NDR choir

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The NDR choir was founded in 1946 and is today one of the leading professional chamber choirs in Germany . The Dutch conductor Klaas Stok has been the artistic director of the ensemble since the 2018/19 season.

The choir

The NDR Choir was founded on May 1, 1946 by the then NWDR in Hamburg and was given its current name in 1955. In the first few years after it was founded, the focus was primarily on radio recordings as a partner of the NDR Symphony Orchestra , accompanied by public performances of the works. The choir took on pioneering tasks: Among other things, it took part in the concert premiere of Arnold Schönberg's opera Moses und Aron .

Contemporary music has always found a strong focus in the NDR choir. Works by Hans Werner Henze , Krzysztof Penderecki , György Ligeti and Karlheinz Stockhausen were performed by the NDR choir, Leon Schidlowsky wrote his laudatory speech for the choir in 1996.

Today, the focus of the work of the NDR Choir, in addition to concert appearances and radio recordings, especially with ensembles of the NDR and as a partner of all other ARD choirs and symphony orchestras, is primarily on dealing with challenging a cappella literature from all epochs.

In addition, the NDR choir is very involved in the field of music education . With concepts such as 'concert instead of school', the organization of family concerts, musical visits to schools and workshops with singing students from the north German music academies, but also with regular appearances in the entire broadcasting area, he fulfills his cultural mandate as a radio choir. In April 2010, the ensemble was awarded the Johannes Brahms Medal of the City of Hamburg for special services to Hamburg's musical life and the care for the cultural heritage of Johannes Brahms .

In 2012, under the direction of conductor and composer Eric Whitacre, the sing-along project SINGING! Premiere in Hamburg, which has brought hundreds of guest singers together with the NDR choir every year.

Philipp Ahmann was artistic director of the ensemble from 2008 to 2018. With him, a subscription series of its own was launched, which includes four themed concerts per season.

List of choir directors

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NDR: Chief Conductor: Klaas Stok. Retrieved April 10, 2019 .
  2. Hamburger Abendblatt: "Brahms Medal for the NDR Choir" [1]
  3. ^ Association of German Concert Choirs: "Singing! 2013 NDR Hamburg" [2]
  4. Marcus Stäbler: 70 years of the NDR Chor , NDR, as of November 4, 2016

Web links