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The German tenor, choral conductor and teacher, Ferdinand Koch, made a name for himself across Europe as an opera and concert singer during the 1950's. From 1958 he was a teacher at the Rüthen Gymnasium. In 1963 he founded the Kammerchor Rüthen.
In addition to his work at the Gymnasium, which was particularly reflected in the establishment of the school choir and orchestra as well as in the promotion of young talent, Ferdinand Koch also enriched the regional cultural life as head of the adult education orchestra and the male choir Cäcilia Geseke.
Under Ferdinand Koch the Kammerchor Rüthen developed a wide repertoire of sacred and secular choral music and performed many great works of musical literature, including J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) and Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) (1982), W.A. Mozart Requiem, C. Orff's Carmina Burana (1975), J. Haydn's Schöpfung (1976) and Jahreszeiten, and George Frideric Handel's Messiah (1971) and Judas Maccabäus. He led the Kammerchor Rüthen to many regional appearances, for which he could always hire well-known, but also local artists, and on international concert tours, among others, to Ljubliana, Vienna and England. |
