Knabenchor Hannover

Vokal Ensemble

Founded in 1950 by Professor Heinz Hennig, the Knabenchor Hannover has traditionally specialized in the works of seventeenth Century composers, its main focus at first having been on the works of Heinrich Schütz. The choir's five Schütz recordings under Hennig's baton produced between 1982 and 1999 not only set new standards for performances of this repertoire, but four of them won prizes as well (amongst them the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis). The choir first turned its attention to Andreas Hammerschmidt in 1998 when it recorded some of his sacred chorus music and suites. The new CD, meanwhile, features the world's first recordings of some of the composer's finest pieces, which thanks to the choir's endeavours have now been rediscovered for contemporary listeners..

The Knabenchor Hannover, which until the end of 2001 was conducted by Heinz Hennig, was among the first choirs to take an interest in historical performance practices and in doing so achieved a quality of musicianship that has since won it acclaim not just in Germany but internationally as well. World-class musicians such as Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and Christoph Eschenbach have all worked with the choir, as have such famous orchestras as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music Berlin and countless German radio orchestra .

Besides giving concerts and performing at festivals both in Germany and abroad (including in Israel, Japan, Russia, South and Central America, the USA and South Africa), the Knabenchor Hannover also records regularly and can frequently be heard on the radio.

In 2005 the Knabenchor Hannover presented the world´s first recording of works by composer Andreas Hammerschmidt, together with soloists from the vocal ensemble Himlische Cantorey and the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and under the baton of Jörg Breiding.

Already in receipt of the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for the recording of Heinrich Schütz´s "Geistliche Chormusik 1648", the Knabenchor Hannover will now be awarded an ECHO in the category "Choral Work Recording of the Year" for their CD "Verleih uns Frieden" with sacred vocal music by Andreas Hammerschmidt.

For further informationwww.knabenchor-hannover.de

JÖRG BREIDING

Jörg Breiding was born in Hannover in 1972. After a year spent as assistant to Professor Heinz Hennig, he took over as conductor of the Knabenchor Hannover in January 2002. Having originally trained as a teacher of music, singing and German, Breiding went on to study conducting at the University ofMusic and Drama Hannover, where he had lessons in choral and orchestral conducting with Professor Gerd Müller-Lorenz (Lübeck) and Professor Heinz Hennig (Hannover). From 1998 to 2005, he taught choral conducting at Academy of Music and in April 2005 was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting / Conducting of Mixed Ensembles at the Folkwang Conservatory in Essen. Under Jörg Breiding´s baton, the Knabenchor Hannover has made several recordings for the German radio stations NDR and WDR and in the spring of 2003 released a new recording of Handel´s "Messiah" with the L´Arco Baroque Orchestra for the Ars Musici label. In 2006 the Knabenchor Hannover has been awarded by the famour German prize ECHO Klassik in the category "Choral Work Recording of the Year" for their CD "Verleih uns Frieden" with sacred vocal music by Andreas Hammerschmidt.

Season 2007/2008