|
It all began in 1902: After a long period of singing, congregation members who had already gathered and sung together as a choir during church services, the idea was to give the previously "provisional choir" a proper organizational foundation: On November 1, 1902, the Evangelische Kirchenchor Bünde was founded. The yellowed, handwritten founding charter bears the signatures of the board, including that of the first choir director, Kantor Carl Gehne. Since then, a long, continuous, and demanding choral program has developed, which has endured even in difficult times and was maintained during the two world wars, in which the choir lost many members.
Today, in addition to the Bünder Kantorei - the direct successor to the Kirchenchor Bünde - the Kinderkantorei exists in Bünde Church Music with two groups.
The Bünder Kantorei brings together ambitious singers dedicated to the full spectrum of church music: from simple four-part choral settings to demanding motets (e.g., by Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, and others), from new sacred Lieder to large choral and orchestral works. This great stylistic diversity creates a flexible and versatile choir sound.
The choir's community has been strengthened and consolidated on numerous concert tours, which have taken the choir to France, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Hungary, among others
In the more than 100-year history of the Bünder Kantorei, the neo-Gothic space of Pauluskirche in Bünde has been the choir's musical home. Many major choral concerts have taken place in this church and will continue to take place there.
What is the function of music in the church? It seeks to convey something of the mystery of faith, of the existence of God in this world. Artistic engagement with biblical content can lead to an intense visualization and concrete realization of the biblical message. Music, above all the arts, is particularly important here because, like speech and discourse, it is also about listening to what is being presented, and because it moves people at deep levels of the soul, where words can no longer reach. |
|
Kantor Carlos Gehne (1902-1925)
Kantor Paul von Hagel (1925-1961)
Oberstudienrat Maas (1958-1966)
(Renamed from Kirchenchor to Laurentiuskantorei)
Kirchenmusikdirektor Freidrich Peter-Isenbürger (1961-1968)
(1966: Merger of the Jugendkantorei and the Laurentiuskantorei to form the Bünder Kantorei)
Kirchenmusikdirektor Hans-Rudolf Siemoneit and Gunhild Siemoneit (1968-1984)
Studiendirektorin Anna-Maria Hof (1984-1986)
Kirchenmusikdirektor Hans-Martin Kiefer (since 1986-December 2022)
Spatzenchor, Kinderkantorei, Jugendkantorei:
Kantorin Martina Schulze-Kiefer (1986-2006)
Dorothea and Ulrich Wenzke (2006-2023)
Jugendchor "Mezzo Voices" (from October 2023, Director: Leon Immanuel Sowa)
Leon Immanuel Sowa (actual choir director, since January 2023) |
