The SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart is one of Europe’s leading professional choirs and is internationally regarded as the benchmark for the performance of contemporary vocal music. With its distinctive sound, precise intonation and extraordinary stylistic range, the ensemble moves effortlessly between Renaissance polyphony, classical modernism and new works created especially for the group. Since its founding, the ensemble – now under the direction of Yuval Weinberg – has had a decisive influence on the development of choral music and inspires audiences and composers alike.
The SWR Vocal Ensemble will be a guest at the Salzburg Pocket Opera Festival for the first time in 2025 – an encounter that combines curiosity and a spirit of experimentation. In cooperation with Klang21, a space is created in which voice, movement and theatre merge in new ways. The singers of the ensemble encounter the performative spirit of the festival with their tonal precision and interpretative passion – a dialogue that transcends boundaries and opens up new perspectives on music theatre.
As part of this year’s festival theme, HUMAN MASS POWER, the collaboration addresses the question of how collective voices generate power – or can resist it. The vocal ensemble, itself a ‘mass’ of individual voices, thus becomes a symbol of social dynamics and harmony. In a joint project with the Taschenopernfestival, a musical and scenic space is created in which the relationship between the individual and the group, between sound and control, between freedom and form is intensively explored.
For the Salzburg audience, this collaboration promises to be a special experience: an evening that brings vocal art to life in a direct, sensual, physical and moving way. The SWR Vocal Ensemble stands for an art of listening that is not content with the familiar, but takes the audience on a journey into unheard soundscapes.
