Beautiful Music
District 821's GBU Saxonia-Rheingold Chorus celebrates its 100th year.
Christmas Sing, 2015
On February 23, 1923, some men with a love of singing in Sterling Heights, MI, gathered to form a choir under the direction of the group’s first president, John Zabel. The choir grew to over 100 members within the first year. Soon after, in March of 1926, the ladies choir was started as a separate organization. However, as a result of the Depression, both groups sustained substantial losses in membership and chose to merge.
In 1936, GBU President Hans Schreck and Saxonia Mixed-Chorus President Thomas Seiler decided to practice singing together. This practice resulted in a new partnership, and Franz Reschke was hired to be the director of the new GBU-Saxonia Mixed Chorus.
The choir at the National Sängerfest
In 1965, George Beverst began his position as conductor. The group made its first trip to Germany in 1983 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Germans in America. The group also attended a choral festival in Hamburg and visited the city of Krefeld, which was the original home of the first 13 German families who came to America to settle near Philadelphia in 1683. It was also the chorus’s 60th anniversary, and renowned German Tenor, Rudolph Schock, attended the anniversary concert. The trip was followed by additional ones in 1993, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2011 and 2015. The chorus earned many honors and awards and befriended many German choirs, who have, in turn, come to America to visit and sing. These trips gave the members an opportunity to visit a city in the former East Germany, which had been previously closed to travel, and to sing in the famous Cathedral of Cologne.
The Rheingold Men’s Choir joined in 1994, and the chorus’s name was changed to its current one, the GBU Saxonia-Rheingold Choru s. The combined chorus continued to bring their music to events such as the Detroit German Christmas Service at the historic Trinity Lutheran Church, the 150th anniversary of St. Alphonso‘s Church in Dearborn, MI, in 2002 and the 150th anniversary of St. Peter‘s Church in Richmond, MI, in 2022. The group was invited to sing at the Macomb Symphony in 2004 and again in 2017 for their concert, Germany, the Homeland of Harmony. The group also traveled together for vacations to Barbados and Milwaukee. Together, they have traveled for singing to Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dayton, London and Kitchener in Ontario, Canada, in addition to Oregon, OH, for its German-American Festival.
All three Michigan choirs at the 2023 Sängerfest in Madison, Wisconsin.
The group has had annual performances at the Deutsche Tag in August and the Unification Day in October, performances in 2017, 2018 and 2019 at Jimmy John’s Stadium for German Heritage Day, and performances every 3 years at Fort Custer Cemetery, honoring 14 German soldiers who lost their lives in WWII. Special concerts were performed in honor of their 75th and 80th anniversaries, as well as in honor of Mozart’s birthday in 2006. They also performed at a concert remembering the 10-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.
The G BU Saxonia-Rheingold Chorus also has done a great deal of charitable work such as matching funds drives for the VFW, making handmade blankets for the Children’s Hospital, supporting the Macomb County Food Bank and St. Peter’s Church Food Bank, fundraising for firefighters and police following September 11, 2001, raising money for a local student in need of a wheelchair and tending flower beds and providing kitchen help at Carpathia Hall.
Until 2020, the group hosted the annual Old World Christmas Market, which attracted thousands of visitors, and a very popular Karneval festival, the largest Karneval celebration in Michigan. Unfortunately, two years of COVID restrictions brought these annual festivities to an end. The group is currently preparing for its 100th Anniversary Concert on November 5, 2023. Throughout its 100 years, the GBU Saxonia-Rheingold Chorus has provided its members the opportunity to share a unique bond of fellowship and pride in their German culture and heritage. We hope it continues to do so for many years to come!
Spring Concert, 2015
