The Cathedral Choir, under the direction of Cathedral Music Director Thomas Viezens, is made up of men and women of various ages who are primarily concerned with the cultivation and interpretation of the classical choral repertoire in a cathedral church, from the Renaissance to moderate modernism.
The focus is on compositions from the Baroque, Viennese Classical and Romantic periods. A cappella compositions, motets accompanied by the organ and large orchestral masses (including Haydn and Mozart) are performed on high feasts and Sundays. In addition to the continuous work on the repertoire for church services, the development of concert programmes also plays an important role. In recent years, the programme has included works by Bach (Passions according to John, Matthew and Mark; Christmas Oratorio), Mendelssohn (‘Lauda Sion’, Paulus Oratorio), Rheinberger's ‘Star of Bethlehem’ and Burggrabe's oratorio ‘Lux in tenebris’. Rehearsal weeks and weekends round off the work of the cathedral choir. Choir trips have taken the cathedral choir to Dresden, Leipzig, Rostock and Lübeck, among others, as well as to northern Italy (including Pavia, Genoa and Milan) and Rome together with the chamber choir and the choral schola ‘Schola Gregoriana’.
Singers will be coached individually and in small groups by Martina Nawrath. Knowledge of music is a prerequisite for participation; choral experience is welcome.
Heavenly Jerusalem - Music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Romanticism
The CD ‘Heavenly Jerusalem - Music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Romanticism’ was released in spring 2012. The works sung by the cathedral choir mostly belong to the field of Romantic choral music and originate from the German (Mendelssohn), English (Elgar, Parry) and French (Franck) language areas. They are complemented by two contemporary English compositions that are entirely in the Romantic tradition (Rutter, Evans), as well as Tallis' “Glory to thee, my God, this night”, which is performed here in a romanticised arrangement by Kenneth Brown. Solo singing accompanied by the organ (works by Dvorak, Reger, Wolf), performed by current and former vocal coaches of Hildesheim Cathedral Music, and organ solo works by Dubois, Fletcher and Boëllmann are juxtaposed with the contributions of the cathedral choir.
Lux in tenebris
The double CD ‘Lux in tenebris’ was produced in 2015. The work by composer Helge Burggrabe was commissioned to mark the anniversary of the 1,200th diocese of Hildesheim. In addition to the cathedral choir, the chamber choir, the choral schola ‘Schola Gregoriana’ and the girls' choir can be heard here, as well as soloists and instrumentalists.