Choir Association Berlin
The Choir Association Berlin e. V. (CVB), formerly Berliner Sängerbund e. V., is the largest amateur music organization in Berlin and is financed through institutional funding from the Senate Chancellery of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and through membership fees. It unites over 300 amateur choirs with a total of approx. 11,000 members: mixed choirs, male, female, youth, children's, senior and school choirs as well as church , oratorio , gospel choirs and instrumental ensembles.
The Berlin Choir Association is the umbrella organization of the ensembles affiliated with it, but also sees itself as a point of contact for the many choir and vocal projects outside this association. It does intensive grassroots, broad-based and junior work and cooperates with other institutions and initiatives.
The Berlin Chorverband assumes, among other things, deficiency guarantees , GEMA fees and rental costs or grants subsidies for concert tours. He also acts as an organizer himself, for example with singers' meetings or the “Sunday concert series” in the chamber music hall of the Philharmonie . In the field of music education in particular, the association strives to maintain and increase the professional level of its members. Regular training seminars for choir directors , directors and members are held under his leadership .
In 1996, the then Berlin Singers' Association appeared for the first time with a major event under the motto "Singing, sounding city" in order to draw attention to the diversity of Berlin's choral landscape in around 130 concerts. Similar music festivals followed in 1998 and 2001. A significant highlight was the lead preparation and implementation of the 20th German Choir Festival of the German Singers' Association 2003 in Berlin with around 800 concerts by 600 choirs.
The Berlin Choir Association is a member of the German Choir Association (DCV), the world's largest amateur music organization based in Berlin.
Petra Merkel has been President of the Berlin Choir Association since March 2009 . Her predecessor, Reinhard Stollreiter , who has been President since 1985, is Honorary President of the Berlin Choir Association.
On May 7, 2010, the Berlin Choir Association awarded the Geschwister-Mendelssohn Medal for the first time for outstanding services to Berlin choir life. The medal is dedicated to the memory of the siblings Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel , née Mendelssohn, and will in future be awarded annually in cooperation with the Berlin Mendelssohn Society .
history
The Berliner Sängerbund was founded in 1901. The musical roots go back further and reach into the 18th century. First of all, Carl Friedrich Fasch (1736–1800) should be mentioned, who founded the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in 1791 and thus laid the foundation for regulated, upscale choral care in Germany. His student Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758–1832), master builder, musical all-rounder and Goethe friend, took over the management in 1800 after Fasch's death and ensured that in 1827 they could move into their own house on the Berlin moat. In this classicist building erected by Karl Theodor Ottmer based on sketches by Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Zelter prepared the re-performance of Bach's “ St. Matthew Passion ” in 1829 , which his most important pupil, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847), conducted with great success. The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin took on one of the leading roles.
In 1809 Zelter founded the Liedertafel , an association of men to cultivate common singing. Mention should also be made of the music teacher , folk song collector and choir conductor Ludwig Erk (1807–83), who played a prominent role in Berlin's musical life around the middle of the 19th century and founded several choirs.
On June 22, 1901, eleven choirs in Berlin discussed whether it would be appropriate to create a regional community organization that could then effectively represent the specific interests of the singers vis-à-vis the authorities and the public. On September 25, 1901, nine male choirs with a total of 909 members finally formed the first Berlin regional association. Since at that time Charlottenburg and Köpenick were still independent communities, one officially spoke of the "regional association for Berlin and the surrounding area". Potsdam singers were also among them.
At the annual general meeting of the Berliner Sängerbund on March 25, 2006, the renaming of the “Berliner Sängerbund e. V. "(BSB) in" Chorverband Berlin e. V. “(CVB) decided.
Sibling Mendelssohn Medal
The Geschwister-Mendelssohn-Medal has been awarded since 2010 for extraordinary services to the Berlin choir. The award was donated by the Berlin Choir Association and presented in cooperation with the Mendelssohn Society in memory of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel . The award goes to people who, as choir directors, singers, composers, sponsors, music teachers or as choir ensembles, have made a lasting contribution to the preservation and further development of the Berlin choral tradition, although they do not have to come from Berlin. There is no monetary prize associated with the medal. Horst Fliegel was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit as co-initiator of this award .
On the bronze medal, about six centimeters in diameter, there are portraits of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel as well as the words “ In recognition of outstanding services to Berlin choir life ”. The winners also receive a certificate.
A maximum of four medals are awarded annually, including one for the life's work of an artist. The best-known award winners are listed below, sorted by year of award.
- 2010: Christian Grube (cantor, university professor and choir director), Etta Hilsberg (choir director and voice trainer), Matthias Bender
- 2011: Marek Bobéth (choir director, pianist and university teacher), Johanna Blumenthal (choir director), Michael Uhl
- 2012: Christian Finke ( cantor , church music director ), Hans-Hermann Rehberg (singing teacher, director of the Berlin Radio Choir), Peter Vagts
- 2013: Heinrich Poos (composer, musicologist , university professor), Reinhard Stollreiter (choir director, university professor and honorary president of the Berlin Choir Association), Susanne Faatz (choir director), Dr. Christine Rossberg
- 2014: Sabine Vorwerk (music teacher, musicologist, journalist), the children's choir of the State Opera Unter den Linden , Frank Schwemmer (composer), Habakuk Traber (author)
- 2015: Ralf Petersen (composer, producer and author), Wolfgang Thierfeldt (choir director and composer), Michael Seyffert, Sabine Wüsthoff (choir director Berlin Girls Choir)
- 2016: Simon Halsey , Michael Betzner-Brandt , Bettina Schmidt and the Vocalconsort Berlin
- 2017: Marie-Louise Schneider (cantor Marienkirche), Ralf Sochaczewski (choirmaster Cantus Domus), Jörg-Peter Weigle
- 2018: Kirsten Gatemann, Katrin Kobin (teachers at Droste-Hülshoff-Gymnasium), Bettina Kurella (teacher at Ernst-Haeckel-Oberschule Hellersdorf), Kai-Uwe Jirka (professor for choir conducting at UdK Berlin), Thomas Bender (former head of Choir Association Berlin)
Members
The Berlin Choir Association has around 300 member choirs with over 11,000 participants. The following well-known choirs are members of the Berlin Choir Association:
- Bach Choir at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church
- Berlin cappella
- Berliner Liedertafel
- Berlin Oratorio Choir
- Cantus domus
- Choir of St. Hedwig's Cathedral
- Ernst Busch Choir Berlin
- Boys Choir Berlin
- Men love
- Mendelssohn Chamber Choir Berlin
- StudioChor Berlin
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information about the medal on the website of the Berlin Choir Association. Accessed June 7, 2015.
- ↑ Cross of Merit for Horst Fliegel. Accessed June 7, 2015.
- ↑ Heinrich Poos receives the Mendelssohn Sibling Medal for his life's work ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ↑ Dr. Sabine Vorwerk receives Geschwister-Mendelssohn-Medal for life's work. Accessed on June 7, 2015.
- ↑ Honor for services to the Berlin choir life - Simon Halsey awarded the Geschwister-Mendelssohn-Medal , magazin.klassik.com, June 17, 2016, accessed on June 17, 2016
- ↑ Kulturradio about prizewinner Weigle ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 21, 2017
- ^ Sibling Mendelssohn Medal | Chorverband Berlin eV Accessed on January 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Our member choirs . Choir Association Berlin, accessed on January 8, 2019.
