Chor St. Johannis

The 100-member choir is one of the leading choirs in Hamburg and has a broad repertoire, from the vocal music of the Renaissance to all major oratorio works from the Baroque and Romantic periods to contemporary music. The choir performs at four major concerts a year. In addition to the classics such as the Christmas Oratorio and the Passions of Bach, as well as the Requiem of Brahms, Fauré and Mozart and the oratorios of Mendelssohn included the performances of Frank Martin's "Golgotha", the premiere of the Christmas Oratorio of Telemann, Dvorak's "Stabat mater" and Duke Ellington's "Sacred Concert"to the highlights of the last years. 

Vokalwerk Hamburg

In addition to the great oratorio choir, the vocal work Hamburg 2018 was a small ensemble dedicated to the development and performance of predominantly sacred vocal music from the Renaissance to modern times. The special feature of this currently 16-member ensemble is the dual direction: the opera and concert singer Annika Mendrala (formerly Ritlewski) is responsible for the vocal training of the ensemble, while Christopher Bender is responsible for the overall artistic direction. His first highly acclaimed performance had the ensemble in front of about 500,000 spectators at a television service broadcast on the ARD on Easter Monday, April 2, 2018.

Marcussen/Mühleisen-Organ

Built in 1882 by Marcussen, 2015 completely refurbished and extended by Mühleisen (Leonberg). 53 stops, intoned to a late-romantic sound picture praised by the trade press, distributed over three manuals and pedal. With the innovative system "Sinua Castellan", a pioneering interface has been built in which allows an interaction between organ, electronic sound generators and computer programs. This organ is thus far more than an excellent instrument, it is an impressive playground for sound design and new ways to think and make music.

A unique symbiosis of tradition and innovation.

Haken Continuum Fingerboard

As a fourth manual integrated into the organ playing table, nevertheless a completely independent instrument. Its highly sensitive, completely flat keyboard surface allows a previously impossible espressive game from vibrato to glissando. Depending on the position and pressure of the fingers, the sound also changes and thus creates high liveliness and flexibility. The fingerboard has its own sound generator and software for sound development. Thus, this unique instrument is the unbeatable argument against the still prevalent stereotype that electronically produced music can only sound machine and cold ...

DAW Software

Programs like "Reason" are virtual recording studios with integrated sound generators such as synthesizers, samplers or drum computers, a variety of effects, mixer and sequencer, which has been developed for over 20 years now. The sounds designed in these softwares can be controlled live from the organ in multiple lanes and mixed with the audio interface (RME Fireface UFX) and high-quality speakers to the organ sound, in the sequencer you can record the play on the organ keyboard, rework, reprogram and send back to the organ. For movies Bender uses Cubase 10 with a big library containing f.e. the Orchestral Tools Berlin Series and Native Instruments Complete.