The Hamburg Boyschoir
The Hamburg Boyschoir (Hamburger Knabenchor) was founded in 1960 under
the auspices of the Northern German Radio. Since 1967, it has been associated
with St. Nicholas Church, one of the four main churches in Hamburg.
Since assuming the directorship of the choir in 1991, Rosemarie Pritzkat
has established a boyschoir school in which over one hundred singers now
participate. In addition to an extensive a cappella repertoire, the Knabenchor
regularly performs such major choral works as Haydn's Creation, Fauré's
Requiem, Bach's Christmas Oratory and St. John´s Passion.
The Knabenchor has participated in performances of Hans Werner Henze's
"We come to the river" and Leonard Bernstein's Mass at the Hamburg State
Opera under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher as well as in Oscar Strauss's
"Der tapfere Soldat" ("The Chocolate Soldier") at the Allee Theater In Hamburg.
Together with boy singers from Coventry, England, the Knabenchor sang Benjamin
Britten's War Requiem at the Usedom Music Festival under the direction of
Mstislav Rostropovich. The premiere of "Litanei", a work written for the
Knabenchor by the Hamburg composer, Dieter Einfeldt, took place in St. Nicholas
Church in 2002.
The Knabenchor has been on concert tours in Iceland, England, Russia,
Luxemburg, Belgium, the USA, the Czech Republic, China and South Korea. The
group has won numerous prizes, and, most recently, was judged Best Foreign
Choir at the 2002 International Children's and Young People's Choral Competition
in Shanghai.