Public Lecture of Kerstin Behnke: Contemporary Choral Concerts

In this public lecture, Kerstin Behnke will share some of the choral concert projects she has developed in Germany – from award-winning new music collaborations to (digital) community singing experiences. Drawing on these examples, together we will explore how concert formats can evolve to engage audiences in meaningful and participatory ways.
 
Rather than offering a fixed model, Kerstin shares these ideas as part of a larger conversation about what choral performance can be today – across cultures, communities, and creative practices. Learning from the vibrant choral scene in Jakarta, she looks forward to an open exchange of thoughts and perspectives.

Kerstin Behnke is a professor of choral and ensemble conducting at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar. Previously, she taught choral conducting for four years at the Lübeck University of Music. She completed her studies in orchestral conducting at the Berlin University of the Arts under Professor Mathias Husmann, after having first studied school music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in her hometown of Hamburg. Kerstin Behnke is the artistic director of the via-nova choir in Munich, with which she won one of two first prizes in the Mixed Choirs category at the 2018 German Choir Competition and was awarded the Bavarian State Prize for Music. As a guest conductor, she has worked with, among others, the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cottbus State Philharmonic, the choir and orchestra of the Almaty Philharmonic, and the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin. For over 15 years, she also led the Berliner Cappella, with which she regularly performed in Berlin’s major concert halls.