Dresdner Kreuzchor

The history of Dresden Kreuz Choir includes well over seven centuries, that he is one of the oldest boys' choirs in Germany and Europe.

The Dresden Kreuz Choir today includes about 150 Crucian - as the choir members are called - aged 9 and 19 years of making music as a mixed -voice boys choir (soprano / alto / tenor / bass). The size of the occupation depends on the respective works to be contained. At guest performances traveling about 80 Kruzianer.

The artistic home of Dresden Kreuz Choir is the Cross Church. The design of sacred music for vespers and worship its primary obligation and also forms the foundation of his artistic work.

An equally diverse as extensive repertoire draws from the choir. It ranges from the early Baroque works of the Dresden court Kapellmeister Heinrich Schütz, Bach's Passions, motets and cantatas, as well as the choral music of the 19th century to modern times; as the premiere of the work pilgrimages of Czernowin. With numerous world and European premieres of Dresden Kreuz Choir learns again the attention and critical acclaim.

The concerts with the Dresden Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden or special ensembles for " Early Music " are firmly rooted in the concert life of the city of Dresden.

Regularly, the choir is committed to television and radio recordings. For over 80 years, the Crucian produce recordings for prestigious record companies. Works from nearly all eras of music history have since been recorded and are now available as CDs by Berlin Classics, Capriccio, Teldec and Deutsche Grammophon.

Through high school, the Crucian receive their education at the Protestant Kreuzgymnasium. The Crucian of the first year ( fourth grade ) and older with further home lanes live in Alumnat, the boarding of the choir.

Success and fame do not result solely from the specific sound of boys' voices (also called Kruzianerstimmen ) These are based on the daily rehearsals and an intense vocal and instrumental lessons. The synthesis between liturgical tradition, continuous training and high artistic quality helps the ensemble to a global reach.

Cross School and Dresden Cross Choir

On April 6, 1300, the Dresden Kreuz school is first mentioned. It is an entity belonging to Nikolai church town's Latin school. Another important task is the education of choristers, which were needed for liturgical chants related to the solemn veneration of the Cross relic. Furthermore, they come at the celebration of church services.

→ Main article: Kreuzkantor

The 20 annual cross- choir Vespers on Saturday by 17 clock to be understood as musical devotions and are regularly attended by over a thousand listeners. The sounding of the chancel choir music is accompanied by organ, the Word for Sunday, community chorale and prayer and blessing.

During Advent, Christmas, as in the Christian Vespers of the Crucian, Easter or Pentecost, the visitors are already waiting for several hours in a long queue on the Old Market Square to find to enter the church. And for the Crucian there are annually experienced highlights to proclaim to over four thousand people playing instruments for the Christian message.

Up to 35 times a year, the Crucian sing in worship on Sunday morning, the motets of the choir loft and agree to exchange songs with a small choral group in liturgical Kurrendetracht in the altar room. A special feature is just the psalmody of the Epistle and the Gospel by a Crucian.

The ten concerts a year are determined by the church year. Starting with two carols evenings, three performances of the cantatas 1 to 3 of Bach's Christmas Oratorio connect, at the beginning of the year following the cantatas 4 to 6 the day of remembrance of the destruction of Dresden in World War II commits the choir with works that correspond to the monitory occasion of this day. During Holy Week, the two-time performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion is on the program. In the first weeks of summer usually a large occupied choral- symphonic work is heard as part of the Dresden Music Festival.

The traditional Easter matins of the Dresden Cross Choir will take place on the morning of Easter for more than sixty years. Here, according to the tradition of medieval mystery plays the Biblical events are presented dramatically, accompanied by music of the previous Kreuzkantor Rudolf Mauersberger.

Tours, concerts and other performances

• The Crucian are repeatedly celebrated guests in churches and concert halls at home and abroad. Guest performances the choir in recent years in the USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Canada. Furthermore, in many other European countries and in countless German cities. Three fixed tours take place every year: in summer, autumn and winter. There are also several short trips.
• Renowned opera houses such as the Semperoper Dresden, the German Opera Berlin and the Komische Oper Berlin engage singers of the choir regularly as soloists, for example, as a boy in The Magic Flute trio or as a shepherd boy in Tosca.
• The Dresden Kreuz Choir designed regularly worship in the Holy Cross Church liturgy with hymns and motets and cantatas.
• On Saturdays (except on holidays ) sings the chorus in " Vespers " Church of the Cross, a musical- liturgical evensong of about 60 minutes duration.
• Overall, the Crucian sing about 100 times a year: about 50 services and vespers, 10 concerts at the Holy Cross Church and 40 concerts on tours and guest performances. Each year 150,000 visitors experience the performances of the choir.

