Choirs

The Concert Choir Church Music of the HfMT Hamburg is made up of all church music students. Guests from other study programs are always welcome. The choir is directed by Prof. Annedore Hacker-Jakobi.

From time to time, advanced students also conduct the choir as part of their final projects (Bachelor and Master). There is a balanced alternation between choral programs and a capella literature, so that a good overview of the repertoire from all styles and epochs can be acquired at the end of the course.

The HfMT Hamburg's Konzertchor Kirchenmusik also stands out as a platform for young composers. New pieces are regularly written for this choir and world premieres are integrated into the semester concerts. The Konzertchor Kirchenmusik of the HfMT Hamburg is regularly in demand as a master class choir within and outside the university, most recently through master classes with Klaas Stock (NDR Vokalensemble) and Yuval Weinberg (SWR Vokalensemble).

The HfMT Hamburg Women's Choir was founded in the 2019/2020 winter semester on the initiative of female school music students together with Prof. Annedore Hacker-Jakobi. Students of church music, instrumental pedagogy and students of the University of Hamburg also take part.
The motivation was and is a great interest in working with the "female voice" and in a demanding and stylistically diverse literature, mainly written by female composers.

Interested singers can contact the director at any time and make an appointment for a trial rehearsal. If there is further interest, there is a voice check in private, which helps to clarify the vocal range and can be used for a possible voice consultation.

The HfMT jazz choir has been in existence for over 20 years. Jazz choir singing combines two musical traditions that for a long time had no real points of contact. On the one hand, choral singing in jazz incorporates many elements of the classical choral tradition. On the other hand, the harmonies and rhythms are influenced by jazz. Special highlights for the jazz choir have always been the choir trips, including to Holland, France, Spain or Switzerland, or the performances at major festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Festival and the participation in "Mass" by L. Bernstein together with the Philharmonic State Orchestra. Since summer 2015, the jazz choir has been directed by Prof. Ken Norris and Erek Siebel.

The Chamber Choir of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama was founded in the 2013/14 winter semester. The choir members are students at the university and have qualified for the choir by audition. The choir is intended to give experienced singers the opportunity to develop choral music at a high level. On the other hand, it also serves as a training ensemble for students who want to acquire the necessary skills. The choir works intensively on voice training, stylistics and ensemble singing techniques. In addition, the choir offers students majoring in choral conducting the opportunity to conduct their own rehearsals and lead parts of concerts.

The choir works on a cappella literature from all eras and regularly collaborates with the university orchestra on oratorio projects. It is directed by Prof. Cornelius Trantow, Professor of Choral Conducting at the Hamburg University of Music since 1999.

In October 2017, the chamber choir won the Hamburg State Choir Competition and qualified to take part in the 10th German Choir Competition in Freiburg. There, in May 2018, the ensemble was awarded the highest score in the competition as the winner of the "Mixed Choirs" category.

The choir celebrated its first international success at the Cork International Choral Festival in Ireland, where it was awarded 2nd prize and the special prize for the best work of the competition in 2019.

At the International Choir Competition in Gorizia/Italy, the Chamber Choir 2024 took first place in all categories in which it competed:

- 1st prize in the category Sacred music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods

- 1st prize in the category Sacred Music from the Romantic and Modern periods

- Prize for the best interpretation of a newly composed work as part of the composition competition

In addition, the choir was awarded the special "voci miste" prize for the highest individual score in the competition and the choirmaster Cornelius Trantow was awarded the special prize for the most artistically interesting competition program.

The vocal ensemble of the Studio for Early Music is made up of students from a wide range of disciplines. What they have in common is an interest in music from the 15th to 17th centuries and the joy of discovering the structures from which later music emerged.
We work on experiencing a polyphonic score, i.e. listening and reacting to each other very well, learning the treatment of language in madrigals and motets and discovering and developing our voices. We do this in different languages: Italian, German, English and sometimes also French or Latin.

We welcome everyone who is interested and enjoys discovering new things (the "old" is very new for many!) and who is prepared to attend rehearsals regularly. We perform in concert once or twice a year, usually in the Spiegelsaal, sometimes also in churches.

Prof. Isolde Kittel-Zerer, the ensemble's director, has many years of experience in working with choirs and  vocal ensembles in the field of "early music".