The Knabenchor Hannover (Hannover Boys' Choir) is a boys choir founded in 1950 by Heinz Hennig, who served as conductor until the end of 2001. Since 2002, the conductor has been

Jörg Breiding Jörg Breiding (born 1972) is a German choral conductor and academic teacher. He has been the conductor of the Knabenchor Hannover since 2002. He taught at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, and has been professor of choral conducting at the Folkwang H ...

History and music

The Knabenchor Hannover has traditionally performed music by 17th-century composers, namely

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...

. The choir's five Schütz recordings, conducted by Hennig between 1982 and 1999, set standards for performances of this repertoire; four of them won prizes such as the

Deutscher Schallplattenpreis The Deutscher Schallplattenpreis was a prize that the awarded from 1963 through 1992. Its successor is the Echo Music Prize. References German music awards Awards established in 1963 Awards disestablished in 1992 {{award-stub ...

. The choir turned to works of

Andreas Hammerschmidt Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611 or 1612 – 29 October 1675), the "Orpheus of Zittau," was a German Bohemian composer and organist of the early to middle Baroque era. He was one of the most significant and popular composers of sacred music in Ge ...

in 1998, recording his sacred choral music. The Knabenchor Hannover was among the first choirs to take an interest in historically informed performance and achieved international acclaim. Conductors such as Gustav Leonhardt,

Ton Koopman Antonius Gerhardus Michael Koopman (; born 2 October 1944), known professionally as Ton Koopman, is a Dutch conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and musicologist, primarily known for being the founder and director of the Amsterdam Baroque Orches ...

, Alan Gilbert,

Ingo Metzmacher Ingo Metzmacher (born 10 November 1957 in Hanover) is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover. Life Ingo Metzmacher is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher and the research biol ...

and

Christoph Eschenbach Christoph Eschenbach (; born 20 February 1940) is a German pianist and conductor. Early life Eschenbach was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). His parents were Margarethe (née Jaross) and Heribert Ringmann. He was orphaned durin ...

regularly work with the choir, as do ensembles such as the

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir is a Dutch early-music group based in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir was created in two stages by the conductor, organist and harpsichordist Ton Koopman. He founded the Amsterdam Baroqu ...

, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, London Brass and many German symphony orchestras. Besides performing at festivals both in Germany and abroad (including Europe, China, Israel, Japan, Russia, South and Central America, the US and South Africa), the Knabenchor Hannover records regularly and can frequently be heard on radio. In 2000 the choir celebrated 50 years with a recorded performance in

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

of Bach's '' St Matthew Passion'' together with the

Thomanerchor The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called ''Thomaner'', reside in a boarding sch ...

. In 2006, the Knabenchor Hannover was awarded the

Echo Klassik The Echo Klassik, often stylized as ECHO Klassik, was Germany's major classical music award in 22 categories. The award, presented by the , was held annually, usually in October or September, separate from its parent award, the Echo Music Prize. Th ...

in the category "Choral works - recording of the year" for the CD "Verleih uns Frieden", including the world's first recording of several works by Andreas Hammerschmidt that were believed lost for more than 350 years. In 2009 Harald Weiss dedicated his requiem composition ''Schwarz vor Augen und es ward Licht'' to the Knabenchor Hannover, premiered on 31 October 2009 with the

NDR Symphony Orchestra The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (german: NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester) is a German radio orchestra. Affiliated with the '' Norddeutscher Rundfunk'' (NDR; North German Broadcasting), the orchestra is based at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, G ...

and soloists

Dorothee Mields Dorothee Mields (born 15 April 1971) is a German soprano concert singer of Baroque and contemporary music. Career Mields was born in Gelsenkirchen. She studied at the University of the Arts Bremen with Elke Holzmann, Harry van der Kamp and Ga ...

and Andreas Karasiak. In 2010 the choir celebrated 60 years with Monteverdi's '' Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610'', 400 years after the work's first publication.60 Jahre Knabenchor Hannover
(60 years Knabenchor Hannover), City of Hannover, 2010 (in German) In 2018 the choir first sang at the

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. It is among the largest in the world. The new glassy con ...

in Hamburg.

References

External links

*
Knabenchor Hannover
on the website of the state of Niedersachsen
Knabenchor Hannover
on the website of Konzertdirektion Schmid
Knabenchor Hannover
on The Boy Choir & Soloist Directory
CD Label "Rondeau"

Entries for recordings by the Knabenchor Hannover
on

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

{{Authority control German choirs Choirs of children Boys' and men's choirs Musical groups established in 1950 1950 establishments in West Germany Musical groups from Hanover