Carus – Excellence in Vocal Music
Carus is your first port of call for vocal and choral music. Our publishing program of around 45,000 works reflects the development of choral music over five hundred years, from Gregorian chants right up to twenty-first century compositions. Carus publishes the most important oratorios, masses and cantatas in modern Urtext editions based on historically informed performance practices. Repertoire for children’s and youth choirs, musicals and operas, digital editions of sheet music, books, audio recordings and innovative practice apps complete our product range.
We are a trusted partner for choirs, orchestras and stage productions. Our extensive catalog inspires people around the world to make music together. Whether you’re presenting a choral symphonic work, shaping the music for a church service, or staging a performance of a children's musical or an opera, we provide support through our high-quality sheet music, additional resources and personalized advice and sales service.
Carus is a mid-sized, internationally active, family-owned company with a team of around fifty dedicated employees, based in the Stuttgart region of Germany.
Carus stands for quality, innovation, a user-centered perspective, and service – in short, Excellence in Vocal Music.
Publisher and Managing Partner Dr. Johannes Graulich on the Carus formula for success:
From the very beginnings of Carus, we sought to establish a dialog with choirs from all over the world and we tailored our program closely to the needs of performers. That has helped us to this day, because customer focus, quality and service are our key success factors. Inspiring people to sing and to make music – that’s our core aim, our mission. It fills me with pride to know that over the last fifty years Carus has become the publisher of choice for ambitious choirs.
Chief Editor Uwe Wolf on Carus-Urtext editions:
Our Urtext editions provide a reliable musical text. We work with internationally acclaimed scholars who prepare their editions according to current academic and musicological standards. Every editorial decision – from the choice of the principal source to each individual reading – is documented and discussed in the critical report. The forewords offer performers important information concerning the work and its genesis, and often include practical suggestions for performance.
Built on Experience. Designed for Performance – Performance Materials from Carus
In addition to our critically edited full scores for operas and choral works, Carus offers performance materials which have been developed specifically with practical use in mind:
- Vocal scores with easy-to-play, accessible piano arrangements based on the Urtext. Carus offers an unrivaled selection of over 750 such scores.
- Choral scores that make performing large-scale choral works cost-effective
- Orchestral parts with convenient page turns and useful cues
- Many major choral and orchestral works are also available with reduced instrumental accompaniment in the series Great Choral Works in Small Scorings or Choir & Organ.
- The SPLENDID SONORITY (KLANGSTARK) series features popular choral-symphonic works arranged for choirs with only a single male voice part.
- Practice apps: carus music, the Choir Coach for choir singers, and Conductor's Coach, the world’s first conducting app
Carus Sheet Music offers excellent readability due to clear layout and precise printing. We use high quality paper which does not crease. Turning pages does not cause any unwanted noise during concerts. The faint yellow color contributes to the pleasant ease of readability. A sturdy and practical binding guarantees a long life for the music.
Customer needs are our top priority. We offer extensive supplementary materials for our operas, including rehearsal scenario, production book, and a trilingual libretto; we can even accommodate individual customer requests during the production of our editions.
Managing Director Ester Petri on Carus’s standards:
Excellence in Vocal Music – For us, this means making use of our expertise alongside new digital possibilities. This commitment naturally applies to our opera program as well. That means that we’re able to provide the best possible service to choirs, choir directors, and opera productions around the world – from researching repertoire, through rehearsal preparations, right up to performances.
Choral Collections – appealing choral arrangements in handy collections
Marit Ketelsen, Sales & Marketing, on Carus's service philosophy:
Direct engagement with performers is particularly important to us. Our in-house customer service team offers personalized advice from research through to performance in both choral and operatic repertoire. We also frequently attend competitions, church music events and opera-related gatherings, so that we can connect directly with our customers. The regular Stuttgart Choral Workshops held at our headquarters are a valuable source of inspiration for choir directors.
Carus from 1972 to the present day
In 1972 choral director Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud Graulich founded Carus-Verlag and published Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in D RV 589 for choir and orchestra as their first edition – the first scholarly-critical music edition of this masterpiece. It remains a Carus bestseller today.
Just a year later in 1973 Carus released its first record. Since then the Carus label – like the publishing house as a whole – has stood for the highest standards and quality in the field of vocal music. A key foundation of this success is our close collaboration with many of the world’s best choirs, ensembles and choral conductors. Artists and ensembles such as Frieder Bernius with the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, Hans-Christoph Rademann with the Dresden Chamber Choir, and the Calmus Ensemble have all released recordings with Carus – first on vinyl, then on CD, and now via streaming and download.
carus music, the Choir Coach – the first practice app for choir singers, from Carus
Carus had a huge hit in 2015 with carus music, the Choir Coach, the innovative app for choral singers. The app is now used worldwide by choral singers to prepare for rehearsals and concerts.
Since 2024 Carus has also offered the ideal tools for all aspiring choral conductors. The combination of the choral conducting handbook Dirigieren – Proben – Singen, together with Conductor's Coach, the world's very first conducting app, allows every conductor – students, professionals, music educators and dedicated amateur choir directors – to develop their conducting techniques and rehearsal practice.
Social engagement and sustainability
As a company Carus strives to conserve resources and operate sustainably wherever possible. The publishing house works primarily with regional service providers. In cooperation with our regular printing company, we are able to offer our customers FSC-certified sheet music editions. Carus produces its own electricity for our in-house printing and all office workstations using a photovoltaic system.
Carus is a family business run by the Graulich publishing family. The business is committed to promoting music-making in our society, in particular, singing with children. Through its LIEDERPROJEKT Carus has launched a successful charitable initiative which has enabled many singing projects in Germany. The LIEDERPROJEKT offers an extensive, free song archive with PDF sheet music and all song lyrics, instrumental versions, and sung versions, as well as countless podcasts – just visit www.liederprojekt.org. Be inspired and sing along, whether by yourself, with your family or in a choir. It doesn’t matter how or where – singing is good for you!
Working at Carus
Interested in joining our team? As an innovative music publisher Carus offers a professional working environment with a wide range of engaging responsibilities. A commitment to quality and a desire to grow both professionally and personally – together with our customers – are what define Carus as a publisher. Click here for more information. Click here for more information.