Artistic Directors
Ludwig Böhme
Ludwig Böhme loves vocal music – as singer, conductor, lecturer and arranger.
Born in 1979 in Rodewisch/Vogtland, he was choir member in the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig from 1989 to 1998 and worked as assistant to the Thomas Cantor until 2002. He studied at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig. After graduating with honours he undertook a postgraduate study and concluded with a concert exam. His teachers were among others Georg Christoph Biller and Horst Neumann, courses with the King’s Singers, Ton Koopman, and Morten Schuldt-Jensen gave further impetus.Ludwig Böhme is co-founder and baritone of the Calmus Ensemble Leipzig, one of Germany’s leading vocal ensembles. Calmus sings approximately 70 concerts a year worldwide, publish their own music sheets, won many international competitions in the last ten years and in 2009 an ECHO Klassik.
Furthermore Ludwig Böhme is also active as a conductor. Since 2002 he has been conducting the Chamber Choir Josquin des Préz which won the 2nd Prize at the 8th German Choir Competition 2010 in Dortmund, special prize for the best competition programme and in 2011 the Supersonic Award from pizzicato music magazine for the CD “Missa Pange Lingua” featuring works by Josquin des Préz.Since 2004, Ludwig Böhme has realized as artistic director the concert series “Josquin – The Project “, that he initiated, the world’s first complete performance of the work of Josquin des Préz in Leipzig.Concerts have taken him to many major music festivals in Germany (Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, MDR Music Summer, Dresden Music Festival, Summer of culture Rhineland Palatinate, the Bach Festival Leipzig), to many countries in Europe, Chile, and the Untited States. CD, radio and television productions document these activities.
Ludwig Böhme gives classes for choirs and vocal ensembles, and teaches conducting at the Protestant College for Church Music in Halle an der Saale. He is also an arranger (Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award in 2004).
Since April 2012 he is the new artistic director of the Leipzig Synagogal Choir.
Kammersänger Helmut Klotz
Artistic Director from 1972 to 2012
Helmut Klotz was born in 1935 in Oederan. As a child, he learned violin, piano, and clarinet. From 1950 he studied cello, piano, and singing at the Dresden Music Academy and from 1954 to 1960 cello and voice at the University of Music in Dresden under Karl Grosch and Helga Fischer. 1958/59 Helmut Klotz was a cellist in the Dresden Staatskapelle.
In 1961 Helmut Klotz was engaged as a lyrical and character tenor at the Leipzig Opera. As a permanent member of the ensemble until 2000 and as a guest until 2003, he represented more than 110 roles in more than 2,750 performances in Leipzig and at national and international guest performances. In addition, extensive activities as concert singer, especially as the Evangelist in Bach’s oratorios in numerous performances with the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig and the Dresden Kreuz Choir. In 1985, Helmut Klotz was awarded the title of “Kammersänger”. Since 2000 he has been an honorary member of the Leipzig Opera.
From 1972 to 2012, Helmut Klotz was the artistic director and cantor of the Leipzig Synagogal Choir, which he has been associated with since 1969 as a tenor soloist. Under his leadership the choir has distinguished itself as an ensemble of international stature.
For his artistic and cultural-political work with the Leipzig Synagogal Choir, Helmut Klotz was awarded the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic (1981), the Honorary Medal of the City of Leipzig (1998), the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony (1998), and the Commander’s Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2005). Together with the Leipzig Synagogal Choir, he was awarded the Star of International Friendship in gold in 1988.
The entry in the Golden Book of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, the Jewish National Fund, in 2007, dignified his achievements in terms of international understanding. As part of the concert tour of the Leipzig Synagogal Choir to Poland in autumn 2011, Helmut Klotz was bestowed the Honoris Gratia Order of the City of Kraków for his commitment to German-Polish relations.
