Bachchor Mainz

The Bachchor Mainz, or Mainz Bach Choir is one of the strongest of Germany's numerous regional choirs, with a repertory that has spread beyond Bach and a reputation extending beyond Germany. It has had unusually stable leadership, with only two directors in more than 60 years of existence. The Bachchor Mainz was founded, with direct support from regional Protestant church bodies, in 1955 by its first director, Diethard Hellmann, who remained in his post for 30 years. His successor, Ralf Otto, has developed the choir artistically, emphasizing historical performance practices (it was a pioneer in this regard in the Rhineland region) as well as championing contemporary works. Its size is flexible, enabling the group to perform large Romantic choral repertory as well. Yet the group has not lost its focus on Baroque music. The choir maintains its own Bachorchester Mainz and has also collaborated with the Munich-based historical-performance group L'arpa Festante. Following the tercentenary of his birth in 2010, the choir has devoted performances and recordings to the music of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, bringing many of his works to light for the first time. The choir often performs later music with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, attracting international-caliber guest conductors including Riccardo Chailly, Eliahu Inbal, and Michael Gielen. The Bachchor Mainz has toured in France, Spain, Poland, Israel, and South America, where it won a Best Choir of the Year award in 2003 from Argentinian music critics. It is a frequent guest at festivals, including the Rheingau Music Festival and the Mosel Music Festival, performing the opening concert at the latter in 2013, 2015, and 2018. The choir has often performed new music, including, in 2018, the oratorio Im Spiegel der Angst by Gerhard Müller-Hornbach, marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation a year earlier. The Bachchor Mainz has recorded extensively, beginning with a 1988 album devoted to the choral music of Max Reger; in 2006 they recorded a new completion of Mozart's Requiem, K. 626, by American scholar Robert Levin. The choir signed with the Naxos label and released performances of Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245 and Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, in 2018.
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