This will take place September, 11th 2021 at the Main church St. Michaelis in Hamburg, GermanyHEAR THE BOYS - Festival of Boys' Choirs
With the boys' choir festival HEAR THE BOYS, the New Boys' Choir Hamburg aims to bring together a record number of boys' choirs in one weekend. The Lübeck Boys' Choir, the Uetersen Boys' Choir, the Boys' Choir Unser Lieben Frauen Bremen, and the Hamburg Boys' Choir St. Nikolai will be taking part. Together, more than 300 boys' choir voices will resound in Hamburg's Michel and provide a diverse boys' choir experience with flash mobs in the city center and concerts in the main churches.
What is this project about?
We, the New Boys' Choir Hamburg, are one of many enthusiastic boys' choirs in the whole of northern Germany: here boys and young men sing together, rehearse for large concerts and experience the unifying power of music together.
Meetings with each other, i.e. between the choirs, are very rare. This is exactly what we want to change and bring together a record number of boys' choirs on one weekend in Hamburg with the boys' choir festival HEAR THE BOYS.
The Lübeck Boys' Choir, the Boys' Choir Uetersen, the Boys' Choir Unser Lieben Frauen Bremen, the Hamburg Boys' Choir St. Nikolai ... and us. Together, that's over 350 boys' choir voices, united in the grand final concert on September 11 in Hamburg's Michel - there's never been anything like it in the north!
HEAR THE BOYS will be a unique sound experience and a unique music festival for the Hamburg metropolitan region. A platform for musical exchange, for meeting and growing together, for synergies and community. For flash mobs in the city center; for additional concerts in Hamburg's main churches. In short: just the right thing when culture can blossom again after the Corona pandemic.
What are the goals and who is the target group?
Northern Germany, and at its center the music city of Hamburg, possesses an important treasure trove of sound in the form of numerous renowned boys' choirs. With this festival we want to draw the attention of a broad public to the existence of these choirs in Hamburg and its metropolitan region and to their high artistic quality and versatility: HEAR THE BOYS offers for the very first time the special opportunity to experience the unique boys' choir sound live in a festival with several choirs.
At the same time, this festival is intended to strengthen the connections between the choirs as well as the musical self-image of the individual boys, who will be able to experience a unique time together and "fire" each other up in a cross-choir concert. This will be a festival for all!
Why should you support this project?
Never before has there been a festival in Hamburg or Northern Germany that unites so many boys' choirs: Promote the richness of sound in the music city of Hamburg, strengthen the cultural asset boys' choir!
Everyone who loves music and singing should help to realize this unique project - and especially everyone who has never had the opportunity to experience a boys' choir live! With your donation you can also help to inspire children for classical music and to create community among them. And create incentives for the next generation of musicians to take an interest in training in a boys' choir - in a strong community in which one learns not only tones, but a great deal for life.
What happens with the money if the funding is successful?
With the help of crowdfunding, we will finance the travel, accommodation and catering for over 300 choir singers during the three-day festival. In addition, there is rent and insurance for the venue as well as the organization, public relations and advertising for the festival. If we raise more money than needed, we use the income to finance further concerts of the New Boys Choir of Hamburg and further choir encounters.
Who is behind the project?
The New Boys Choir Hamburg
... is one of the most renowned boys' choirs in Northern Germany and one of the largest ensembles at the Staatliche Jugendmusikschule Hamburg. In 1991 it was founded by Brigitte Siebenkittel and successfully continued by Ulrich Kaiser from 2003. In January 2012, Jens Bauditz took over as director.
In recent years, an extensive boys' choir school has been developed, which now provides a musical home for 170 boys. The preliminary choirs train the youngest singers in singing and musical basics in three different age groups. The oldest boys' voices as well as the men's voices then sing in the main choir. All are introduced to a broad repertoire: Sacred and secular literature, including works by William Byrd, Heinrich Schütz, Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, to contemporary works by Knut Nystedt, Arvo Pärt and György Orbán.
Standouts in the ensemble's young history have included joint concerts with the NDR Big Band and jazz legend Carla Bley, as well as participation in Krzysztof Penderecki's "St. Luke Passion" conducted by the composer at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. Since 2014, the New Boys Choir Hamburg has brought the English tradition A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols to its hometown, which was released on CD in 2016 together with reader Rufus Beck. Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio," accompanied on period instruments, is also among the choir's concert highlights.
In addition to frequent performances in Hamburg's main churches, the New Boys' Choir Hamburg can regularly be heard beyond the city limits, for example in Dresden's Frauenkirche and in Berlin's Bundestag. Trips abroad have taken the choir to England, Vienna, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome and Prague, as well as to Israel, Denmark, Switzerland and the USA.
https://hamvoba.viele-schaffen-mehr.de/hear-the-boys
