The KlangVerwaltung choir was founded in 2000 by Enoch zu Guttenberg as a professional project choir for the Bach Festival at Herrenchiemsee Palace on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death. After initial successes, which were also celebrated by the press, the choir became an integral part of the International Herrenchiemsee Festival, which emerged from the Bach Festival. At the same time, it was a regular guest at renowned festivals in various sizes, including the Rheingau Music Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, and the Braunschweig Festival – Soli Deo Gloria.

Most recently, the choir, conducted by Enoch zu Guttenberg, performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in March and April 2018.

The unexpected death of Enoch zu Guttenberg in June 2018 also marked a major turning point for the KlangVerwaltung choir. In addition to continuing its collaboration with the KlangVerwaltung orchestra, the choir has since shifted its focus to developing its own innovative formats in both concert and stage performances, as well as expanding its collaborations with nationally and internationally renowned festivals, orchestras, and conductors.

The first fruits of this new direction were symphonic performances with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under Markus Poschner and Kent Nagano at the Elbphilharmonie. The choir also performed in chamber music settings, presenting interpretations of Baroque works by Andrew Parrott, Paul McCreesh, and Fabio Biondi.

The 2020/2021 season marked the promising start of a long-term collaboration with the Blaibach Concert Hall, initiated by artistic director Prof. Thomas E. Bauer, and with the Tyrolean Festival Erl. Particularly noteworthy here are the semi-staged performances of Carl Orff’s Astutuli at the Konzerthaus Blaibach and Thomas Guggeis’s performance of St. Matthew Passion (Johann Sebastian Bach), broadcast on ORF television from the Festspielhaus Erl.

At the invitation of Thomas Guggeis, the KlangVerwaltung choir performed excerpts from Francis Poulenc’s Stabat Mater on the internationally acclaimed CD Aether by the exceptional soprano Sarah Aristidou.

The stylistically flexible ensemble successfully concluded 2021, a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic, with a historically informed Mass in B minor (Johann Sebastian Bach) and a celebrated debut at Munich’s new Isarphilharmonie concert hall.

The choir began its musical year 2022 with two concerts of Bach’s St. John Passion at the Kurhaus Meran and in Brixen Cathedral. In addition to performing all the solo parts from within the ensemble, this was also the first collaboration with the Hofkapelle München, which has already been extremely productive with the CD production of the rarely performed opera Der Stein der Weisen oder Die Zauberinsel (The Philosopher’s Stone or The Magic Island) and other projects.

At the start of the 2022/2023 season, the KlangVerwaltung choir accepted an invitation from Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra to perform at the Elbphilharmonie for the third time. The program featured a reconstruction of the concert that premiered
Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem on Good Friday in 1868.

As proof of his versatility and vocal flexibility, among the numerous concerts in 2024, in addition to his debuts at the European Weeks Festival in Passau and in the Heilbronn Harmonie, the CD production of Symphony No. 8 (“Die Glocke – Brücke zur Unendlichkeit”) by Enjott Schneider and the Brahms Requiem at the Blaibach Concert Hall are particularly noteworthy. This work, which is usually performed with a large choir and orchestra, was performed in a chamber music version with 14 choir singers and the renowned piano duo GrauSchumacher.

The musical highlight of the current concert season will be the performance of the Mass in B minor (Johann Sebastian Bach) in July 2025 as the closing concert of the International Herrenchiemsee Festival under the baton of Kent Nagano. There is no better way to herald the anniversary season of the KlangVerwaltung choir, 25 years after its founding, than with this masterpiece of choral literature at its birthplace, together with the KlangVerwaltung orchestra, which has been familiar to it from the very beginning.