Manchester and Chemnitz have been twinned since 1983. The University of Manchester Chamber Choir will be visiting Chemnitz and the region from 27 August to 3 September 2025 during the European Capital of Culture Year Chemnitz 2025 at the joint invitation of the St. Jakobi Kreuz parish and the Sächsische Mozart-Gesellschaft e.V. (Saxon Mozart Society). We would like to thank Sven Schulze, Lord Mayor of the City of Chemnitz, for taking on the patronage of this choral encounter.
The highlight of the visit will be the performance of the oratorio "The Dream of Gerontius" by Edward Elgar on Sunday, 31 August 2025 at 5.00 pm in the Kreuzkirche Chemnitz. In addition, the choir will perform in several concerts, visit a grammar school and several exhibitions in and around Chemnitz and thus get to know our region and its people in a variety of ways. At the end of November 2025, around 30 choir singers from the Kreuzkirche Chemnitz choir will travel to Manchester for a return visit and take part in a performance of Elgar's Gerontius.
The concert at NETZ-Werk Neukirchen will feature works by the "four great Bs" (William Byrd, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms and Benjamin Britten) as well as the motet "Refugium meum - Psalm 91" from the oratorio "A foreign field" by Torsten Rasch (*1965), a work commissioned by the city of Chemnitz for the Chemnitz Peace Day 2015. The concert will also include music by the composer Philipp Dulichius, who was born in Chemnitz in 1562.
Instrumentation:
The University of Manchester Chamber Choir
Tom Newall - artistic director
Alanis Dalledone, Emily Monk, Stella Vollum, Tom Newall - conductors
