In November last year, 140 musicology students from Aarhus University started struggling with the largest and most ambitious project in the history of their choir: The staging of Giuseppe Verdi´s Requiem. The performance, which took place in the main Hall at Aarhus University, was a great success. In fact, it was such a success that the sound file, which was uploaded to Youtube, reached the ears of the people at the concert agency Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY).

Shortly after, choirmaster Erling Kullberg received an invitation: As a token of how much DCINY appreciates the way in which the Danish choir dedicates itself to musical quality, DCINY would like for the choir to exchange the main hall at AU for Carnegie Hall at Manhattan, New York. It is a huge, international recognition, and we certainly have a large, unique and very demanding challenge ahead of us, says Erling Kullberg, choirmaster, and associate professor of musicology.

Musical and financial preparations

On May 25^th next year, the Danish choir will become part of an impressive international choir project, as choir singers from all over the world join in performing Verdi´s Requiem.  Apart from the concert itself, the choir has also been invited for a three-day workshop, aiming to prepare the singers for the huge common task ahead.  

For us, as choir singers, it will be an enormous experience, as well as a huge challenge, logistically as well as vocally. There is no doubt that this will provide us with a solid professional foundation, which, at several levels, will become useful to us in our studies. And furthermore, seeing New York in general, and Carnegie Hall in particular, is a huge experience in itself, says Sune Aaes-Jørgensen, who is one of the 140 members of the project Choir at Musicology.

`We have to finance the trip to New York ourselves, and that is certainly not cheap. Unfortunately, some choir members may not be able to afford it, Sune Aaes-Jørgensen says.

Apart from doing intense vocal training, the choir members are also busy applies for financial support from foundations and other sponsors, in order to make the trip affordable to as many choir members as possible.  

For any choir singer, this is a once in a lifetime experience. Not many people ever get to see Carnegie Hall from the inside. And let us not forget the intense professional experience that lies in meeting choir singers from so many different parts of the world, says Erling Kullberg.

Close your eyes and listen to the sound file which has caused Carnegie Hall to send an invitation to the musicology students from Aarhus! The Aarhus choir´s performance of Guiseppe Verdi´s Requiem.

For further information, please contact:

• Erling Kullberg, choirmaster, associate professor of musicology, dept. of Aesthetics and Communication, AU, phone: 51 24 46 34.
• Sune Aaes-Jørgensen, choir singer, student of musicology,  , dept. of Aesthetics and Communication, AU, phone: 28 90 33 86.