How Covid makes choral music lose its beat in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
First results of the ChoCo study published
Declining membership numbers, financial worries and not enough young talent: Only one year into the pandemic it has become apparent that the choir scene in the German-speaking world has suffered considerable damage as a result of the restrictions that come with the covid pandemic. In addition, choirs fear their membership numbers will continue to crumble in the time after the crisis.
This is the conclusion of a study co-initiated by Carus and conducted by Prof. Dr. Kathrin Schlemmer, professor for musicology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Within a short period of time, more than 4300 choirs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have participated in the online survey.
Co-authors of the survey are church music director Tobias Brommann (cathedral cantor at Berlin Cathedral), Prof. Jan Schumacher (university music director, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main), and Ester Petri and Dr. Johannes Graulich, who head Carus-Verlag in Stuttgart, the leading publishing house in the field of choral music. The team of researchers has released some first results of the online survey on choirs in the current issue of the “neue musikzeitung” (nmz).
The study is published here: www.nmz.de/choco
English translation of the press release