Because of Corona, the German Choir Festival was prepared twice. Now it starts in Leipzig. “Leipzig is all choir” also wants to send out a signal for the next generation of choirs.
The German Choir Festival started in Leipzig on Thursday, two years late due to the corona pandemic.
Around 9,500 singers from 350 choirs will meet in the Saxon city by Sunday. They will sing more than 500 concerts. The motto then applies at 23 venues throughout the city: “Leipzig is all choir”.
“It was a start with obstacles. The pandemic has made many things difficult,” said Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung (SPD) on Thursday. It is probably the first choir festival that has been prepared twice. The programs for 2020 had already been printed when the pandemic made the alignment impossible. Now the Corona rules allow the festival again.
The President of the German Choir Association, ex-Federal President Christian Wulff, hopes that the meeting in Leipzig will send out a signal to young choirs. Germany is a music country. “But whether we will still be there in 10 or 20 years will be decided in the next few years,” said Wulff. A special focus of the festival is therefore also on the children’s and youth choirs.
The opening concert on Leipzig’s market square was performed by two Saxon school choirs and one university choir. Among other things, they had the traditional Steigerlied of the Saxon miners and the Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody in the program.
