The Grand Chinese New Year Concert 2026 in Stuhr
The community of Stuhr is a combined municipality made of several smaller towns when Germany undertook a reform of municipal governments. It is located in the North of Germany, South of the port city of Bremen. The city is very active in its cultural life and has about 200 performances of all kind in a year. These performances are presented in a historical farm house. The hall is a refurbished barn, prepared to hold all kinds of cultural performances and even sports events. But the Grand Chinese New Year Concert is certainly the biggest event in that venue.
The venue of performance is located remotely in this community called "Stuhr", and it has conserved its country side appearance. The "Old Barn", where the performances are held, has no back stage area, and the artists use dressing rooms, rest rooms and place to relax in the old main house of the facility. To enter stage they have to walk over a paved courtyard to the barn hall. The facility is called "Gut Varrel".
When the orchestra arrives there with their busses and with the container lorry carrying the instruments, they are amazed of the view. This is so different from what they are used in the festive music halls they normally play in. They walk curiously around, look at the perfectly preserved building structures, and take a look through the small windows of the old farm bakery which is still in use today to satisfy touristic curiosity. The entire place breathes a warm welcome of home to those who visit.
In the afternoon of the performance day, the orchestra arrives there for rehearsal. After rehearsal they go to the main house to have a snack and to change into their colorful costumes. While they were rehearsing, voluntary helpers have prepared many dozens of German bread rolls with butter and German sausage to feed the orchestra before they go onto stage.
Stuhr is so special in this concert tour that Chinese newspapers and even CCTV, the Chinese state television company, have extensively reported about the concert in Stuhr in the past. This carried the reputation of this small city into millions of households in China, making the Chinese population feel proud about their cultural heritage to be spread deep into the German country. The local cable TV organizations and local newspapers report about the concert transporting the unique mood and passion of the concert into the surrounding country.
-
Logistics
To arrange and organize the performance in Stuhr is not easy. The orchestra including their management, soloists, conductor, technical staff, accompanying Chinese press reporters, need the full support of a tour like accomodation, meals, sightseeing, and they need the full support of a back stage organization. The municipality of Stuhr has flexibly prepared for such a big request, and the mayor of Stuhr and his staff are dedicated to make this concert a success every year again.
The accomodation, therefore, is done in Bremen and the transport is performed by busses between the hotel and the performance venue. The meals are taken in a Mongolian restaurant in Stuhr which provides enough space for the big group.
Since the venue in Stuhr has no backstage, things are improvised. After arrival the available rooms are marked with big hand written Chinese characters of what the rooms will host, including wash rooms, showers, ladies' change room, men's change room, snack and relax room, snack preparing room, and so forth. The conductor will have a separate room for himself and the soloists use a room for all of them, separated however by female and male soloists.
There is one person assigned to help the orchestra in all local questions and in all organizational question. This is organized by xhsConsulting, together with staff of Wu Promotion and the staff of the Stuhr municipality on site. They provide the materials for the snack catering which the voluntary helpers will then prepare for the musicians.
-
Moderation of the Concert
There is only one language in the world that is understood by people even if they do not speak it. That is the language of music. But still the strange traditional Chinese instrument and the tradition inheritages of the music like pentatonic and the use of gliding tones is a different sound compared with traditional classic music in Europe. Therefore, the organizers of the Grand Chinese New Year Concert provide a moderator for guiding the audience through the concert. Among the moderators had been famous personalities like Freddy Quinn and Gerhard Schmitt-Thiel.
History of the Concert in Stuhr
The concert in Stuhr, among other venues of the concert tour, is a special place. Laying in a beautiful flat North German countryside it has still a long tradition of cultural events, but none of them as big as the Grand Chinese New Year Concert. The cultural hall of Stuhr is transformed from an old farm house, and its space is limited. The experience to be listening to a concert of a big classical orchestra is very special, and the density of the room is producing a very close contact between orchestra and the audience. This venue came into the tour schedules by the former conductor and leader of the Brinkum Shanty Squire, who used his connection into the municipality of Stuhr to win the Stuhr administration as a supporter of the concert. This decision made STuhr a permanent venue for the yearly concert despite of the limitations of the place. The Mayor of STurh and the Vice Mayor support and promote the concert in the name of the municipality, and the saving bank of Diepholz is sponsoring the print jobs marketing effotrts of admission tickets, posters and flyers.