Gewandhaus Choir

Throughout its history, the Gewandhaus Choir has been intimately associated with the Gewandhausorchester, yet boasts its own proud heritage spanning over 150 years. The Choir has performed with many of the world's most celebrated conductors, most frequently, of course, with the incumbent Thomaskantor and Gewandhauskapellmeister of the day – in recent years Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly and Andris Nelsons. Since the 2007/08 season, the musical direction of the Choir has been in the hands of Gregor Meyer.

The Gewandhaus Choir's remarkably diverse repertoire demands considerable vocal flexibility of its members, as well as the willingness to continually engage musically with new und unfamiliar programmatic concepts. Particularly notable projects in recent seasons include partnerships with star trombonist Nils Landgren, television personality Herbert Feuerstein and with the actresses Katharina und Anna Thalbach, as well as the scenic performance of a version of J.S. Bach's St. Mark Passion especially conceived for the aurally impaired. The Choir has trodden stimulating, new artistic terrain in its collaboration with the innovative pianist and electronic artist Martin Kohlstedt, the consequence of which was the album Ströme (Currents) and numerous concerts throughout Germany.

Further highlights of the Gewandhaus Choir's work are concert tours abroad, those in recent years leading the Choir to the Vatican, the Lucerne Festival, the BBC Proms in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, to India and to Vietnam. The Choir is equally at home performing in more unorthodox locations, such as the Leipzig Museum of Fine Art, Leipzig’s Völkerschlachtdenkmal (Monument to the Battle of the Nations), the Theater am Rand, the crematorium of Leipzig's South Cemetery or Cologne's cult bar, Weißer Holunder. In Arne Birkenstock's acclaimed documentary Sound of Heimat the Choir even appeared on the cinema screen.

The Gewandhaus Choir performs frequently alongside other renowned choruses, with the Gewandhausorchester and other instrumental ensembles. In the field of historically informed performance practice the Choir has developed an intimate artistic partnership with camerata lipsiensis. The ensembles have repeatedly collaborated in unearthing a number of long-forgotten, large-scale romantic oratorios, notably Ferdinand Hiller's Zerstörung Jerusalems (Destruction of Jerusalem), Friedrich Schneider's Weltgericht (Last Judgement) and, most recently, Adolph Bernhard Marx’s Mose (Moses), the live recording of which was released on CD on the cpo label.

A multitude of further CD, DVD, television and radio productions document the diverse artistic activities of the Gewandhaus Choir, including a CD of sacred works by Franz Liszt, recordings of the complete choral cantatas of Max Reger, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Reformation Symphony in the version for choir, soloists and orchestra, and a CD with the L’art de passage quartet, featuring new arrangements of folk songs by Friedrich Silcher.