Longfield Gospel Singers at the Stephansdom

Dear friends and readers,

For many Austrian - or rather Viennese - people the Stephansdom (or St. Stephens Cathedral or rather "Steffl" as we gently call our huge dome) is the centre. Of everything. Of Vienna or in a way of the world, sometimes even of our identity as Austrians/Viennese and of everything else. We measure every distance from downtown which - for us - is St. Stephens, we are born and bread like this, it is in our genes, we cannot help it. Full stop. And for all the others it is definately the centre of downtown Vienna and a maior tourist sight right in the heart of the city.

Besides the dome is the most important church in Austrian catholizism (okay, the Salzburger Dome is important too, bear with me mind!), and everyone who does not bother lots with St. Stephens or catholizism still knows, "okay, it is THE church and somehow very important."

So imagine how excited and honoured we, the Longfield Gospel Singers, felt when Georg (our chorus leader, conductor, organizer, nanny and many other things) told us that we had been invited by Dompfarrer Toni Faber (the head and master of the Stephansdom) to perform there at the "Lange Nacht der Kirchen" (= "Long night of the churches"). This is a maior event over here, all the churches in Austria are open to the public all night, concerts, discussions, activities are offered in all churches everywhere in the country - and you can imagine what a huge thing it is to perform in the most important one! THE STEFFL!!! Wow!!!!

Hours before the concert we met inside the dome where we had access to the very centre of the dome, the area around/near the altar, for sound checking and rehearsing.

The acoustics of the Stefansdom is a bit difficult for musicians, remember it was built in 1300 something when people a) did not bother with acoustics much and b) it is not a place basically built for what we take as public performances nowadays. It was built to be impressive, to demonstrate the power of the church and people should be overwhelmed when stepping out of their little huts right into the overwhelming power of God. Well, it still is impressive and all that, but it also is a bit delicate when it comes to acoustics. I don´t have a clue about sound systems and the like and was happy that other peope who obviously knew what they were doing did the job.

Before the concert started a slackliner literally walked the line high up in the air. At that time St. Stephens Square was already filled with people, and it was hard to get to the Pfarrkanzlei in time to change into our turquoise robes. Panic! Stage fever! We were ready to go and just wanted the concert to start!

We gathered in the sacristy of St. Stephens, and at that time now the dome was full of light, and it was beautiful!

Dompfarrer Toni Faber himself, who had personally welcomed us in the sacristy before, introduced us to the the audience! Thank you so much, we felt absolutely honoured!

And then the music, the intro to "Love shine a light", started, we one by one came on stage, and wow!!! wow!!! wow!!!! what an incredible moment it was! All of the huge dome was jammed with people, and they all were cheering and applauding! It was so enourmously moving, breathtaking, brilliant that for a moment I was not sure if I would be able to sing. (And I was told by others later that they had the same problem.)

But of course we began just as we were intended to, and then we did our thing and rocked the place! That is what we were there for and that is what we did. And hey, after all we are all performers, and how can you not perform when thousands and thousands of people are there for you? The audience was so lovely, singing along, clapping, waving..... From where I stood on stage I could see that the doors of the dome were wide open and that people were standing until out on the square to listen to us and to celebrate with us! HOW VERY VERY WONDERFUL!!! "I feel your love" was one of the songs we sang, and indeed we did feel the love.....

Here you can see the huge audience, it was absolutely overwhelming!

Thanks a lot to Herby Buschbeck for this great photo! I did not have any photo from the dome and the many, many friends who came to see us, and he was so kind to help me out.

When we left the stage to the sounds of "Amen"we all knew that we had been part of something very, very special that will stay with us forever.

I am very happy and extremely grateful that I had the honor to participate in this glorious event, it was extremely moving and among the best things I ever was happy to experience.  I know this feeling will stay with me and inside my heart for the rest of my life and will be cherished as something very, very special.

Thank you, Steffl! Thank you, phantastic audience! Thank you, Georg, and all my dear Longfield Singers! It was "amazing".....