# Thomanerchor

The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called Thomaner, reside in a boarding school, the Thomasalumnat and attend the St. Thomas School, Leipzig, a Gymnasium school with a linguistic profile and a focus on musical education. The younger members attend the primary school Grundschule Forum Thomanum or Anna-Magdalena-Bach-Schule. Johann Sebastian Bach served as Thomaskantor, director of the choir and church music in Leipzig, from 1723 to 1750.

## The choir

Although the choir's main musical field traditionally consists of the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the repertoire comprises pieces from different eras, from the Renaissance to contemporary music. Andreas Reize is the 18th Thomaskantor since Bach.
The Forum Thomanum is the campus of the choir in the Bach quarter of Leipzig. It was inaugurated in 2012 and includes the Thomasalumnat (boarding school), kindergarten, primary school, high school, choir rehearsal space, Luther Church, youth hostel, administration buildings, gym, a rehearsal hall and more amenities. Some critics contend that the Forum Thomanum project will change the way that the Thomaner are instructed and recruited.
Most of the members of the Thomanerchor live in the Thomasalumnat on Hiller Street. The boys are separated into so-called Stuben rather than school classes. Each Stube is not only a sleeping room, but also an administrative entity with a closed hierarchy and a clear assignment of tasks. One or more older choir boys live with the younger ones in each Stube in order to create a hierarchy and didactic relationship. Hence, the upbringing in the Thomanerchor is provided primarily by the older members, and the educators play a smaller role. Therefore, it is possible to have 90 boys living under one roof, supervised by only five educators. The Stuben are redistributed every year in order to maintain the age groupings and also to influence the social order in the Stube.
The Stuben have only lockable wardrobes (Köte) and one table for each boy. The rooms also have other furnishings, namely shelves for books, newspapers and satchels, radios, plants and chairs. Televisions and computers are not allowed. Each Stube consists of at least four rooms and a washroom with two showers, and each room has two to three beds.
The Thomasalumnat also has a gym, a rehearsal hall, and a dining hall where all boys eat together three times a day, a shop where the tailor sews the boys' suits for the concerts, an archive, a wing of the building for the teachers who live there, a room for the band, a model railway room, a fitness room, a living room for the older boys, a "press room" for the school's newspaper, a sauna, a library with computers and internet, an infirmary, and a television room. Communal restrooms are located on the hallway of each Stube.
The Thomanerchor gives concerts across Germany (at least two major tours a year) and abroad. The choir also sings three times a week in the Thomaskirche, "Motette" every Friday evening at 6 and every Saturday afternoon at 3, service on Sundays at 9 o'clock. The choir also sings at Protestant festivities. The children have vacations during the summer school vacations.
The tour of 2012, the choir's 800th year, presented a program of Alessandro Scarlatti's Exultate Deo, Kyrie and Gloria from Palestrina's Missa sine nomine, Bruckner's motets Vexilla regis and Christus factus est pro nobis, and Bach's motet Jesu, meine Freude. It was performed, for example, on 6 July in the Eberbach Abbey at the Rheingau Musik Festival.

## History

The Margrave of Meissen founded St. Thomas' priory for Augustinian Canons (Augustiner-Chorherrenstift zu St. Thomas) in 1212. A school was annexed to the monastery, the intended purpose of which was to develop future priests. Since the Reformation in 1539, the school and the choir have belonged to the city of Leipzig; it is also influenced by the Protestant Church of Saxony. This makes the Thomanerchor the oldest cultural entity in the city and one of the oldest in Europe; the Regensburger Domspatzen is the oldest known choir on record. When Johann Sebastian Bach served as director, the choir consisted of about 50 singers, of which the best 16 were used for performance of cantatas. After Bach's death, other famous musicians served as director, among them Doles, Hiller and Moritz Hauptmann.
By the end of the 19th century, the Thomasschule next to the Thomaskirche was demolished and the choir moved to the Hiller street, now the Leipziger "Music Quarter". During the Nazi era, the choir was incorporated into the Hitler Jugend in 1937. But the Nazi government did not succeed in infiltrating their ideology into the choir's repertoire because the then director Ramin concentrated on religious works. He also tried to prevent the boys from being enlisted as long as possible.
Georg Christoph Biller, who was a Thomaner himself in his youth, directed the choir from 1992 to 2015. After retiring for health reasons, he was succeeded by Gotthold Schwarz as interim cantor, the latter being officially appointed as the new Thomaskantor in June 2016. The 18th Thomaskantor after Bach is Andreas Reize.
He resumed the traditional summer tours with a program called Salmo!, after the opening piece Salmo 150. It was presented at the Thomaskirche, and in Merseburg Cathedral among other places in Thuringia, and at the Lutherkirche in Wiesbaden as part of the Rheingau Musik Festival.

## Cantors

Cantors of the Thomanerchor, called Thomaskantor in German, have included (in brackets their time in the office):
* Georg Rhau (1518–1520)
* Johannes Galliculus (1520–1525)
* Sethus Calvisius (1594–1615)
* Johann Hermann Schein (1615–1630)
* Tobias Michael (1631–1657)
* Sebastian Knüpfer (1657–1676)
* Johann Schelle (1677–1701)
* Johann Kuhnau (1701–1722)
* Johann Sebastian Bach (1723–1750)
* Johann Friedrich Doles (1756–1789)
* Johann Adam Hiller (1789–1801)
* Johann Gottfried Schicht (1810–1823)
* Christian Theodor Weinlig (1823–1842)
* Moritz Hauptmann (1842–1868)
* Ernst Friedrich Richter (1868–1879)
* Wilhelm Rust (1880–1892)
* Gustav Schreck (1893–1918)
* Karl Straube (1918–1939)
* Günther Ramin (1939–1956)
* Kurt Thomas (1957–1960)
* Erhard Mauersberger (1961–1972)
* Hans-Joachim Rotzsch (1972–1991)
* Georg Christoph Biller (1992–2015)
* Gotthold Schwarz (2016–2021) (acting cantor 2015–2016)
* Andreas Reize (2021–)

## Notable members

* Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
* Günther Ramin
* Diethard Hellmann
* Jörg-Peter Weigle
* Die Prinzen
* Hans-Jürgen Beyer [de]
* Georg Christoph Biller
* Jürgen Golle [de]
* Reiner Süß
* Erhard Mauersberger
* Martin Christian Vogel
* ensemble amarcord
* Christoph Genz
* Hanns-Martin Schneidt
* Matthias Weichert
* David Timm
* Martin Petzold

## Films

* The Flying Classroom [de]. Literal adaptation of Erich Kästner's novel The Flying Classroom. Germany 2003. Director: Tomy Wigand. OCLC 742197375
* 800 Years of Thomanerchor. Germany March 25, 2012, MDR Television (YouTube) OCLC 958003602
* Die Thomaner Documentary film. Germany March 2012. Directors: Paul Smaczny, Günter Atteln. OCLC 956369041

## Awards and recognition

Awards:
* 2023 Bach Medal
* 2014 Preis der Europäischen Kirchenmusik
* 2012 ECHO Classic Award, Special award
* 2011 Bach Prize of the Royal Academy of Music (London)
* 2002 Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein (German: Brahms Preis)
* Europäischer Kulturpreis für Chormusik
State decorations:
* Fatherland's Order of Merit in Gold, of East Germany (German: Vaterländischer Verdienstorden)
Eponyms:
* 1924 The asteroid 1023 Thomana discovered by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth was named after the boys' choir