Basingstoke Ladies Choir were very proud and privileged to entertain the Taubacher Mannerchor Choir from Weimar in Germany from 25th – 30th March. The Ladies had visited Weimar 2 years ago and this was a great opportunity to cement relationships started then. Although a very established and award winning choir many of the Taubacher Mannerchor had never travelled out of Germany and the Ladies arranged escorted tours to London, Portsmouth and Winchester where the choir sang in the Cathedral. Before a mayoral reception on Thursday, a Ginkgo tree – a symbol of Weimar – was planted in Eastrop Park to commemorate the visit.

In Basingstoke the two choirs put on two very successful concerts. On Thursday they sang in St Paul’s Church Tadley where there was standing room only and on Saturday the United Reformed Church was equally full.

Whilst the Ladies put on their usual polished performance it was exciting to listen to the Taubacher Mannerchor. They always sing without any accompaniment and showed great versatility, singing various types of song in both German and English.

At the end of the concert on Saturday the Mayor of Basingstoke, Councillor Warwick Lovegrove paid tributes to the two choirs and said that he hoped that this would not be last time that the Taubacher Mannerchor visited Basingstoke.

Graham Ling

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