Thomanerchor Leipzig & Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
- Orchestra
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The members of the choir are all boarders at the Leipzig Thomasschule, the school connected with St Thomas’s Church, which is their main workplace.
The St Thomas Boys Choir is only a half century younger than Leipzig itself and is the city’s oldest cultural institution.
At the Parliament in Frankfurt in 1212 Otto IV of Brunswick endorsed the formation by members of the Augustinian order of the St Thomas choral foundation initiated by Margrave Dietrich the Oppressed of Meissen.
The foundation included a seminary originally intended to train boys for the priesthood. However, it was soon also opened to boys who were not part of the foundation. Liturgical singing was on the curriculum from the outset.
Subsequent Thomaskantors who exerted influence on Lutheran church music were Gottlob Harrer, Johann Friedrich Doles, Johann Adam Hiller, August Eberhard Müller, Johann Gottfried Schicht, Christian Theodor Weinlig, Moritz Hauptmann, Ernst Friedrich Richter, Wilhelm Rust, Gustav Ernst Schreck, Karl Straube, Günther Ramin, Kurt Thomas, Erhard Mauersberger, Hans-Joachim Rotzsch and since 1992 Georg Christoph Biller.
The boon of mass transportation in the twentieth century allowed the St Thomas Boys Choir to extend its concert activities to other cities and countries. The choir had of course long since established itself in the concert life of Leipzig and its performances of motets and cantatas on Fridays and Saturdays in St Thomas’s Church had become important musical events. Under Straube’s direction the regular performances of J.S. Bach’s Passions, Christmas Oratorio and B minor Mass attained the degree of perfection they retain to this day.
(Translation: J & M Berridge)