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The Oratorienchor Karlsruhe an der Christuskirche grew out of the merger of two large Karlsruhe choirs with a national reputation.
According to the sources, the Chor der Christuskirche must have been founded around 1900 at the newly built Christuskirche. The choir's directors were August Hoffmeister, Ludwig Baumann, 1909 Hans Vogel (from 1909), Hermann Knierer (from 1924), Theodor Munz (from 1934), Ruth Schellenberg (from 1941), Klaus Martin Ziegler (from 1954), Hans Joachim Haarbeck (from 1960). In 1962 a LP recording of H.W. Zimmermann's Psalmkonzert was made with Klaus Martin Ziegler.
The Oratorienchor Karlsruhe e.V. was founded in 1951 by Erich Werner and directed until 1970. The choir undertook numerous concert tours through Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy. Concerts were carried out in this way under various well-known conductors, such as Charles Bruck, Marcel Couraud, János Ferencsik, Otto Matzerath and Volker Wangenheim. Concert recordings were made for LP and radio, e.g. L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Igor Markevitch, the Orchester des Concerts Lamoureux and Hilde Güden (soprano) or Rossini's Wilhelm Tell with the Badische Staatskapelle.
The first collaborations arose due to the joint direction of the choirs by Hans Joachim Haarbeck since 1970. The choirs took part in the Karslruher Musiktagen from 1982 to 2003, a series of events organized by the city of Karlsruhe, the churches, the Universität Karlsruhe and the Hochschule für Musik.
Currently, around 70 singers sing in the Oratorienchor Karlsruhe an der Christuskirche. They share the joy of singing and creating witty classical and modern choral music. In addition to oratorio literature, they dedicate ourselves to sophisticated a cappella works and the creation of festive cantata services. Their co-operation with the Kammerphilharmonie Karlsruhe and the Karlsruher Barockorchester has worked well for this purpose. The musical collaboration with the Kammerchor der Christuskirche and the Singschule Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe has also proven successful. Their connection to the Christuskirche Karlsruhe, which has been a church music center in the region for decades, is ideal.
From 1999 to 2017, Carsten Wiebusch directed the choirs, which finally merged in 2002 and have had the current name, Oratorienchor Karlsruhe an der Christuskirche, since 2008. Outstanding performances during this time were rarely performed choral-orchestral works, such as Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time, Franz Liszt's Christus, Olivier Messiaen's Trois Petites Liturgies, Frank Martin's Golgotha, and Max Reger's Dies Irae from Lateinischen Requiem or Lili Boulanger's Psalms - and of course the great oratorios by J.S. Bach, Joseph Haydn and Johannes Brahms.
Concert tours took our choir from Baden-Württemberg to various regions; The choir last performed in South Tyrol in 2017. The current director of the Oratorienchor Karlsruhe an der Christuskirche is Peter Gortner (since September 2018). |
