Young choral music on the Danube 2.0 - co-operation concert

32nd Baden-Württemberg School Choir Days 2024 in Ulm in cooperation with the International Danube Festival Ulm/Neu-Ulm

Co-operation concert with the International Danube Festival 2024 in St Paul's Church 

Programme: each choir presents its own programme in the concert and the festival choir can be heard with world premieres by two scholarship holders of the SWR Vokalensemble. 

After a full-length work (Karl Jenkins, "The Armed Man") was performed together with the IDF Ulm/Neu-Ulm at the cooperation concert of the Baden-Württemberg State School Choir Days in 2018, two shorter choral pieces are on the programme of the festival choir this year. This choir is made up of a choir from the Humboldt-Gymnasium Ulm, its guest choir from Sofia (Bulgaria) - this choir was already a guest in Ulm in 2018 - the youth choir of the "Ulmer Spatzen" and the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart. The choirs were prepared by their choirmasters and the overall direction of the two premières is in the hands of Yuval Weinberg, the director of the SWR Vokalensemble.

On the two commissioned compositions by the festival choir, conducted by Yuval Weinberg

As part of their scholarship at the SWR Vokalensemble's choir academy, Johannes Burgert and Marino Lorenzo each wrote a work that will be premiered in a joint concert by the festival choir of the 32nd Baden-Württemberg School Choir Days and the SWR Vokalensemble in Ulm. Both pieces are multi-choral (for equal-part youth choir, three-part youth chamber choir and the SWR Vokalensemble) and make creative use of the different requirements and tonal registers. The Italian Marino Lorenzo refers to the tradition of multi-choral vocal music in his native Italy, with early music from Gregorian chant to Palestrina and Gabrieli shimmering through his compositions and combining with the musical language of our time. Johannes Burgert experiments with overtones that are a natural part of the human voice and our language, producing new, never-before-heard sounds that are nevertheless easy for children's and youth choirs to realise. The theme? Peace!

Humboldt-Gymnasium Ulm, Director: Guido Bauer
Humboldt-Gymnasium presents itself in two formations in the concert: at the beginning, the school's largest ensemble, the Extra Choir, a choir of adults made up of parents, teachers and other singing enthusiasts, sings together with the Concert Choir. The Concert Choir, a choir of around 30 pupils from Year 8 onwards, sings in the Festival Choir (premières).

Galabov-Gymnasium Sofia (Bulgaria) Head: Krasimira Tsutsumanova
The secondary school choir has existed since the school was founded over 60 years ago. After a break of several years, it was renewed in 2010 with the idea of reviving the tradition of choral music-making and getting more young people interested in making music. The choir of the 91st German-speaking Galabov Gymnasium in Sofia currently consists of pupils from grades 8 to 12 and has a wide repertoire of both sacred and secular works by many composers. Since its foundation, the choir has taken part in school and public events, regularly performing at the Festival for orthodox singingwhich takes place in the church "Sveta Paraskeva" in Sofia, and at the German-Bulgarian Christmas Bazaar. The choir has many performances and independent concerts, both in Bulgaria and in Germany: Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Freiburg, Hagen, Schwerte, Frankfurt, Ulm. Its director since 2010 is Krasimira Tsutsumanova.

Youth choir of the Ulmer Spatzen, conductor: Salome Rebello
The Ulmer Spatzen Choir was founded in 1958 and has been under the direction of Salome Rebello since 2023. More than 220 children, young people and adults currently sing in two pre-choir groups, the children's choir, the youth choir and the chamber choir "Les Passerelles". The stylistic spectrum of the repertoire ranges from folk songs to works from the Renaissance, Classical and Romantic periods, as well as contemporary compositions from various genres. Intensive work on the individual voice is crucial to the quality of the choir's sound. Numerous prizes and awards at German and international choir competitions as well as in the solo and group categories at regional, state and national level in the "Jugend musiziert" competition bear witness to the choir's high standard. Numerous radio, television and CD recordings as well as concert tours abroad (Italy, Holland, Israel, South Africa, Japan, Russia, USA, England, China, France, Estonia, Austria, etc.) have made the Ulmer Spatzen Choir famous far beyond Ulm. Composers such as Wilfried Hiller, Rolf Rudin, Christian Ridil, Peter Planyavski, Christoph Schönherr, Douglas Coombes, Bob Chilcott and others have dedicated works to the Ulmer Spatzen Chor. The children's and youth choir Ulmer Spatzen e.V. is integrated into the music school of the city of Ulm and is also registered as a non-profit organisation

SWR vocal ensemble, conductor: Yuval Weinberg
The SWR Vokalensemble is one of the top ensembles among international professional choirs and is famous for its chamber music musicality and sound culture. Its mission is to inspire audiences and singers at home and abroad with modern choral music and to constantly develop the a cappella repertoire in collaboration with interesting contemporary composers. More than 300 new choral works have been written for the SWR Vokalensemble and new ones are added every year. With its high-calibre CD recordings and concert streams, the SWR Vokalensemble also makes worthwhile choral works from the Romantic and classical modern periods known and often available for the first time, regularly winning international awards for its work. The artistic director since 2020 has been Yuval Weinberg, who transforms carefully curated programmes into passionate concert experiences together with the singers.

The concert is free of charge, we collect the "concert euro" for the preservation of St Paul's Church. The aim of this campaign is that there should continue to be concerts... in the beautiful space of St Paul's Church.