Audi 2009 Annual Report Download - page 113

Cool not crazy: Choir director Martin Steidler is enthralled by 19-year-old Quirin Würfl’s deep,
mellifluous voice and love of music.
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other hand, is about “a willingness to
work hard,” says Steidler, as well as tal-
ent and a deep passion for music. The
choir director’s ambition is not to shape
soloists. He is looking to take individual
voices, as perfect as they may be, and
mold them into a larger whole that is
greater than the sum of its parts. “Many
young people are beginning to take an
interest in choral singing again,” he
says. “A broad public is beginning to
rediscover the value of classical music.”
While in Berlin, Clara, Quirin and the
other choir members rehearse for up to
eight hours a day. Either with the choir
as a whole, with their individual sec-
tions – soprano, alto, tenor and bass –
or on their own in private singing les-
sons, where Clara is now, balancing on a
rubber teeter-board while vocalizing
through her scales. Balancing is going
well enough. From the way Clara
moves, it is clear that she often likes to
dance the salsa, sometimes several
times in a week. But as for singing,
there is still room for improvement.
“Clara is like a diamond in the rough.
She has a wonderful voice quality, but
she needs to hone her technique. That’s
where I come in,” says voice teacher
Barbara Bübl. Clara has brought along
the alto aria “Prepare yourself, Zion”
which they are working on together
from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Clara is
not allowed to sing through the conso-
nants. She is only allowed to vocalize
using e-ei-e-i-i-o. “So that you learn
how the ‘i’ is formed right at the front
of the mouth and nose area in the
mask, and how with the ‘o’ the tone
should remain the same and only the
articulation changes,” explains Bübl.
She goes on to say that a singer has to
train their vocal chords just like a 100-
meter runner has to train their quadri-
ceps. “Learning to sing is like going to
the gym.”
During the few breaks, the singers
stand together in small groups outside
the rehearsal room. Almost all of them
have a water bottle in hand, like soccer
players after a game or a model be-
tween photo shoots.
And almost all the choir members are
wearing the typical uniform of the Web
2.0 generation: skinny jeans, XXL sneak-
ers and piercings. One boy, in baggy
pants, opens up his silver laptop as
carefully as if it were a treasure chest,
and loads up a couple of pictures from
the rehearsals. Clara is also sitting at a
computer, updating her profile on a so-
cial network. She answers a few friend
requests, mostly from other choir
members. The singers will keep in con-
tact. They are bound together not just
by Web 2.0, but also by the experiences
they have had during this long week of
rehearsals.
And the sense of achievement from
the concert. The choir has just finished
singing the last note of Haydn’s Crea-
tion in the Berlin Cathedral. Their au-
dience is made up of over 1,000 Berlin
schoolchildren who are clapping,
screaming and stamping their feet.
Just like at a pop concert. Clara’s
cheeks are flushed with excitement
and pride. She took note of the alto’s
clear and beautiful resonance, noticed
how precise each and every entrance
of the bass had been, and was thrilled
by the soprano’s shimmering joyful-
ness, just as they had rehearsed time
and time again. Quirin just cannot
stop laughing. Like a high-jumper who
knows the bar has been set very high
and has cleared it anyway. He revels in
the magic of the moment.
Jakob Schrenk is working as an editor at
Neon while he completes his doctoral thesis
in sociology.