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 ta­kes place via Asi­mut in ad­van­ce.

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:
Wed, Jan. 27, 2027, 7:30 p.m., Gro­ßer Saal of the HfMDK
Thu, Jan. 28, 2027, 7:30 p.m., Gro­ßer Saal of the HfMDK

Re­hear­sals: Wed­nes­day, 4:15–5:45 p.m., be­gin­ning on Oc­to­ber 14, 2026
Cre­dit point for the choir with > 80% at­ten­dance

Pro­gram­me:"Was­ser, Wald und Wun­der" – Bal­la­den für Chor und Kla­vier von Brahms bis Bou­lan­ger
Jo­han­nes Brahms – Vier Quar­tet­te op. 92: „O schö­ne Nacht“, „Spät­herbst“, „Abend­lied“, „War­um“ (zus. 10‘)
J. G. Rhein­ber­ger – „Das Schloss am Meer“ op. 17 Nr. 1 / „Die Was­ser­fee“ op. 21 / „Lo­ckung“ op. 25 (zus. 15‘)
Franz Schre­ker – Der Hol­destein (8‘)
Lili Bou­lan­ger – Hymn au Sol­eil (4‘)
Jo­han­nes Brahms – aus Sechs Quar­tet­te op. 112 Nr. 1 „Sehn­sucht“ und Nr. 2 „Näch­tens“ (zus. 5')

Re­gis­tra­ti­on re­qui­red by Fri­day, Oc­to­ber 9, 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: 
Sun, Nov. 1, 2026, 6:00 p.m., Kunst-Kul­tur-Kir­che Al­ler­hei­li­gen, Thü­rin­ger Str. 35, 60316 Frank­furt am Main
Tue, Jan. 19, 2027, 7:30 p.m., Con­cert II, Gro­ßer Saal HfMDK

Re­hear­sals: Usual­ly Tues­days, 2:00–4:00 p.m., start­ing on Oc­to­ber 20, 2026
Au­di­tions: Tues­day, Oc­to­ber 13, 26, 12:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
Pro­gram­me:Nova et Ve­te­ra
Gio­van­ni Ga­brie­li: Ju­bi­la­te Deo (1615, Coro SSAATTBB, a-cap­pel­la, ca. 4:30')
F. Men­dels­sohn Bar­thol­dy: Te Deum (1826, Soli SATB/SATB, Coro SATB/SATB, Or­gel, 35')
Ben­ja­min Brit­ten: Hymn to St. Ce­ci­lia (1942, Soli SSATB, Coro SSATB, a cap­pel­la 11')
Chris­to­pher Brandt: Mis­sa (2025, Solo-S, Coro SATB, Sa­xo­phon, E-Gi­tar­re, Vio­lon­cel­lo, Per­cus­sion, Or­gel; Ur­auf­füh­rung, ca. 25')

Re­gis­tra­ti­on re­qui­red by Oc­to­ber 9, 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.