About us - The choir
The Neue Männerchor Berlin is a young and dynamic male choir. The ensemble was founded in 2019 and has since realised a number of exciting projects, including concerts, collaborations with renowned orchestras and radio play recordings for Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In May 2022, the Neue Männerchor Berlin made its debut in the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie as part of the Berlin Choir Association's Sunday concert series. Also in May 2022, the choir achieved an "outstanding success" at the Berlin Choral Meeting and was forwarded to the German Choir Competition in Hanover 2023 with 24.6 out of 25 points. There, the choir achieved a "very good success" and 4th place at the top of the German choral scene.
The Neue Männerchor Berlin is mainly made up of vocal students or former music students and is put together on a project-by-project basis. The choir's musical focus is on a cappella literature, but choral symphonic projects are also part of the musical programme.
The Neuer Männerchor Berlin is a partner ensemble of the Neuer Kammerchor Berlin.
About our conductor - Adrian Emans
Choral director and conductor Adrian Emans is the founder and musical director of the Neuer Kammerchor Berlin, the Charité Chor Berlin and the Neuer Männerchor Berlin.
Adrian Emans began his musical career with the classical guitar, for which he earned national and international recognition. He obtained a master's degree in music education at the Berlin University of the Arts and in mathematics education at the Free University Berlin.
Adrian Emans has taken master classes from Frieder Bernius, Simon Halsey, Stefan Parkman, Michael Gläser, Nicolas Fink und Frank Markowitsch and as a guest he has conducted choirs such as the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Vokalakademie Berlin and the Schleswig-Holstein-Festival-Chor as a guest.
From 2011 through 2013, Adrian Emans assumed responsibility for the organization and direction of the children’s choir of the Jugendkammerorchester Berlin, for the project “Ein Märchen vom Fluss”, a modern youth opera inspired by J.W. von Goethe. This project was awarded a prize at the competition “Children's Choir Olympics”.
In 2013, he founded the Charité Chor Berlin. At the 2016 German Choir Festival Competition in Stuttgart, he and the choir won the second prize “with high honors,” and at the 2017 Berlin Choir Meet they were awarded a commendation “with honors”; 2023 "with very high honors" (4th place). At the competition of the “35th International Choral Festival of Preveza” the choir was awarded with a gold and a silver medal in two categories.
From 2014 to 2015, Adrian Emans worked as assistant and accompanist at the Berliner Philharmonie. He accompanied the Berlin Philharmonic’s educational project “Vokalhelden” under the direction of Simon Halsey. From 2016 to 2018 he held a position at the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Berlin Mitte supporting the work of the school choir “PlanckTon”, a 2016/2017 protegé choir of the RIAS-Kammerchor.
In 2016, Adrian Emans founded the Neuer Kammerchor Berlin, made up of students from the Berlin University of the Arts. Under his leadership, the choir enjoyed international success by winning second prize at the competition “Praga Cantat”, where Adrian was additionally awarded a special jury prize for outstanding conducting. In 2018, the choir was also awarded with a silver diploma in the “Champions Competition“ at the international competition „World Choir Games“ in Tshwane, South Africa.
In November 2018 Adrian Emans conducted the German premiere of Zuzanna Koziej’s “Mass of Trust,” within the project “Zaufanie-Vertrauen.” In October 2019, he and the choir won the first prize in the categories “Musica Sacra” and “Cori dei Adulti,” as well as the entire competition in the “Grand Prix” finale. In addition, Adrian Emans received the special prize for “Best Conductor.”
In March 2020 (Covid-19), Adrian Emans and the Neuer Kammerchor Berlin scored a media hit with the "Märzlied" as one of the first German split-screen videos. At the German Choral Festival in Leipzig in May 2022, the Neuer Kammerchor Berlin won first prize in both the "Contemporary Choral Music" and "Romantic Secular" categories, as well as a special prize as a "Choir with outstanding Performance". In May 2022, the Neuer Kammerchor Berlin achieved an "outstanding success" with forwarding to the German Choir competition at the Berlin Choir Meet and also received a special prize for the best interpretation of a Polish piece. At the German Choir Competition, the choir achieved fourth prize "with very high honours".
From 2017 to 2019, Adrian Emans was assistant to the Children’s Choir of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden. In 2019, he founded the semi-professional Neuer Männerchor Berlin (men's choir), with which he received an award "with outstanding honors" at the Berlin Choir Meet in 2022 and "with very high honors" at the German Choir Competition in Hanover in 2023. Substitution work and assistance connect him with the Berlin Radio Choir and many choirs and orchestras in Berlin.
In addition to his ensemble conducting work, Adrian Emans is active as the chairman of the music committee of the Choral Association of Berlin.