Today’s meeting was called to order by President Dawn and together we sang our patriotic song, My Country ‘Tis of Thee.  Then, we recited the 4-way test.

Tom Millard provided our inspirational message which centered around music’s role in the human experience.  Tom provided multiple quotes from many great speakers and philosophers regarding the value of music.  Two notable quotes, “Where words fail, music speaks” and Frank Zappa’s comment, “All of the great music has already been written by guys in wigs!”

Joe Diedrich and Curt Waugh led us in song today with the Seals & Crofts classic ‘Summer Breeze’.

President Dawn and the club welcomed several visitors and family members.  Birthday wishes to Mary Sutton and Henry Johnson and Happy Anniversary to Todd Kephart (18 yrs), Greg Stejskal (19 yrs) and John Sepp (19 yrs).  President Dawn also offered thank you’s to the helpers for today’s meeting.

Announcements

• Former member Robert Guenzel passed away recently.
• Be watching your email for the annual Club Survey and please spend a few minutes completing it!
• Other upcoming events include the Yoga Retreat and the District conference.

Todd Kephart then gave a short presentation on the 2026 Rotary Fights Child Hunger food drive, which is occurring now though March 20.  This is a collaboration between RCAA and Food Gatherers.  We’ve raised $5629 thus far ,which equates to 11,000 meals. The final goal is 100,000 meals.

UMS and Berlin Philarmonic go way back

Today’s guest speaker and visitors were introduced by member Matthew Van Husen of the University Musical Society.  Our visitors today were representing the Berlin Philharmonic and the associated Karajan Akademie and were in Ann Arbor this week preceding a Friday night concert at Rackham Auditorium and Saturday at Hill Auditorium.  The Philharmonic first came to Ann Arbor in 1955 and has been back many times.

Simon Rossler, the Managing Director of the Karajan Academie, spoke about his musical biography and the Philharmonic, which was founded in 1882.  The Academie, founded in 1972, is connected to the orchestra and offers post-graduate ‘residencies’ to musicians, providing lessons, seminars and of course, performances.  The Academie, which originated in Germany, has become a global institution, awarding 35 scholarships to musicians from 17 countries.

We were then treated to two “mini concerts!”  First year Academie student, Josephine Chung, violin, played two Bach movements. Second year student, Constantin Heise, cello, then played a piece by a contemporary composer which was reminiscent of a lullaby.

Both musicians then answered a few questions from our members such as how to play such a piece from memory and how do they balance both modern and classic pieces. They replied that because they are in both the Academie and the Philharmonic, they have the opportunity to regularly play both classical and modern arrangements.  For lovers of classical music, this was quite a treat.

Our meeting was then adjourned at 1:30pm.