In the difficult choir years of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the Via Nova Choir Munich developed and implemented the idea for the Bavarian Composition Prize “Bayers put music to music via-nova”. “We wanted to make a statement,” says the artistic director Kerstin Behnke, strengthen the creative power. In three rounds so far, a total of eleven a cappella choral works have been commissioned and premiered. Now there is a jury that includes Behnke, among others Andreas Herrmannprofessor of choral conducting at the Munich University of Music and Johanna Sollerartistic director of the Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra, selected three people from more than 30 applications to receive a new commission: Narine Khachatryan from Munich, Matthias Schaff from Munich as well Lucia Birzerchoir director at the Theater Hof.
Poems by Louise Aston, Hedwig Lachmann, Jean Paul and Paul Heyse are available as the textual basis for the compositions – all verses that deal with the longing for space and distance. The new choral pieces, endowed with 800 euros each, are to be premiered during the Via Nova Choir’s concert tour to Hamburg as well as Lund and Malmö in Sweden this May. The Via Nova Choir, which is primarily dedicated to contemporary works, received the Bavarian State Prize for amateur musicians last year.