The Ottawa Brahms Choir The Ottawa Brahms Choir was founded as the “Johannes Brahms Choir” in late 1980 by musical director Mr.
Dieter Kiesewalter.
Over the years since then, the choir’s repertoire has
consisted primarily of German-language choral works from the renaissance to the modern periods, including many by Hassler,
Schütz, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms and Mendelssohn.
The choir has usually
performed two major concerts a year and has been joined in concert performances by guest choirs from both the Ottawa area
and abroad and smaller vocal and instrumental groups and soloists.
In April 2005,
the year of the choir’s 25th anniversary, the choir performed the first of a series of three concerts with
the following groups: Carleton University’s Early Music Ensemble, the Croatian Folk Ensemble and the Alpentrio. Highlights
of the program were Telemann’s Schulmeister Kantate, with the choir’s conductor, Iain Phillips, as soloist,
and a premiere performance of two songs written and composed especially in recognition of the choir’s 25th anniversary
by Ottawa composer and musician Helmut Seemann.
After the untimely death of
Iain Phillips, Jiri Hlavecek became the new director. Under his direction the choir performed Ryba's Czech Christmas
Mass in December 2006.
Over the years the Ottawa Brahms Choir has evolved into a
community choir with a classical and contemporary repertoire, singing in German, English and French.
Currently directed by Kurt-Ala-Kantti and accompanied by Ioulia Blinova, the choir continues to offer audiences a wide range of choral music, from classical to contemporary, while maintaining their
roots in the German repertoire. In the spring of 2011 the closing event of
their 30th anniversary featured the Brahms German Requiem, Opus 40.
