Gaarden grooves

Kebab shops, Turkish barber shops or bakeries, it is obvious that there is a cultural diversity in Kiel. Especially the district Gaarden has a variety of multicultural offers, also in terms of music.

One of these offers is the young gospel choir which was founded in 2006. Every Wednesday evening more than 40 singers come together in the St. Johannes church and distribute African and Afro-American sounds on the eastern shore.

The choirmaster is reverend Uwe Hagge. He soon met African migrants when they asked him for a prayer room. Since then an African prayer service takes place from 2 pm to 4 pm in addition to the main mass at 9.30 am. As reverend Hagge told us the African masses are much louder and more active and vigorous than common ones, so he quickly noticed great gospel songs coming from the prayer room. Reverend Hagge invited the young Africans to his own church service. From then on, the African and non-African people had established a joint mass every five to six weeks. Because of the fun the people had they decided to meet more often and sing together once a week and founded the Gospel Choir Gaarden.

According to Reverend Hagge the choir always tries for gigs and that it is present at “Kieler Woche”, at different district festivals and at Christmas concerts. We enjoyed the choir at the “Brunnenfest”. The choir opened the festival and spread a great atmosphere.

If you take pleasure in singing, moving and sociality you are invited to join a choir practice. There are no admission standards. On the choirs’ website you can find some records as well as current and upcoming projects.

Also, if you don’t live in Gaarden you can find a gospel choir nearby, such as GOSPELBOAT Kiel, RichSound, gospel choir Suchsdorf, gospel choir Holtenau or Sing and Swing in Hammer.