TICC

Music for the Bach commemoration – The sound of assurance

Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, my joy) (BWV 227)

In uncertain times a message of promise is what people want to hear. These tidings of trust and hope in a world of fear are what Johann Sebastian Bach brings in his choral motet presented by Frankfurt’s Trinity International Concert Choir (TICC) in the Festeburgkirche. Highlight of this concert on Sunday, May 11 at 7 p.m. is “Jesu, meine Freude” (“Jesus, my joy”), one of the Baroque master’s most famous works. Appropriately TICC is singing this piece in honor of the occasion of Bach’s death 275 years ago.

Bach wrote the work between 1723 and 1735 while employed as cantor and director of music at Leipzig’s illustrious Thomas Church. It is based on a 100-year-older hymn, the text from Johann Franck and melody from Johann Crüger. Between the six stanzas, Bach set the music to five passages from Paul’s letter to the Romans (8, 1-11). The motet grapples with the question: How can one find his footing in a world of chaos, hate, and misanthropic behavior? Bach’s answer comes in the form of weaving a colorful text fabric with varied musical elements. This motet conveys the message that there is an ultimate security in God which is based upon the Easter victory. It comes to expression as indestructable joy and confidence, and it becomes effective in the life of a person through fellowship with Jesus.

Accompanying this central work, TICC musical director Dr. Steffen Bücher has integrated several Bach pieces including the aria “Bereite dir, Jesu, noch itzo die Bahn” (“Prepare the highway for you into my heart, Jesus, ever now”) sung by soprano soloist Marion E. Bücher-Herbst. Steffen Bücher’s long-standing musical partnership with cellist Florian Streich will result in a performance of three compositions of Bach’s cello suite in G-major. Also on the program is a portion of Bach’s organ sonata number 2 in C-minor, performed by Lukas Euler. Euler, 29, studied music in Leipzig, served as organist at the Thomas Church, and is now guest organ professor at the Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst as well as lecturer/instructor at the Institute for Church Music of the Diocese of Mainz.

Where and when
Sunday, 11 May 2025, 7 p.m.
Festeburgkirche
An der Wolfsweide 58
60435 Frankfurt a.M.

Performers
Marion E. Bücher-Herbst (soprano)
Florian Streich (dello)
Lukas Euler (organ)
Trinity International Concert Choir

Director
Steffen Bücher

Tickets
15 € (pupil/student/disabled discount: 10 €)
tickets@ticchoir.de
Box office on the evening of the performance

We welcome new singers!

♬ just come along to a rehearsal, sit down and sing with us:
Thursdays, from 19.30 to 21.30
at Trinity Lutheran Church, Nibelungenallee 54, 60318 Frankfurt am Main

♬ you do not need to audition, but you should have some knowledge of Music

♬ our rehearsals are held in English, but nearly all singers also speak German

♬ if you would like more information first, you can always send an email (in any language you feel comfortable with) to Info@TICChoir.de

» more . . .

Intercultural understanding through sacred and secular choral music!

The experience of working together on demanding and fulfilling music unites us.

We offer a musical home for people from all over the world living temporarily or permanently in the Rhine-Main region. In the face of ongoing outbreaks of hatred and violence here and around the world, we stand as an international choir against terrorism and violence. We would like nothing more than to be able to live and sing together in friendship, peace and justice with all the people of this world.

The Trinity International Concert Choir (TICC) e.V. began as “The Messiah Project” in 2011 and has since established itself in Frankfurt as a uniquely international choir. Concert programs in recent years have included Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. John Passion, Dvorak’s Mass in D major, Fauré’s Requiem, Bilder der Hoffnung (paintings of hope) by Petr Eben, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Mozart’s Requiem in the version by Robert D. Levin, Telemann’s Day of Judgement, All the Ways of a Man by Knut Nystedt and Die Geburt unsers Herren Jesu Christi by Rogier Michael. In 2023, we performed The Creation by Joseph Haydn at the Alte Oper Frankfurt in a joint project with several children’s/youth/adult choirs.

TICC rehearses at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Frankfurt, an international, English-speaking parish whose former musical director, Dr. Jerrode Baker Marsh, was the impulse and guiding inspiration for the choir. Frankfurt’s multicultural society is reflected in the composition of the choir: currently about 55 singers from 13 different nations sing together. At Christmas, we usually present mixed programs of Advent songs and carols from our members’ home countries.

After single-handedly organizing the choir for its initial project performances of “Messiah” and then building and directing it afterwards, in 2015 Dr. Baker Marsh passed the baton to Michael Muche. Through his intensive, sensitive work, the choir continued to develop and our special TICC voice emerged. After the Corona-related singing break, which was only bridged by online substitute rehearsals and exercises outside, we restarted in summer 2022 with our inspiring choir director Dr. Steffen-Michael Bücher, full of energy and creative ideas.

Meet TICC’s choir director: Dr. Steffen-Michael Bücher

Dr. Bücher received his musical inclination from the cradle, since his grandparents were pianists, a renown piano duo heard throughout the concert and broadcasting worlds.

As a five-year-old he received his first piano instruction. In 1987 he won his first prize at the “Jugend musiziert” competition. This was followed by awards such as the “Begabtenförderung” of the city of Ladenburg, selection for MDR television recordings of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Halle in 1996 as well as other top prizes and scholarships.

Bücher is a graduate in studies of piano, voice, and conducting. In addition to his artistic-academic training, he finalized and fulfilled his teacher train-ing studies in both music and physical education, completing both first and second state examinations.

His extensive studies have been rounded out by master classes with such notables as Sir Colin Davis, Helmuth Rilling (Stuttgart), Thomas Choir cantor Georg Christoph Biller (Leipzig), Peter Feuchtwanger (London), Konrad and Rudolf Meister (Hanover/Mannheim), Oskar Milani (Nuremberg), among others.

Following years of performing in recitals and concerts with various orchestras as both soloist and conductor in both Germany and abroad, Bücher made his opera debut in 2002.

Besides being a versatile musical performer, he has also been engaged in several cultural enterprises, both in directorial and management positions. He worked for the Hessian Ministry of Culture as well as for the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation, has been appointed to various committees, and is a juror for musical competitions.

In 2023, he was awarded his PhD at the Department of Neurology at the University of Heidelberg.