Composition Commission issued to Kathrin A. Denner

Deutscher Musikrat, Bonn, Germany

The German Federal Youth Choir Bundesjugendchor is open to young singers aged 18 to 26 who are resident in Germany or who live abroad as German citizens. The ensemble meets several times a year to work on rehearsals and concerts. The singers broaden their musical horizons through a wide-ranging repertoire in collaboration with composers. For the project year 2021, a commissioned work for divided 4-part choir will be issued to Kathrin A. Denner:

“The choir as a meta-individual – as a whole from which individuals (want to) fight their way out. Different kinds of social relations and interactions between the large whole as a choir and the individual, who is both part of the mass, but also wants to evolve and develop. Wanting to cry out, not having a voice, not having a mouth. You want to cry out for help, but you can’t. Your body no longer obeys you. You are paralyzed. (achieved by holding your mouth shut while singing.) Trying to be mute. Being paralyzed. Always wanting to fight against resistance and disappointed hope – uncomfortable existence. Fear and uncertainty as necessary, creative ways of thinking and behaving. Hands as an important part of the performance. A sensitive, shadowy, lonely, uncertain web of sound with disruptive tensions. Chords large in ambit are decreed, dismantled, deconstructed. In reverse – not from a nucleus – a great work is built. The whole is decomposed and reduced to the cell. Alongside this, but just as important, are the gestures of the hands, both as a tonal element and as an additional and important form of expression or representation.”

The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation is facilitating the commission of Dichotomien der Existenz (Dichotomies of Existence) issued to Kathrin A. Denner.

Due to current situation there might be changes at short notice. For most recent information please visit bundesjugendchor.de