The time between the years is over now, but what about the time between the waves? Are we still waiting anxiously for the dangerous surf or is it already rolling? Are there any intermediate times at all, not because of a gentle surging perm that has just been transitioning from Delta-Style to Omikron for months? Whatever you call it, a lot has fallen into the water recently because of the waves. Party beasts, champagne and waltz fans were unable to celebrate the turn of the year exuberantly, whether it was the ban on firecrackers, closed clubs or canceled New Year’s Eve concerts.

However, there were a few New Year’s Eve concerts on a smaller scale, and – yes – a number of New Year’s Eve concerts and other events are planned in the Munich district in January, which will be announced with glee in 2022. The Garching Symphony Orchestra will give a New Year’s concert in the town’s community center on Sunday, January 9th, which, given the program, should leave little to be desired: In addition to works by the usual suspects, film music and compositions by Bizet and Elgar will be played. For the amateur orchestra, which from its beginnings in the mid-eighties as a small ensemble of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics has developed into an ambitious ensemble in which members from all over the Munich area take part, it is the first concert since a performance in February 2020, at that time still under the direction of Gabiz Reichert.

The new artistic director Tamara Mersetzky, who also rehearsed the program, should have made her debut on Sunday. However, she recently tested positive for the corona virus and had to be replaced by Philipp Lüdecke – among other things, he is the conductor of the Symphonic Wind Orchestra of the Eichenau Music Association. “Those are the surprise effects,” comments Garching’s cultural advisor Thomas Gotterbarm with slightly resigned irony. “At the moment everything is uncertain.”

The event is going through, at which Garching’s mayor Dieter Gruchmann (SPD) WILL also give a New Year’s address, but now and the demand is there: “It sells surprisingly well,” says Gotterbarm. At the same time, the concert will also be streamed live. For this purpose, they have recently set up their own YouTube channel – the access (www.garching.de/kultur/live) is free, but donations for the orchestra are requested. The performance on January 9th at 4 p.m.

There will probably be room for between 120 and 150 visitors in the Garching community center under the given conditions – a test station is directly opposite. Gotterbarm, who has already experienced at past events that “the mood didn’t arise”, is at best cautiously optimistic about further planning: “Everything is shaky, you plan a bit into the blind.” As a municipality, one could cope with the threat of cancellation of various events in view of the swelling wave, but: “It would be bad again for the artists.”

Larger events are at great risk in the coming weeks

While the program has been shut down or canceled at some houses in the district anyway, further January events are planned in Garching and other municipalities such as Unterschleißheim – where there will be a (sold out) New Year’s concert with the Munich Symphony Orchestra on January 6th. This also applies to the community of Taufkirchen. In the culture and congress center there will be various performances from the middle of the month, and on January 29th there will also be a New Year’s concert with a local touch: the long-time director of the Taufkirchen Music School, Claus Blank, WILL play melodies and waltzes with a salon orchestra Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss and other masters of ballet and operetta literature will present works by Johannes Brahms. Information and tickets at https://kulturzentrum-taufkirchen.de/home.html.

In Unterföhring in January – if possible – there should also be a proper celebration. The musical “Anatevka” on January 15th is already sold out and the “Unterföhringernacht” on January 21st Lachnacht. There are also two performances by Iwanson International with the program “The Nimble Project” (modern dance) on January 22nd and 23rd. In Unterhaching, however, the dance performance originally scheduled for January 15th by Ballet Classique Munich (“Swan Lake”) has already been postponed. This is probably true in general: larger events with many active people on the stage are uncertain or endangered in their realization in the coming weeks. In this respect, the New Year brings little new.