State and Cathedral Choir Berlin

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State and Cathedral Choir Berlin
The choir at a rehearsal in the Berlin Cathedral under the direction of Hugo Rüdel, 1932
Seat: Berlin , Germany
Carrier: University of Art in Berlin
Founding: 1465
Genus: Boys' choir
Founder: Elector Friedrich II of Brandenburg
Head : Kai-Uwe Jirka
Voices : 80 ( SATB ) concert choir; 350 singers in all groups
Website : https://www.staats-und-domchor-berlin.de/

The Staats- und Domchor Berlin is a Berlin- based boys' choir .

history

prehistory

The Staats- und Domchor Berlin is the oldest musical institution in Berlin . As early as 1465, Elector Friedrich II of Brandenburg hired five “singing boys” for the music in the “Dhumkerke” . A good hundred years later, the founding of a court orchestra, also under the direction of Johannes Eccard , led to the first heyday of the choir, which has now expanded to twelve singers.

reorganization

In 1843 the cathedral choir was reorganized after a long decline and was given the title “Royal”. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV took the Petersburg court orchestra as a model. The Royal Cathedral Choir is the first professional choir with a fixed payment for the individual singers. The ensemble gained international renown under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Otto Nicolai and August Neithardt .

In 1889 the composer Albert Becker was appointed director of the cathedral choir. Three years later, a call to Thomaskantor followed from Leipzig , which he initially intended to follow. In order to keep him in Berlin, at the urging of Kaiser Wilhelm II , he was finally promised a higher salary.

20th century and present

From 1903 the Royal Cathedral Choir was financed entirely from the Kronfideikommiss and has since operated as the Royal Court and Cathedral Choir .

After the end of the First World War , the very successful Royal Court and Cathedral Choir lost its political and financial foundation with the monarchy . After a few provisional years as the Berliner Domchor eV , it was affiliated to the Berlin University of Music in 1923 under the direction of Hugo Rüdel and renamed the Staats- und Domchor Berlin .

Since the early 1930s, the National Socialist influence had an increasing impact on this ensemble. While the choir was initially involved in the Potsdam Garrison Church on the day of Potsdam, in 1935, under the direction of Alfred Sittard, it was politically sidelined because, in contrast to other important boys' choirs in Germany ( St. Thomas' Choir , Kreuzchor , Regensburger Domspatzen , Vienna Boys' Choir, etc.) refused to join the Hitler Youth .

After the Second World War, the cathedral was in ruins and the choir initially moved to the Marienkirche . After the wall was built , the choir followed the bishop to the new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in West Berlin . In 1961 the Berlin Cathedral Choir was founded in the eastern part .

Today the State and Cathedral Choir is part of the Berlin University of the Arts , and has been singing again in the Berlin Cathedral since 1990 .

During the festival service on the Day of German Unity under the direction of Christian Grube , 1990

Today's repertoire includes the great works of Western choral culture as well as those of the immediate modern. In addition to numerous prizes, including the German Choir Competition , the choir was awarded the European Youth Choir Culture Prize in 2002. The ensemble members enrich Berlin's musical life through appearances in opera house productions and participation in concerts in the Berlin Philharmonic .

Directors

The directors of the Royal Court and Cathedral Choir (since 1843):

to travel

Concert tours have taken him to the following places (from 1974):

Prizes and awards

literature

  • Wolfgang Dinglinger (Ed.): 150 Years of the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir . Ed. Hentrich, Berlin 2015, ISBN 3-89468-084-9 .
  • Kai-Uwe Jirka , Dietmar Schenk (ed.): Berlin boys have been singing - for 550 years . Ortus, Beeskow 2015, ISBN 978-3-937788-42-5 .
  • Klaus Rettinghaus: On the history of the Berlin cathedral choir . In: Sacred music and choral tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries - institutions, sound ideals and repertoires in transition (=  contributions to the history of Bach reception . Volume 6 ). Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-7651-0481-7 , pp. 207-240 .

Web links

Commons : Staats- und Domchor Berlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Results of the German Choir Competition Category C1. Retrieved on May 8, 2018 (German).