiksberg Kammerkor in September. The choirs’ Christmas concert takes place on December 18.
