Chor St. Bonifatius, Lingen (Choir)

Founded: 1867 - Lingen, Lower Saxony, Germany.

The Chor St. Bonifatius was founded in 1867 as Pfarr-Caecilienverein by the teacher Bäumer and was first consists of men's and boys' voices.

After several conductors, the choir was directed since 1905 by the teacher Heuking, then from 1923 the then state music director Franz Kayser. Under his leadership, the men and boys' choir became a mixed choir. In 1954, after the death of Franz Kayser, Church Music Director (KMD) Eberhard Bonitz took a church musician with an academic training the church musician job at St. Bonifatius, for the first time a church musician with an academic training. He held this post for 26 years until 1980, when after his sudden death, the organist Joachim Diedrichs, Regional Kantor, Church Music Director and choir director became his successor.

Under Joachim Diedrichs' leadership the choir has grown over the years to an impressive size of nearly 90 active singers. Not least, due to his tireless dedication the choir now enjoys a very high reputation in the region. In addition to his liturgical duties with the parish of St. Bonifatius, the choir gives almost every year - with the participation of professional soloists and guest musicians - a choral concert with orchestral-symphonic works. Works of great masters such as J.S. Bach, Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, George Frideric Handel, Orff and Johannes Brahms to contemporary composers have been thus performed; several of which are documented on CD's.

The high musical claim that Joachim Diedrichs presents to his choir pushes them again and again to higher peaks. The instrumental support to the concerts and liturgical events of the choir is given by the String Orchestra Concertino Lingen under the direction of Dirk Kummers. The Deputy Head of the Musikschule of the Emsland is musically perfect with Joachim Diedrichs. Concerts of this magnitude require in addition to the musical work a high level of organisational effort. Here, two names should be mentioned: Architect, music lover, musician, talent for organisation and patron Helge Kropik Bärbel with his wife in the background. There is nothing that they could not organise.

Source: Chor St. Bonifatius Website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (May 2009)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2009)

Joachim Diedrichs: Short Biography | Chor St. Bonifatius, Lingen | Recordings of Vocal Works

Links to other Sites

Chor St. Bonifatius (Official Website) [German]