University choir and chamber choir

The university choir is made up of students from a wide variety of study courses in all three departments. The ensemble performs a wide range of concert programs – a cappella, with chamber music accompaniment and with large orchestras.

Collaborations have already led the choir several times to the Great Hall of the Alte Oper Frankfurt, where it performed at the German Choral Festival, among other events. In April 2017, the university choir also performed there together with the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra with the Mozart Requiem.

Furthermore, there is a collaboration with the Department for Historical Interpretation Practice of the HfMDK, in the course of which the choir participated, for example, in the Baroque Nights. An intensive cooperation in the oratorical repertoire connects the university choir with the symphony orchestra of the HfMDK. In the summer semester of 2018, for example, the university choir presented Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" to an enthusiastic audience at the Rheingau Music Festival.

Prof. Florian Lohmann has been directing the University Choir and the Chamber Choir of the HfMDK since 2019. The choir bid farewell to his predecessor Prof. Winfried Toll in a joint concert with the Symphony Orchestra of the HfMDK and the Frankfurt Kantorei with a performance of the Verdi Requiem in the Sendesaal of the Hessischer Rundfunk.

Auditions are not required for participation in the University Choir. Projects will be announced prior to the beginning of the semester and registration will take place at the first rehearsal.

Current project schedules can also be found on this website. If you have any questions about the choirs, please feel free to contact the choir office.

Demanding choral works from Renaissance to modern are the repertoire of the newly founded chamber choir of the HfMDK. Under the direction of Prof. Florian Lohmann, students from all departments develop stylistically sophisticated, brilliant interpretations committed to a homogeneous choral sound. The singers also perform as soloists and in solo ensembles from within the choir. They continue the choral tradition at the HfMDK, which has been shaped by Uwe Gronostay, Helmuth Rilling, Wolfgang Schäfer and, most recently, for a long time by Winfried Toll. The choir is also rehearsed and conducted by students of choral conducting.

The chamber choir rehearses both weekly and in block periods. The projects are announced before the beginning of the semester.

For participation in the chamber choir, an audition is held each semester, to which invitations are sent by e-mail.

Currently, the choir is making music in small ensembles as a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic. Thus, in August 2020, the CD "Maria - Chorgesänge durch die Jahrhundertwende" could be produced.

Concert dates: Monday, 27.01.25, 19.30, Großer Saal HfMDK Frankfurt
Tuesday, 28.01.25, 19.30, Great Hall HfMDK Frankfurt
Rehearsals: Wednesday, 16.15-17.45, starting 16.10.24
Rehearsal day: Saturday, 18.01.25
Programme:
Benjamin Britten: Advance Democracy
Peteris Vasks: Dona nobis pacem
Alfred Schnittke: Requiem

Registration required by Friday, 11.10.24 in Asimut ("Registration for events" --> "Registration University Choir").

If you have any questions, please contact the choir office (Lisa Beck) at lisa.beck@hfmdk-frankfurt.de.

Concert dates: Wed, 27.11.24, 7.30 pm, Großer Saal HfMDK (focus on Hindemith)
and Thu, 12.12.24, time and room tbd (focus on Schönberg)
Rehearsals: see rehearsal schedule, starting on 21.10.24
Auditions: Tuesday, 15.10.24, 12.00-18.00
Programme:
J. Brahms: O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf, op. 74 Nr. 2
A. Schönberg: Friede auf Erden, op. 13
A. Schönberg: Dreimal tausend Jahre, op. 50
P. Hindemith: Six Chansons
A. Mendelssohn: Was hast du verwirket, op. 90 Nr. 1

Registration required by 11.10.24 by e-mail to the choir office (lisa.beck@hfmdk-frankfurt.de).

Florian Lohmann was appointed to the chair of choral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts at the beginning of the winter semester 2019/20, succeeding Winfried Toll. Here he is responsible for choral conducting training in both the church music department and the master's degree program in choral conducting, and directs the chamber choir and the university choir of the HfMDK.

Lohmann began his musical training in the Knabenchor Hannover. He studied school music, German language and literature, singing and vocal pedagogy and was a scholarship holder of the Protestant Study Foundation Villigst. He received his choral conducting training primarily from Frank Löhr and Jörg Straube. Further impulses were given by Anne Kohler, Walter Nußbaum, Georg Grün, Paul van Nevel and Frieder Bernius, among others. Before his appointment to Frankfurt, Lohmann taught choral conducting as a lecturer at the Detmold University of Music and singing at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.

Lohmann is artistic director of the Capella St. Crucis and the Collegium Vocale Hannover. Invitations to concert series and competitions in Germany and abroad as well as CD and radio productions in the entire stylistic spectrum from historical performance practice to contemporary vocal music, including world premieres, document his work. He has also worked with professional ensembles and led rehearsals for renowned conductors, including Lahav Shani, Lionel Meunier and Ingo Metzmacher. In 2018, Lohmann took over the direction of the first independent working phase of the BundesSchulmusikChor. Concert tours and guest conductorships have taken him to various European countries, Israel, Argentina, South Africa and Australia.