Well-known former Kruzianer

• Theo Adam ( born 1926 ), singer ( bass), opera director
• Hansjörg Albrecht (born 1972 ), a choral conductor, director of the Munich Bach Choir
• Olaf Bär ( born 1957 ), singer (baritone )
• Ludwig Blochberger (* 1982 ), actor
• Henryk Böhm, singer (baritone )
• Volker Groom ( born 1939 ), composer, church musician
• Dankwart Brink Meier ( born 1956 ), Pastor
• Michael von Brück ( * 1949 ), theologian
• Christian Collum ( born 1943 ), a church musician
• Atlas Crusius (1606-1679), former mayor of the city of Chemnitz
• Matthias Eisenberg ( born 1956 ), organist, harpsichordist, church musician
• Helmar Federowski ( born 1946 ), musician, sound technician
• Wolfgang Fischer (1932-2011), church musician
• John Gelbke (1846-1903), composer, musician
• Christfried Göckeritz ( b. 1953 ), conductor, 2004-2012 Rector of the University of Music and Theatre in Rostock
• Friedrich Goldmann (1941-2009), composer, conductor
• Andreas Goepfert (* 1947), choir director, music journalist
• Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759), composer, conductor, singer
• Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702-1771), composer and violinist
• Fried Bert Large ( b. 1937 ), a music teacher, composer, politician
• Peter Habermann ( born 1959 ), a singing teacher, choir director, including Radio Youth Choir and Chamber Choir Wernigerode Wernigerode
• Hartmut Haenchen ( born 1943 ), conductor
• Siegfried Heinrich ( * 1935), church musician, choir director
• Matthias Herrmann ( born 1955 ), musicologist
• Torsten Hofmann (born 1966 ), singer (tenor ), German Opera on the Rhine, Staatsoper Stuttgart
• Franz Holzweißig ( b. 1928 ), engineer
• Ulrich Kaiser (born 1973 ), church musician, conductor of the New Knabenchor Hamburg, head of the MDR Children's Choir
• Steffen Kammler ( b. 1965 ), conductor, choir director Norwegian State Opera, Oratorio Choir Cæciliaforeningen, Oslo
• Ekkehard Klemm ( * 1958 ), conductor, composer, since 2010 Rector of the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden, Head of the Sing-Akademie Dresden
• Richard Klemm (1902-1988), cellist, composer
• Peter Kopp ( born 1967), founder and director of the Choir Vocal Concert Dresden, choir conductor of the Cross choir
• Hermann Kretzschmar (1848-1924), musicologist
• Christian Lehmann (born 1954 ), composer, church musician
• Martin Lehmann (born 1973 ), a choral conductor, director of Windsbacher boys' choir, the former head of the Wuppertal Carolers
• Friedrich Hermann extinguisher (1860-1944), pastor, local historian
• Magirius Heinrich (* 1934), art historians, conservators
• Rolf- Hans Müller (1928-1990), composer, conductor
• Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741-1801), composer, conductor
• René Pape (born 1964 ), opera singer ( bass)
• Martin Petzoldt (* 1946), theologian, Chairman of the New Bach Society
• Tobias Pöche (born 1978 ), singer (tenor ) when calmus Ensemble Leipzig
• Hermann Christian Polster ( born 1937 ), singer ( bass)
• Franns Wilfried Promnitz of Promnitzau ( born 1952 ), singer (tenor ), musician, conductor
• Hans -Christoph Rademann (* 1965), founder and director of the Dresden Chamber Choir, conductor of the RIAS Chamber Choir
• Horst Rasch ( b. 1953 ), engineer, politician
• Torsten Rasch ( born 1965 ), composer
• Karl Richter (1926-1981), Bach Performer, choirmaster, conductor, musician
• Ludwig Schnorr von Carol Field (1836-1865), opera singer (tenor )
• Ernst Gerold Schramm (1938-2004), baritone / bass
• Peter Schreier ( born 1935 ), singer (tenor ), conductor
• Jens Sembdner (born 1967 ), singer ( The Prince )
• Siegfried Sieber (1885-1977), teacher, local historian
• Tungsten Steude (1931-2006), musicologist, musician
• Eckehard Stier (born 1972 ), conductor of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
• Eric Stoklossa ( born 1979 ), singer (tenor )
• Hans Thamm (1921-2007), founder of the Windsbacher Knabenchor
• Helmut Tramnitz (1917-2007), musicologist, organist
• Wolfgang Unger (1948-2004), conductor, choir director
• Lothar Voigtländer ( born 1943 ), composer
• Manfred Winter ( born 1935 ), founder of the Boys Choir Dresden
• Udo Zimmermann ( born 1943 ), composer, conductor, artistic director
• Michael Zumpe ( born 1955 ), singer (baritone ), choirmaster

Vocal groups of former Kruzianer

• Arcanum musicae
• Five Gentlemen
• VIP vocal group
• Add Voce Veritas
• Collegium Canticum Dresden

Prizes and awards

• 2005 Dresden Kreuz Choir was awarded the Brahms Prize, based in Heide Brahms Society Schleswig -Holstein.

• 2013 the cross choir was presented at the first China tour the prize of the Shanghai Arts Festival. After the concert agency had warned of difficulties with the Chinese censors, the Cross choir underlined the song Thoughts are free from the repertoire of this tour. Thus, " any questions for a text translation be avoided in order not to jeopardize the timely issuance of an entry permit " should be explained to the management of the Cross choir, " a political demonstration with minors would not be passable ."

• In addition, the choir has been awarded the European Choir Prize (European Culture Award ).