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 is a professor of choir conducting at Hochschule für Musik Detmold. She previously held a teaching position at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. She studied school music, history, choir conducting and singing in Leipzig and Weimar.

In 2018, she became the conductor of Vocalconsort Leipzig. In this role, she has enriched the repertoire of Vocalconsort with a number of ambitious programs and given concerts at home and abroad. Also in 2018, she founded “Neue Kammer”, a chamber ensemble specializing in performative concerts with contemporary and early music. With this ensemble, Franziska caters to her special interest in contemporary music and new concert formats. The ensemble was granted a scholarship by German Music Council within its Podium Gegenwart program.

As a freelance conductor, she has already performed at numerous major venues. These include Konzerthaus Berlin and Theater Heidelberg. Franziska Kuba has also conducted the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln as well as the Berlin Radio Choir. From 2025, Franziska Kuba will be choir director of the Bavarian Choir Academy. In 2022-2023 she was the interim director of the Thuringia State Youth Choir. She can also be seen in various productions at the Schauspiel Leipzig as a stage musician and choir director.

Franziska Kuba received a scholarship by Forum Dirigieren and was awarded the audience prize at the German Choral Conductors' Prize with the RIAS Chamber Choir in 2021.

More details: www.franziska-kuba.de