In the volunteer editorial team, Volunteers for Chemnitz 2025 publish reports on their experiences, assignments and adventures around the European Capital of Culture.
Bettina lives in Neukirchen in the Ore Mountains. Bettina has been a volunteer since 2024 and contributes her valuable voluntary experience to the European Capital of Culture gGmbH. A former bank clerk, she previously worked as a hardware and software developer.
At the beginning of July, I received exciting news from the Sächsische Mozartgesellschaft: they were still looking for volunteers for the final concert "TANGO PUR!" on 8 July 2025 on Theaterplatz. As this was a special concert by the European Summer Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir 2025, which was taking place as part of the German-Czech cooperation project "Shaping the future with diverse roots", my curiosity was immediately piqued.
Unfortunately, the weather didn't play along as we would have liked. So when we arrived at the theatre square, we first had to wipe the seats dry... and send hopeful glances and wishes to the heavens.
But soon we were able to welcome the first visitors and the theatre square filled up visibly, the concert was able to start on time and without rain.
This evening was special in many ways: 150 musicians from eight nations formed the Summer Philharmonic Orchestra. The ensemble consisted of children, young people and professionals from countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Ukraine, who had first got to know each other and made friends during rehearsals and joint leisure activities - all in the spirit of a united Europe. All the more remarkable were the impressive performances of the ensemble, the vocal soloists and the young soloists - especially the 15-year-old violinist Mariian Chornenkyi from the Ukraine - who inspired me deeply and were honoured by the audience with long-lasting applause.
The musical director was David Timm, music director at Leipzig University, composer and arranger. He put together a programme especially for this concert that reflected the whole palette of the tango and included both well-known and lesser-known pieces.
The fact that the audience was invited to dance along and enthusiastically accepted this invitation also showed that it was a lovely, relaxed evening. Many tango dancers came especially for the concert and took advantage of this opportunity until shortly before midnight.
Afterwards, there was a short get-together with the artists, during which souvenir photos were taken and experiences exchanged. You could tell that everyone was happy that this concert had been such a fantastic success after intensive rehearsals and had captivated the audience.
All that remained was to keep my fingers crossed for the final concert the next day in Chomutov and hope that it would be just as successful as the one in Chemnitz.