About
The Hamburger Alsterspatzen are the children's choir at the Hamburg State Opera.
Story
In 1975 Jürgen Luhn founded the choir in Hamburg under the name Norddeutscher Kinderchor Hamburg. Luhn was the second choir director at the Hamburg State Opera when it was founded. After the first record for Ariola, he renamed the choir to Hamburger Alsterspatzen in 1981. At the beginning of the 1990s the Alsterspatzen won four international music competitions in a row, and television appearances also increased their popularity. The choir has released more than a hundred records to date. International tours were carried out regularly until 2004.
The choir takes part in opera performances with children's parts, but was not organizationally part of the Hamburg State Opera before 2019, but was privately organized by Jürgen Luhn. At the beginning of the 2019/20 season, the choir was transferred to the opera house as the children's and youth choir of the Hamburg State Opera. Luiz de Godoy took over the management.
Participation and repertoire
Girls and boys are accepted into the choir from the age of 7. Children with singing potential who the choirmaster does not allow for the main choir after the audition can continue to prepare in the prechoir.
At the Hamburg State Opera, the choir sang the children's parts of opera works such as Hansel and Gretel, Rosenkavalier, Pagliacci, Turandot, The Cunning Little Fox and Le Grand Macabre, recently Dead City, plus standards like the children at the Christmas market in the second picture of La Bohème or the street boys in Carmen.