As Mayor Jung put it "The post of choirmaster at St. Thomas's Church is one of the most important musical positions in Leipzig and in the world of music as a whole." To maintain the musical quality of the Thomanerchor at its high level, the selection committee unanimously asked Mayor Jung to recommend that the meeting of councillors appoint Gotthold Schwarz to the office of choirmaster at St. Thomas's Church. "I am happy to accede to this request", Jung said. "We have, after all, been fortunate enough to gain Gotthold Schwarz, a highly respected, successful figure in the world of music who has proven his ability with the Thomanerchor in Leipzig and around the world on multiple occasions. I am grateful that Gotthold Schwarz is prepared to take on the office of choirmaster at St. Thomas's Church. It is a very good solution for Leipzig."
For this reason, Mayor Jung will be proposing that the city council appoint Gotthold Schwarz to the post. Gotthold Schwarz commented, "I am pleased that they have placed their trust in me and will put all my efforts into this task should the city council agree."
The procedure so far
The selection committee was commissioned by Mayor Burkhard Jung to search for a new choirmaster at St. Thomas's Church in April 2015. In July 2015 the committee invited four out of forty-two candidates to work with the Thomanerchor on a trial basis for one week. This took place with Markus Teutschbein in November 2015, with Clemens Flämig and KMD Prof. Dr h.c. Markus Johannes Langer in January 2016, and with Matthias Jung in April 2016.
After the four trial weeks were over, on 18 April 2016 the selection committee decided to invite two candidates who had been shortlisted, Markus Teutschbein and Clemens Flämig, to Leipzig again. The two candidates were asked to privately rehearse the same works by Johann Sebastian Bach with the Thomanerchor and the Gewandhaus orchestra in the presence of members of the selection committee, then to present themselves to the entire selection committee once again in an interview. These presentations took place this week in St. Thomas's Church, on the mornings of Tuesday, 17 May and today, Friday, 20 May.
During the meeting in the New City Hall which took place immediately afterwards, the results of the latest rehearsals and the two candidates' suitability were discussed, but no decision could be made on whom to propose.
About
Gotthold Schwarz, born in Zwickau in 1952, was himself briefly a member of the Thomanerchor in the 1960s. In the 1970s he was educated in the field of church music at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Dresden and the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre (HMT) in Leipzig. In Leipzig he also gained recognised qualifications in the fields of song (his major) and conducting. In 1979 he returned to the Thomanerchor as a vocal coach. From the 1990s on, Gotthold Schwarz already deputised for the choirmaster, and since choirmaster Georg Christoph Biller bowed out in February 2015 he has been the acting choirmaster at St. Thomas's Church.
Schwarz directed the Thomanerchor through performances of motets, cantata and oratorios, and took on the tasks involved in services at St. Thomas's Church and concert trips in Germany and abroad. Early on, as a singer, Gotthold Schwarz carried out a great deal of concert work at the important European music centres and, among other places, in Japan, Israel, Argentina and the USA, where he also gave courses on how to interpret Bach's works.As a singer of oratorios and Lieder, and as a conductor, he built up an extensive repertoire of works from the Baroque to the modern age, as also reflected in his many recordings.