REPORT ON THE CLUB’S ACTIVITIES IN 2013 Membership increased in 2013, with over 70 membership cards issued. The focus of the Club’s activities continued to be on musical training, rehearsal and performance, and the sharing of information about concerts, courses and workshops and other musical events. Members had access to the practice facilities in the VIC – principally the Music Room, the pianos and the drum kit. The latter, acquired in 2012, was serviced in the course of 2013. On Wings of Song There was no shortage of members exercising their vocal chords this year. The UN Choir met weekly in the Wednesday lunch break and in September sang what has become the traditional mass offered by the Permanent Mission of the Holy See for the opening of the IAEA General Conference. The Choir’s final performance of the year was the traditional Sing-Along, (interspersed with choral solos and a duet by Corinna Herden and Elizabeth Dobie-Sarsam) under the Christmas tree in the Rotunda. The audience was large and enthusiastic, and, once Sandro had got them going, joined in with gusto. The children’s choir also continued under the leadership of Sandy Schweighofer. For more information about this and the UN Choir, see the Music Club website. In January, the annual Vienna Burns Night Supper was entertained in true tartan style by Elizabeth Dobie-Sarsam and Brian Bales singing Scottish songs by the Bard himself (Flow Gently Sweet Afton, Scots Wha Hae and much, much more). The vegetarian haggis was reportedly as good as their singing. Also on the Celtic fringe, an Irish choir, composed of VIC and embassy staff plus some other expatriates, sang at the St. Patrick’s Day service in the Schottenkirche, as they have for the last few years. This choir thanks the Music Club for providing it with rehearsal facilities. In the early autumn, vocal trainer Joan-Marie Zimmermann led another series of singing workshops entitled Baroque and Bel Canto to Broadway! Heidi Krenn, jazz singer and vocal coach also held a workshop in early December as a taster for her course on Jazz Singing Basics, which starts in January 2014. There is more information about this and other activities on the Music Club website All that Jazz …. Among the year’s highlights for the band Ten Years Earlier were two evening gigs in the VIC bar in January and July, and a summer excursion to Paks, Hungary to play at the Gastroblues festival there. The combo also invited the VIC community’s jazz aficionados to join them in several jam sessions. Any jazz musicians and singers who would like to drop in

on one of their regular Wednesday rehearsals (in F-1043 from 5:30 pm) are welcome. If interested, please get in touch with Susan Unger ([email protected]) or Roberto Gaetano ([email protected]) a day or two in advance. Another jazz combo made up of UNOV staff members, the VIQ (Vienna International Quintet) first came together in December 2012 with their rendering of Dave Brubeck's Take Five at an end-of-year office party. Since that first foray turned out pretty well, they decided to keep on playing to see where it might lead. The original trio (Imre Karbuczky on guitar and vocals, Matthew Marth on sax and Roland Süle on bass) has become a quintet with the addition of percussionist, Alexandre Silva, and pianist, Daniel Bridi. In recent months, they have played at private house parties and at the UNOV Conference Management Service's end-of-year party. In 2014, the VIQ is setting its sights on an expanded repertoire of jazz standards, bossa nova, originals and whatever else inspires them, with more parties and festive music making already on the horizon, ..and a Little Rock’n Roll The rock band The Troubles or DCM-13s played for several parties over the last year. At his final performance with the band (a U.S. Independence Day celebration in the Prater), Charlie smashed a guitar to bits à la Jimi Hendrix. The now reconstituted band will play for the IAEA Ball next year and other events Fête de la Musique Two fetes were held, one on 14 June in the F10 Staff Activity area and the second on 11 December in the Rotunda. Despite its limitations as far as acoustics are concerned, the Rotunda evening brought the event – and the Music Club – to the attention of a wider public. Many of the singers and musicians mentioned earlier in this report took part, as well as other singers and soloists (piano, cello and violin). Other Happenings Following the great success of the 2012 event, numerous Club musicians and singers were once again begged and cajoled into keeping the music flowing at the IAEA summer party in the Plaza. In July and August, while some of the regular activities in the big area on F10 took a break, the Music Club seized the opportunity to use the space for a series of lunch-time concerts, including a performance of Lieder and texts by Goethe with Nestroy actor Gottfried Riedel and Elizabeth Dobie-Sarsam and a concerts by the jazz combo Ten Years Earlier, Germain St-Pierre and Patricia Higgins Weigl, and of the complete Liederkreis by Schumann again with E. Dobie-Sarsam and the young Austrian pianist/organist Stephan Donner. The Music Club took part in the two Clubs Days organized by the VIC Recreation Committee in the Rotunda in November with a view to informing the VIC community about the various social and cultural activities open to them.

January 2014