Uni­ver­si­ty choir and cham­ber choir

The uni­ver­si­ty choir is made up of stu­dents from a wide va­rie­ty of stu­dy cour­ses in all three de­part­ments. The en­sem­ble per­forms a wide ran­ge of con­cert pro­grams – a cap­pel­la, with cham­ber mu­sic ac­com­p­ani­ment and with lar­ge or­che­s­tras.

Col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons have al­rea­dy led the choir several times to the Gre­at Hall of the Alte Oper Frank­furt, whe­re it per­for­med at the Ger­man Cho­ral Fes­ti­val, among other events. In April 2017, the uni­ver­si­ty choir also per­for­med the­re tog­e­ther with the Frank­furt Ope­ra and Mu­se­um Or­ches­tra with the Mo­zart Re­qui­em.

Fur­ther­mo­re, the­re is a col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the De­part­ment for His­to­ri­cal In­ter­pre­ta­ti­on Prac­tice of the HfMDK, in the cour­se of which the choir par­ti­ci­pa­ted, for examp­le, in the Ba­ro­que Nights. An in­ten­si­ve coope­ra­ti­on in the ora­to­ri­cal re­per­toire con­nec­ts the uni­ver­si­ty choir with the sym­pho­ny or­ches­tra of the HfMDK. In the sum­mer se­mes­ter of 2018, for examp­le, the uni­ver­si­ty choir pre­sen­ted Carl Orf­f's "Car­mi­na Burana" to an en­thu­si­astic au­di­ence at the Rhein­gau Mu­sic Fes­ti­val.

Prof. Flo­ri­an Loh­mann has been di­rec­ting the Uni­ver­si­ty Choir and the Cham­ber Choir of the HfMDK sin­ce 2019. The choir bid fa­re­well to his pre­de­ces­sor Prof. Win­fried Toll in a joint con­cert with the Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra of the HfMDK and the Frank­furt Kan­to­rei with a per­for­mance of the Ver­di Re­qui­em in the Sen­de­saal of the Hes­si­scher Rund­funk.

Au­di­tions are not re­qui­red for par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the Uni­ver­si­ty Choir. Pro­jec­ts will be an­noun­ced pri­or to the be­gin­ning of the se­mes­ter and re­gis­tra­ti­on will take place at the first rehe­ar­sal.

Cur­rent pro­ject sche­du­les can also be found on this web­site. If you have any ques­ti­ons about the choirs, plea­se feel free to con­tact the choir of­fice.

De­man­ding cho­ral works from Re­nais­sance to mo­dern are the re­per­toire of the new­ly foun­ded cham­ber choir of the HfMDK. Un­der the di­rec­tion of Prof. Flo­ri­an Loh­mann, stu­dents from all de­part­ments de­ve­lop sty­listi­cal­ly so­phisti­ca­ted, bril­li­ant in­ter­pre­ta­ti­ons com­mit­ted to a ho­mo­ge­ne­ous cho­ral sound. The sin­gers also per­form as so­loists and in solo en­sem­bles from wi­t­hin the choir. They con­ti­nue the cho­ral tra­di­ti­on at the HfMDK, which has been shaped by Uwe Gro­no­st­ay, Hel­muth Ril­ling, Wolf­gang Schä­fer and, most re­cent­ly, for a long time by Win­fried Toll. The choir is also rehe­ar­sed and con­duc­ted by stu­dents of cho­ral con­duc­ting.

The cham­ber choir rehe­ar­ses both wee­kly and in block pe­ri­ods. The pro­jec­ts are an­noun­ced be­fo­re the be­gin­ning of the se­mes­ter.

For par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the cham­ber choir, an au­di­tion is held each se­mes­ter, to which in­vi­ta­ti­ons are sent by e-mail.

Cur­r­ent­ly, the choir is ma­king mu­sic in small en­sem­bles as a crea­ti­ve re­spon­se to the chal­len­ges of the pan­de­mic. Thus, in Au­gust 2020, the CD "Ma­ria - Chor­ge­sän­ge durch die Jahr­hun­dert­wen­de" could be pro­du­ced.

Con­cert dates:
Sa­tur­day, May 16, 2026, 7:00 p.m., Alte Oper Frank­furt with the En­thu­si­ast*in­nen­chor of the Alte Oper Frank­furt and the sym­pho­ny or­ches­tra of the HfMDK
Tu­es­day, June 2, 2026, 7:30 p.m., Gro­ßer Saal of the HfMDK (only HS-choir, or­gan, pia­no duo & tim­pa­ni)
Wed­nes­day, June 3, 2026, 7:30 p.m., Gro­ßer Saal of the HfMDK (only HS-choir, or­gan, pia­no duo & tim­pa­ni
Rehe­ar­sals: Wed­nes­day, 4:15–5:45 p.m., be­gin­ning on April 8, 2026
Rehe­ar­sal days: April 24–26, 2026, May 14, 2026
Par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in rehe­ar­sal days, the dress rehe­ar­sal, and all three con­certs is man­dato­ry. 
Credit point for the choir with > 80% at­ten­dance
Pro­gram­me:
Sa­mu­el Bar­ber: Agnus Dei (choir + or­gan)
Jo­han­nes Brahms: Ein deut­sches Re­qui­em (choir + so­pra­no & ba­ri­to­ne solo + or­ches­tra)

Re­gis­tra­ti­on re­qui­red by Wed­nes­day, April 1, 2026 in Asi­mut ("Re­gis­tra­ti­on for events" --> "Re­gis­tra­ti­on Uni­ver­si­ty Choir").

