Vocalconsort Leipzig

Ensemble

Vocalconsort Leipzig, founded in 1999, has ever since established itself as one of the leading Saxonian chamber choirs through its distinctive profile.

Leipzig’s cultural life would be incomplete without the choir which, under the batons of Gregor Meyer (until 2017) and Franziska Kuba (since 2018), has been and is a regular participant in both St Thomas Church’s “Motetten” and the international festival “Bachfest”. Vocalconsort Leipzig also continuously stages concerts with famous and lesser-known composers from Leipzig:

2006 saw the choral works of Leipzig-based organist and professor of Music Sigfrid Karg-Elert rediscovered. In the same way, 2009 featured the revitalisation of Sethus Calvisius’ legacy, who was Cantor of St Thomas 100 years before Bach. The choir helped furthering the relationship with Leipzig’s Bosnian twin city Travnik and, in 2013, commemorated the 70th memorial day of Leipzig’s destruction in the city’s old town hall.

Collaborations with the Gewandhaus Choir are part of Vocalconsort Leipzig manifold activities as are the annual charity concerts for an organisation helping children affected by cancer and their families which have started in 2008.

Concerts in the Netherlands, Belarus and Sweden showcase the choir’s wanderlust as well as its about 35 members’ fondness of the European idea. This very idea also informed the choir’s participation in Matthew Herbert’s pan-European arts project “Brexit Big Band” in 2018 and is at the heart of the upcoming anniversary concert celebrating 20 years of Vocalconsort Leipzig.

CONDUCTOR

Franziska Kuba (born in 1991) initially wanted to become a teacher and thus studied both History and Music. She then decided to take on Choral Conducting at the University of Music in Weimar, where she studied with professors Jürgen Puschbeck and Gunter Kahlert. At the moment she is also deepening her knowledge of Early Music and is enrolled in the Master’s program “Historical Singing”.

Franziska has taken part in masterclasses with Michael Gläser, Jörg-Peter Weigle, Thomas Eitler-de Lint, Stefan Parkman and Morten Schuldt-Jensen. Under their scrutinous eyes she has worked, among others, with the choirs of the German Broadcasting Stations (NDR & WDR), Leipzig’s Opera Chorus and the Philharmonic Choir Berlin.

Since 2017, Franziska holds a scholarship of the prestigious “Dirigentenforum des deutschen Musikrates” (Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council). In 2018, she qualified for an international masterclass of Berlin’s Rundfunkchor led by Gijs Leenaars and Stefan Parkman. As a freelance conductor, Franziska has continuously worked together with Vocalconsort Leipzig since 2015 and has been named as their principal conductor in 2018.

Starting from 2016, she has been leading rehearsals with the Gewandhaus Choir, closely working together with Gregor Meyer, Andris Nelsons and Herbert Blomstedt. She holds a lectureship for Choral Conducting at the University of Music in Freiburg, assisting Prof. Frank Markowitsch. In 2017, Franziska worked as the choir conductor and assistant to the musical director, Cornelia von Kerrsenbrock, at the Opera Festival in Immling as well as serving as Choir Master of the “Swakopmunder Musikwoche” in Namibia.

In the season of 2018/19, she took on the position of Choral Conductor at Schauspiel Leipzig in a production of Faust I + II of the theatre’s artistic director, Enrico Lübbe, and composer Peer Baierlein.

More details: www.franziska-kuba.de