Members of the RGV German club include (front row, from left) Griselda Ramirez, Yanelly Palomo, Jill Twark and Brian Miller. Back row: Manuela Madero, Angela Zolezzi, President Natalia Davila Chavez, Vice President Aleyda Perez, David Salas, Secretary Christopher Alaniz and Adviser Arno Forst. COURTESY PHOTO
The RGV German Club, a new student organization at UTRGV, will host a German music concert on Thursday at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art to raise money for study abroad scholarships.
The club’s purpose is to educate and inform the Rio Grande Valley of the German language and culture. One way it hopes to achieve this is by having the Musikabend Spring Concert.
With the concert, the German Club hopes to give back to the community by adding to the diversity of cultural events in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The money raised in the event will also go toward scholarships to help support students who want to study abroad in Germany but may lack the funds.
“I think that’s very important because here in the Valley, not many people have a lot of money to go and study abroad,” said Natalia Davila, co-founder and president of the RGV German Club. “It’s really expensive, so I want to make that the cause of the event.”
Months of practicing and planning by all volunteer students have gone into the making of the event. The Musikabend Spring Concert will feature music by German composers, such as Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, among others, of the Classical and Romantic periods performed by UTRGV music faculty and senior students.
“We are bringing some diversity to the Lower Rio Grande Valley by putting on some events that you typically don’t see,” said Arno Forst, an accounting assistant professor at UTRGV and faculty adviser of the RGV German Club. “So, it’s right on the mission of promoting German language and culture and, of course, the added benefit of, hopefully, funding some students so they can go to Germany.”
Forst said study abroad changed his life.
“I was a student in Germany; I came here for one year to study in Wisconsin and it blew my mind, being in a different culture,” he said.
The Brownsville Museum of Fine Art is located at 660 E. Ringgold St. Tickets for the concert are $30 for individuals, $60 for couples and $15 for students.
The reception begins at 6:30 p.m., with artisan hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served.
For more information and tickets, call Forst at 882-5783 or email at arno.forst@utrgv.edu.