If you have any ques­ti­ons, plea­se con­tact the choir of­fice (Lisa Beck) at lisa.beck@hfmdk-frank­furt.de.

Con­cert dates: 
Wed, June 24, 2026, 8:00 p.m. Rhein­gau Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, Klos­ter Eber­bach
So­loists/vo­cal en­sem­bles by Vo­ces8,
Mu­si­cal di­rec­tion first half of con­cert: Barna­by Smith (Voices8), se­cond half: Flo­ri­an Loh­mann
Thu, June 25, 7:30 p.m. Re­peat con­cert, Gro­ßer Saal, HfMDK
So­loists/vo­cal en­sem­bles from the cham­ber choir,
Mu­si­cal di­rec­tion: Stu­dents of the main sub­ject class in cho­ral con­duc­ting
Rehe­ar­sals: Tu­es­day, 2:00–4:00 p.m., be­gin­ning on April 14, 2026
Au­di­tions: Tu­es­day, April 7, 2026, 12:30–6:00 p.m.
Pro­gram­me: Col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve pro­ject of the cham­ber choir with the en­sem­ble “Voices8” and the “Ca­pel­la Aca­de­mi­ca Frank­furt,” the or­ches­tra of the HIP In­sti­tu­te of the HfMDK

H. Pur­cell: My heart is in­di­t­ing, Z.30 (strings, con­ti­nuo, V8, choir – du­ra­ti­on ap­prox. 16')
B. Brit­ten: Hymn to St. Ce­ci­lia (choir, V8 a cap­pel­la – du­ra­ti­on ap­prox. 11')
H. Pur­cell: Wel­co­me to all the plea­su­res, Z.339 (strings, con­ti­nuo, V8, choir - du­ra­ti­on ap­prox. 15')
- In­ter­mis­si­on -
H. Pur­cell: Hail, bright Ce­ci­lia, Z.328 (2 flu­tes, 2 oboes, 2 trum­pets, per­cus­sion, strings, BC, V8, choir - du­ra­ti­on ap­prox. 50 mi­nu­tes)

Re­gis­tra­ti­on re­qui­red by April 1, 2026 by e-mail to the choir of­fice (lisa.beck@hfmdk-frank­furt.de).

Flo­ri­an Loh­mann was ap­poin­ted to the chair of cho­ral con­duc­ting at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and Per­forming Arts at the be­gin­ning of the win­ter se­mes­ter 2019/20, suc­cee­ding Win­fried Toll. Here he is re­spon­si­ble for cho­ral con­duc­ting trai­ning in both the church mu­sic de­part­ment and the mas­ter's de­gree pro­gram in cho­ral con­duc­ting, and di­rec­ts the cham­ber choir and the uni­ver­si­ty choir of the HfMDK.

Loh­mann be­gan his mu­si­cal trai­ning in the Kna­ben­chor Han­no­ver. He stu­di­ed school mu­sic, Ger­man lan­guage and li­te­ra­tu­re, sin­ging and vo­cal pe­dago­gy and was a scho­l­ar­ship hol­der of the Pro­tes­tant Stu­dy Foun­da­ti­on Vil­ligst. He re­cei­ved his cho­ral con­duc­ting trai­ning pri­ma­ri­ly from Frank Löhr and Jörg Strau­be. Fur­ther im­pul­ses were gi­ven by Anne Koh­ler, Wal­ter Nuß­baum, Ge­org Grün, Paul van Ne­vel and Frie­der Ber­ni­us, among others. Be­fo­re his ap­point­ment to Frank­furt, Loh­mann taught cho­ral con­duc­ting as a lec­tu­rer at the Det­mold Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and sin­ging at the Ha­no­ver Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic, Dra­ma and Me­dia.

Loh­mann is ar­tis­tic di­rec­tor of the Ca­pel­la St. Cru­cis and the Col­le­gi­um Vo­ca­le Han­no­ver. In­vi­ta­ti­ons to con­cert se­ries and com­pe­ti­ti­ons in Ger­ma­ny and ab­road as well as CD and ra­dio pro­duc­tions in the en­t­i­re sty­listic spec­trum from his­to­ri­cal per­for­mance prac­tice to con­tem­pora­ry vo­cal mu­sic, in­clu­ding world pre­mie­res, do­cu­ment his work. He has also worked with pro­fes­sio­nal en­sem­bles and led rehe­ar­sals for re­now­ned con­duc­tors, in­clu­ding La­hav Sha­ni, Lio­nel Meu­nier and Ingo Metz­ma­cher. In 2018, Loh­mann took over the di­rec­tion of the first in­de­pen­dent working pha­se of the Bun­des­Schul­mu­sik­Chor. Con­cert tours and guest con­duc­tor­ships have ta­ken him to va­rious Eu­ropean coun­tries, Is­ra­el, Ar­gen­ti­na, South Af­ri­ca and Aus­tra­lia.