Collegium Musicum '23
Biography Collegium Musicum '23
Collegium Musicum '23
is a new ensemble for Early Music in Leipzig, Germany.
Founded jointly by baroque violinist Nadja Zwiener and St. Thomas organist Johannes Lang, Collegium Musicum '23 draws its inspiration from the main place of activity of Johann Sebastian Bach, who took up the post of St. Thomas cantor there in 1723. The violin that Nadja Zwiener normally plays for this repertoire (David Tecchler, Rome) also dates from this year, and the tercentenary of the double jubilee served as the founding impetus for special ensemble and concert projects in the Bach city of Leipzig.
The musicians who live there form the core of the ensemble and are often joined by a few guests from the international music scene, in keeping with the cosmopolitan spirit of the trade fair city, which has been open to the world for centuries. The ensemble, whose repertoire ranges from the smallest chamber music to large baroque orchestral works, remains open to inspiration from a wide variety of directions: collaborating with various choirs and vocal ensembles, with artists from other disciplines such as dance, performance, literature or visual arts and also musicians from other genres.
However, the focus of the work is Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, the place where Bach worked for 27 years. The ensemble regularly performs on Johann Christian Hoffmann's string instruments, which were commissioned under Bach's cantorship and have been in the possession of St. Thomas Church since that time. Whenever possible, historical church organs are included in the orchestral and ensemble sound as obbligato or continuo instruments. A first result of this concept can be heard on the CD "1723" by Nadja Zwiener and Johannes Lang, released in 2023 on the Ramée label, which was recorded in the Kreuzkirche Störmthal with the organ by Zacharias Hildebrandt.
To mark the 300th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's dedication of the organ there, the ensemble performed the cantata "Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest", BWV 194, written for the occasion, together with renowned soloists. In the first year after its foundation, the ensemble also performed in 14 cantata services as part of the large-scale Bach300 project in St. Thomas Church, which performed Bach's cantatas from the first Leipzig year on the corresponding Sunday 300 years later in a liturgical setting. In March 2024, the ensemble performed the annual Bach birthday concert in St. Thomas Church together with countertenor Iestyn Davies.
Collegium Musicum '23 cooperates with the Leipzig City History Museum and the Leipzig Bach Archive and regularly performs in the summer hall of the Bach Museum, in St. Thomas Church Leipzig and in the ballroom of Leipzig's Old Town Hall. Since 2025, the ensemble has been organizing its own annual concert series for early music at the same venues.
he Freundeskreis Collegium Musicum '23 actively supports us, thus promoting Bach's music, as well as that of his milieu, and helping to carry it from Leipzig into the world.
