University Choir Dresden
The Dresden University Choir consists of around 230 singers, the majority of whom are students from the Technical University of Dresden . The choir, which was founded in 1950, is the university's largest ensemble.
history
The first choir director was Rudolf Gehrisch. In the first 15 years of its history the choir had numerous changing leaders. The reason for these constant changes was that the choir was often led by students from the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden , who gave up the position after completing their studies. After this time, two choir directors led the choir for decades, namely Karl Haffner from 1965 to 1993 with the help of Christof Bauer, who has been the choir director of the Semperoper since 1972 , and Maja Sequeira from 1993 until her death in 2012. After a brief interim direction from Karl Friedrich Winter has been conducting the university choir since 2012 by Christiane Büttig, alumna of the Heinrich Schütz Conservatory in Dresden and the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music.
repertoire
The choir performs a-cappella as well as choral symphonic works. Maja Sequeira's leadership was very influential for the choir by introducing both lesser-known early music and new music and ensured that the singers were exposed to an unconventional choral repertoire. Since then, a focus of the university choir has been the performance of new or rarely performed works, which Christiane Büttig, as her successor, also attaches importance to. In the winter semester 2013 the choir performed together with the orchestra of the University of Copenhagen a . a. Lars-Erik Larssons Förklädd Gud and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys From heaven high in Copenhagen and Dresden.
Performances of new pieces of music in recent years
- Louis Andriessen : Workers Union
- Ernest Bloch : Concerto grosso No. 2
- John Cage : Four²
- Frank Martin : In Terra Pax
- Samir Odeh-Tamimi : Ahinnu II
- Franz Schreker : Symphony in A minor, op.1
- Alexander von Zemlinsky : 83rd Psalm