The Edmonton Swiss Men’s Choir (ESMC) is very honoured to have received the gold recognition on Sunday, June 23 at the 44th NASSA (North American Swiss Singing Alliance) Saengerfest in Pittsburgh, PA. The NASSA singers, made up of 13 choirs from the US and Canada, compete every 3 years in various categories (Mixed, ladies, men & yodeling). 

This year, our hosts were the Schweizer Männerchor Helvetia of Allegheny City (Pittsburgh) PA, June 20 to 23. The Grand Concert was held Friday, June 21 in the “Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Museum and Auditorium” with 160 singers attending. The auditorium in this hall is known for its great acoustics. The 2000 seats are facing an almost 24m wide stage, which had chairs for all choristers except the Toledo singers, who sang from the balconies on either side of the stage.

Saturday, June 22 was the day of the competition in the nearby First Baptist Church. The ESMC presented a Suisse Romande (Swiss French) competition song “Pays, Terre Ardente” by Jean Daetwyler. The hard work and dedication of our musical director Elizabeth Anderson and  assistant director Irena Tarnawsky bore fruits and the judges awarded our choir with the gold prize.             

The weekend was filled with several events throughout Pittsburgh, including Molly’s Trolley to check out the city and/or visit different museums etc. 

Sunday, June 23 concluded with an ecumenical church service followed by the brunch and closing ceremony. Our flagbearer, Hermann Knupp proudly accepted the special award wreath.

We had a great time singing together with; Asian, Filipino and Ukrainian choirs on Sunday November 12th, 2024

Dear Kamerade and friends of the ESMC;

It is with great sadness that I have to announce that Werner Merlo passed away earlier today.  On behalf of the Choir and especially myself I would like to extend our deepest condolences to his spouse Susi, sons Stephan and Daniel and the family.

Werner was a founding member of the ESMC. He would have been 83 in December.  Susi and him were also longtime members of the Edmonton Swiss Society.  Werner was a first tenor and helped along many new singers when they joined our choir.   He’ll be missed and may he RIP.
Unfortunately he was dealing with some health issues over the last several months.  He was in the hospital for the past 2 weeks and scheduled to go home tomorrow but this wasn’t to be.

There will be a small family funeral and possibly at a later date the family might have a Celebration of Life for Werner.

We wish his family strength, courage and confidence through this sad time and the memories will prevail.   

Silent regards.

Hans