Back in the 1980's, the Singing Christmas Tree in New York City was part of the South Street Seaport's "Cinderella" transformation from a run-down fishing harbor into a thriving tourist area featuring boutiques and restaurants. To help promote the new South Street Seaport and spread holiday cheer, The Singing Christmas Tree was featured as one of the main attractions (and still is). Amy Elizabeth Wheeler, one of the orginal choir members, thought the production was great and when she came to Gothenburg, Sweden she thought the production would be just as successful in Gothenburg as it was in NYC. She presented the idea to Pehr Sandström, in charge of special effects and set-building at the Gothenburg Opera, who also thought it was a a terrific idea and sketched drawings for the scaffolding and constructed a model.
After three years in the drawer, Den Sjungande Julgranen, finally got its big break in 2004 when Pernilla Warberg-Andersson (one of Gothenburg's best sources for "making something happen") saw an opportunity for the production to be featured in "Julstaden Göteborg" (Christmas in Gothenburg) which was an event conceived of by Leif Nilsson, who was then the vice VD of Göteborg & Co. The event was free to the public and was slated to run annually for three years with an aim to increase tourism and cheer up Gothenburgians - not to mention other nordic neighbors. The arrangers for Julstaden Göteborg liked the idea of a "singing Christmas tree" and bought the production from Amy and Pehr and kept Amy on as the Artistic Director.
The scaffolding was welded together by Nordsvets AB and The Lodola Choir (Lodolakören) conducted by Thomas Lagerberg, was selected to be the debut choir.
The premier was a success thanks to everybody's good spirits and hard work and most importantly, the warm hearts of Gothenburg. Den Sjungande Julgranen has enjoyed seven seasons in Bältespännarparken, featuring choirs such as Härlanda Kammarkör (cond. David Molin), Lodolakören (cond. Thomas Lagerberg), Göteborg Gospel (cond. Björn Hedström), Göteborgs Gosskör (The Gothenburg Boys Choir cond. Maria Försström), as well as Hvitfeldska kören (cond. Martin Bagge and Martin Rossing). New for 2011 will be the Gothia Barber Girls and we really look forward to their debut.
Roger Carlsson, principle percussionist of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Mikael Andersson, a popular free-lance percussionist, are the ABSOLUTELY indespensible rhythm section that makes Den Sjungande Julgranen swing and arrangers for the percussion parts include Jerker Johansson and Martin Schaub. Janne Svanberg is the brilliant sound engineer who keeps the trams and busses from drowning out the singers and our lighting engineer Alexander Klinterot, always keeps the tree in sharp focus.
We are delighted to be a part of Julstaden Göteborg and hope that 2011 will delight audiences as it has for the past seven seasons. Many thanks to Lodalkören and Thomas Lagerberg and special thanks to Maria Drott, Pernilla Warberg-Andersson, Mikael Isacson and Göteborg & Co. for making this production possible.
Information about Den Sjungande Julgranen, Julstaden Göteborg
