Berlin Cathedral Choir

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Berlin Cathedral Choir
Seat: Berlin / Germany
Carrier: Berlin Cathedral
Founding: 1961
Genus: church choir
Founder: Herbert Hildebrandt
Head : Tobias Brommann
Voices : approx. 150 ( SATB )
Website : https://www.berliner-domkantorei.de

The Berliner Domkantorei is a supra-community choir at the Protestant Berlin Cathedral .

profile

The Berliner Domkantorei has around 150 amateur singers who play in different groups (oratorio choir, cantata choir, a cappella choir, chamber choir, schola). The cathedral choir regularly participates in church services in the Berlin cathedral. Her concert repertoire includes the well-known works of Protestant church music as well as lesser-known sacred and secular pieces from the past and present.

history

The founding of the Berliner Domkantorei was directly related to the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. The State and Cathedral Choir continued its work in the western part of the city. In the east, a group of singers met on October 16, 1961, many of whom had been separated from their ancestral choirs after the city was divided. The rehearsal took place in one of the still usable rooms of the destroyed Berlin Cathedral and was led by Herbert Hildebrandt (* 1935; † December 24, 2019). At that time Hildebrandt was still cantor at the Reconciliation Church and had temporarily taken over the representation of the cathedral organist Ute Fischer (who lived in West Berlin).

The cathedral choir participated in church services right from the start, initially in the crypt church of the cathedral, later in the baptismal and marriage church. But it also quickly established itself as a concert choir. The number of members rose to around 60 in the sixties, then to more than 100. As long as the preaching church of the cathedral was still in ruins, the concerts took place in various churches in East Berlin (e.g. Bartholomäus Church , Sophienkirche , Marienkirche , Zionskirche , Gethsemanekirche ).

During the GDR era, the work of the cathedral choir was repeatedly hindered by state repression. For example, in 1967 the sale of tickets and public billboards were banned. The choir, which was financially dependent on its own income, responded by setting up an “audience” that received concert announcements by mail. In response to state pressure, the singers developed a particularly close cohesion, who found a niche in the choir apart from state tutelage.

Despite all obstacles, the choir soon became a permanent feature of East Berlin church music. The musical highlights of the first decades included a. the Telemann Festival (1967) organized by the Domkantorei , performances of Stravinsky's psalm symphony (1969, 1976) or the collaboration with Helmuth Rilling , who conducted Bach's B minor Mass in 1982 .

The fall of the Wall marked a turning point in the history of the choir, which now opened up new opportunities (for example for concert tours), but which also had to reorient itself in the unified Berlin. Since the cathedral community and the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg were initially not ready to take up the choir, the association “Berliner Domkantorei e. V. “founded. In 1993 the rebuilt cathedral was inaugurated. For the first time the choir had a permanent place of activity.

In 2003 the founder and long-time director of the choir, Herbert Hildebrandt , retired. Tobias Brommann took over as successor . One of the special musical events after 1989 was a concert to commemorate the Reichskristallnacht , at which synagogal music from Berlin composers was performed under the direction of Andor Izsák (1998), a concert to test the acoustic possibilities of the cathedral, in which the room was transformed into different music different occupations and from different locations (2001), or the performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem together with the Hamburg Schubert Choir (2008).

In the course of its existence, the Berliner Domkantorei has worked with various conductors, including Christoph Albrecht , Georg Christoph Biller , Hartwig Eschenburg , Christian Grube , Heinz Hennig , Kai-Uwe Jirka , Michael Petermann and Helmuth Rilling . In the first half of 2010, Vinzenz Weissenburger led the choir.

Concert tours

Since it was founded, the Berliner Domkantorei has undertaken numerous concert tours at home and abroad, including a. to Poland , Hungary , Switzerland , France , Lithuania , Romania (Transylvania), Kaliningrad / Königsberg, Israel , Sweden . A special event was the trip to the Netherlands in 1988, where the choir took part in the Domchor Festival in Utrecht .

Discography

  • 1996: Sacred chants from five centuries
  • 1999: Choral music for Advent and Christmas
  • 2003: Choral music for the Geneva Psalter (double CD)
  • 2008: Albert Becker , Psalms. Liturgical chants
  • 2008: Musica Mystica Gregorian chant in dialogue

Web links