Night of the Choirs Hamburg

St. Petri's Main Church as a Sound Space

St. Petri's Main Church in Hamburg's Old Town is one of Hamburg's five Evangelical Lutheran main churches. Its Neo-Gothic structure from the 19th century replaced the predecessor destroyed in the Great Fire of 1842. With its 132-meter tower – one of the tallest church towers in Germany – and its resonant yet precise acoustics, it is an ideal concert venue for choral music. It is precisely this acoustics that makes the Night of the Choirs so appealing.

Nine Hours of Choral Music

The Night of the Choirs is designed as a marathon: over nine hours, various choirs from Hamburg and Northern Germany perform one after another in the church. The program does not follow a strict chronology but alternates between centuries, styles, and language areas: Gregorian chant and Hildegard von Bingen alongside Palestrina and Lasso, Bach motets next to Brahms song cycles, Mendelssohn psalms alongside Whitacre arrangements, gospel and spirituals next to Scandinavian choral modernism. The audience can freely come and go between concert blocks, curating their own listening experience.

A Hamburg Long Night Tradition

The Night of the Choirs is part of the Hamburg Long Nights series, which the state has cultivated as a specific format for decades: Long Night of Museums, Long Night of Consulates, Long Night of Industry, Hamburg Theatre Night, Night of Churches, HAM.LIT for Literature and Music. The Night of the Choirs occupies the vocal niche within this: a concert-focused, participatory opportunity to survey Hamburg's choral scene in a single evening.

A Vocal Highlight in the State of Hamburg

Hamburg's choral scene is exceptionally dense: the Hamburg Choir Association alone unites over 200 choirs. The Night of the Choirs makes this diversity visible and audible for one night. For tourists, it is a unique opportunity to experience the full spectrum of choral music in one of Hamburg's most beautiful main churches – without having to book a single concert evening.