cathedral chorister - Domchorsängerin

So far I've only watched the performances of the Bremen Cathedral Choir cause I'm a new member. But tomorrow I'll sing along in the worship / service. We'll sing a cantata by Johann Seb. Bach. It's the first time that I have a performance in a cathedral with a choir, therefore I'm very curious about how the acoustic will be! Of course I'm very nervous cause it's my first performance with this choir! This evening we have our last rehearsal before appearance tomorrow at 9 o'clock (german time).

If you want to be a member in the Bremen Cathedral Choir one of the rules is, that you have to sing to the cantor who is the director of the cathedral's concert & radio choir.
After the audition, he decides if your voice is suitable for the Cathedral Choir & if you're able to attend in concerts & radio.
In the time before the audition you're on trial.

Well, I was late to my audition appointment cause I lost my sheets of the song that I had planned to sing in audition. I was looking desperately for the sheets at home, searched & searched & missed my train to the cathedral. I didn't found the sheets, also my audition started with an apology - very bad. Cause of missed sheets we had to take another song. Then I was too nervous to sing, was shaking all over & cause of that my voice was trembling - also bad.

But then the cantor did exercises with me, tried high notes with me & I could tell him the feedback of our voice trainer about my voice. Fortunately I attended my first voice trainings before the audition.
So, at the end he said I've 'passed' & can be a member of the Bremen Cathedral Choir!

The cathedral choir is supported by two voice trainers. Weekly, the choir members can go to them to individual / single lessons.

On 16th and 20th of June 2011 I had my first dates with a very nice female voice trainer there. She goes over different exercises with me, for example how can a tone be kept & how can you hit a note exactly. Also the posture & breathing technique when singing is very important. I learned that a special posture while singing can give a more free feeling to me.

Also it was the first time I got a feedback about my voice & singing achievement. Now I know that I am definitely right in the treble one section of the cathedral choir. The voice trainer told me that I have a 'smashing strong voice' & that I can hit 'astronomical ups' in the high notes.

With this guidance you - for the first time - discover for what you're vocally able to! This is a wonderful feeling!

Well, how I became a cathedral chorister?
It started with a moving to a new state, Lower Saxony near Bremen, Germany. I looked for tourist attractions in my new home to explore my new state. I found this wonderful building, the Bremen Cathedral. Belonging to the parish Saint Petri I found the website of the cathedral. Under the category 'church music' there was the cathedral choir and the affiliated cathedral singing school mentioned.
I contacted the cathedral cantor, he is the director of the cathedral choir. He asked me about my previous choir experience, my pitch of voice, my 'Know-how' about music theory and skills in reading music notation. I told him all and told him my age, too. In September 2010 i visited one of the performances of the cathedral choir and in October 2010 the choir director invited me to come to the rehearsal's. The particular point in time would be good cause the choir started to work on a new music piece at the moment, he said. At first I didn't dare to go to the rehearsal's. A cathedral choir is something other than a layman choir or a spare time choir. On the website of the Saint Petri parish I read that the cathedral choir sings in worship regularly, gives several big concerts in the year, appears on the radio, broadcasting and television. A cathedral chorister has many duties and have to invest much time to the choir.

The first rehearsal

On 11th May 2010 i finally had the heart to go to the rehearsal of the full cathedral choir. It's a big choir and I felt uncertain and was shy cause I knew no one there, wasn't sure where I have to sit and all. But the other choristers were very friendly, they helped me to find the right seat in my pitch of voice, liberally gave me all the sheet music which was practised at this rehearsal and they helped me when I didn't understand something. Also the cathedral cantor, Tobias Gravenhorst, was friendly when I enrolled myself with the words: 'Hello, today Iam here to get a taste.' ( = taste trial, testing something, like a rehearsal of the rehearsal). The choir rehearses in the choir hall of the cathedral, a grand piano is in it, a podium platform for the choir director, many hard wooden chairs and from the wall, amongst others, looks composer Johann Sebastian Bach to you. When I sat there on one of this wooden chairs which grieves my bottom and I sang the stuff which I could read out of the sheet music, I already felt like a part of this whole big thing, this choir. Three times I was moved to tears cause the sound of the choir was so great and awesome. In the sheet music was a song that I know from St. Thomas Boys Choir (Lipsk, Leipzig, Germany) and that I like very much. I decided to go again to the rehearsal next week.



picture: Bremen cathedral and town hall