StoneMill Houseband Wows the Crowd at the Mayor’s New Year’s Reception

As musicians of the Steinmühle, we considered it a great honor that the StoneMill House Band was able to provide the musical entertainment at this year’s New Year’s reception hosted by the mayor. Mayor Egon Vaupel had also come up with a special musical idea as part of his final New Year’s address. All the musicians participating in the evening, as well as the invited guests in the hall and on stage, would come together at the end to sing the Playing-for-change song “A Better Place,” in sync with a video streamed online, which served as the beat-keeper alongside its various musicians from around the world, thereby virtually connecting the festive gathering with people across the globe. This fit the focus of his New Year’s address, in which he made it clear that, on the one hand, it was the various individuals who had consistently supported him throughout his term in office, and that, on the other hand, this was precisely the point and the primary task of his work: to develop sound, solution-oriented policies that address the specific concerns of real people in their local communities.

Encouraged by the mayor’s charm right from the start, we took the stage and were able to open the evening with two songs from our annual program. The brass section, rhythm section, and vocalists performed a Caribbean version of Coldplay’s “Clocks,” followed by a more powerful rendition of Emeli Sandé’s “Heaven,” which built to a grand climax as the song progressed. Both pieces created a wonderful atmosphere in the hall, and we were delighted to have done such a good job. The fact that we were able to further develop the vocals into three-part harmony in many places thanks to Ulla Keller’s excellent coaching during the preparation week proved to be a huge asset. It was thus a special event and a wonderful start to the year for the singers Linda Balser, Paula Stauzebach, and Sonja Mecke; for the wind section, with Dominik Baran, Samuel Ruff, and Julius Hamel on trombones; saxophonists Philipp Kreiter, Antonia Kraft, and Tom Herfert; Malte Schweitzer and Alexander Christ on trumpets, as well as pianists Adrian Hamel and Hannah Boßhammer, guitarist Fynn Konnertz, Linus Boas on bass, Arthur Laux on drums, and Frank Wemme as band leader, providing support on percussion. The band would like to say thank you for this enriching experience and all the positive feedback.

(Frank Wemme)