Founded in 1992 by erstwhile members of St Thomas’s Boys Choir in Leipzig, amarcord has
since become one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. amarcord’s hallmarks include a unique
tone, breathtaking homogeneity, musical authenticity, and a good dose of charm and humour.
amarcord performs a vast and highly diverse repertoire of music, from medieval plainsong to
madrigals and Renaissance masses, to compositions and cycles of works of the European
Romantic period and the 20th century, arrangements of a cappella folksongs collected from all
over the world, all the way to soul and jazz charts.
Open to new currents in vocal music, the singers attach great importance to New Music. Works
dedicated to the ensemble include those by Bernd Franke, Steffen Schleiermacher, Ivan Moody,
James MacMillan, Sidney M. Boquiren, Siegfried Thiele and Dimitri Terzakis. Even though their
concert programming is strongly focused on a cappella works, amarcord also regularly performs
in concert with ensembles and artists such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Lautten
Compagney, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Leipzig String Quartet, concert pianist Ragna
Schirmer, the bandoneon virtuoso Per Arne Glorvigen and the violinist Daniel Hope.
amarcord has won prizes at many international competitions, such as Tolosa in Spain, Tampere
in Finland and Pohlheim in Germany, as well as the 1st Choir Olympiad in the Austrian city of
Linz. In 2002, the ensemble won the German Music Competition, having joined the ranks of the
BA KJK (the cream of young musicians singled out by the German Music Council for special
support) two years beforehand. In 2004, amarcord became the first group of singers to be
awarded the Ensemble Prize at the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Festival. Attending master
classes with the King’s Singers and the Hilliard Ensemble has given amarcord valuable stimulus
over the years.
Alongside the Gewandhaus Orchestra and St Thomas’s Boys Choir, amarcord is now one of the
leading representatives of Leipzig’s music scene in Germany and abroad. amarcord regularly
appears at important music festivals. Numerous concert tours have taken the singers to more
than 50 countries and nearly every corner of the globe. In cooperation with the Goethe Institute,
the ensemble has made guest appearances in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Near East, Russia,
and Central America.
Founded by amarcord in 1997 under the artistic direction of the group, the International Festival of
Vocal Music “a cappella” (www.a-cappella-festival.de) has established itself as one of the most
important festivals of its kind. Held in Leipzig in spring each year, premier vocal formations such
as The Real Group, The King’s Singers, Take 6 and the Hilliard Ensemble can be heard at the
festival.
Numerous CDs including prize-winning recordings bear impressive testimony to the highly varied
repertoire of amarcord. Latest released was the CD “tenebrae” with Sacred Medieval,
Renaissance and Contemporary Vocal Music - including Works by Machaut, Gesualdo, Byrd and
Boquiren. In 2016 the CD “SCHUBERT” together with pianist Eric Schneider (RK ap 10116) were
published. Their anthology of beautiful folk songs from around the world – “Folks & Tales” won the
Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award, or “a cappella Oscar,” which recognizes the best
recordings among a capella ensembles worldwide. Their recordings “Nun komm der Heiden
Heiland” (“Now Come, Saviour of the Gentiles“), “Incessament” and “Hear the Voice” have also
won the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award. In 2013, their “Zu S. Thomas” release of two
Gregorian Masses from the Thomas Gradual of St. Thomas’s Church Leipzig won the
International Classical Music Award (ICMA), the most prestigious classical music award in
Europe. Amarcord won a second ECHO Klassik Award in 2012 as Vocal Ensemble of the Year for
“Das Lieben bringt groß’ Freud!” on the MDG label. Their 2009 release “Rastlose Liebe”
(“Restless Love”) received the ECHO Klassik Award, the Luxembourgian Supersonic Award and
was nominated for the MIDEM Classical Award. In February 2010 amarcord featured in its first
orchestral recording: the reconstructed version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Mark Passion,
performed together with Dominique Horwitz and the Kölner Akademie. Together with the Cappella
Sagittariana Dresden, two CDs have been issued featuring the works of Heinrich Schütz and his
contemporaries. Their recording of the motets by J. S. Bach with Lautten Compagney Berlin was
released on the SONY/dhm label in 2012. The two ensembles joined forces again in 2014 for a
recording of Claudio Monteverdi’s monumental Vespers of the Blessed Virgin on the CARUS
label. In their first DVD production, “The Book of Madrigals” released with Accentus Music (a co-
production with ZDF and ARTE, the five singers perform works by the most important
Renaissance composers of vocal music at the beautiful patrician Villa Godi in Venice.
WOLFRAM LATTKE tenor
ROBERT POHLERS tenor
FRANK OZIMEK baritone
DANIEL KNAUFT bass
HOLGER KRAUSE bass
www.amarcord.de