Choral Director: Kay Johannsen

Since 1994 Kay Johannsen works as cantor and organist at the Monastery´s Church Stuttgart and is known as the art director of the „Hour of Church Music“. As organist he won several awards at national and international competitions, however the most important step for his career was the first prize at the German Music Competition in Bonn in 1988.

As a soloist for concerts and organ´s symphonies of Haendel, C.P.E. Bach, Bossi, Strauss, Rheinberger, Saint-Saëns, Dupré, Poulenc, Scriabin, Janáček, Förtig, Katzer, von Bose and Rihm, Kay Johannsen played a lot of national and international concerts with many symphonic orchestras. His extraordinary talent as basso continuo player was the reason for cooperations with the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Trevor Pinnock and the Berlin baroque soloists.

His reputation as an extraordinary interpreter of Bach has its origin in 1997, when he played the entire organ compisitions in the monastery’s church of Stuttgart. In 2007 Johannsen performed 15 concerts at the new Mühleisen organ in Stuttgart, starting from March 21st, Bach’s birhtday, till July 28th, Bach’s day of death.

Johannsen’s musical career began quite early: When he was 15 years old, he founded his first choir. He was mostly influenced by the Bach Choir of Freiburg under the musical direction of Hans Michael Beuerle. His work with the Stuttgarter Kantorei, the solistenensemble stimmkunst and the ensemble 94 is very diversified and well known across the borders of Stuttgart. In 2006 the Kantorei won a first prize during the German Choral Competition in Kiel under his direction.