The "Synagogal-Choir" of Leipzig Leipziger Synagogalchor was founded in 1962 by the late Cantor Werner Sander, with the aim to preserve and cultivate the Jewish musical tradition. After Cantor Sander's death in 1972, KS Helmut Klotz took over the responsibility over the choir and has been its Music Director and Conductor ever since. The choir has 26 members who are not Professional singers, but who for the most part received Professional training. All of them are committed to the idea of reviving and disseminating Jewish music in Germany and elsewhere and they devote a large part of their free time to their choral work. The soloists are Professional singers from various opera houses in Leipzig, Berlin and Zurich. From its beginning, the choir has devoted all its work to the 19th - and 20th Century synagogue-music as well as toYiddishand Hebrewfolklore. Recentconcert programs also include music by Contemporary composers such as Joseph Dorfman, Bonia Shur and Siegfried Thiele. The choir's extensive repertoire of historical literature preserves a cultural heritage which is performed by no other European ensemble in this form. In its renditions of the old synagogue repertoire, the choir preserves the old Ashkenazi pronunciation of Hebrew as it was customary in German synagogues betöre the Holocaust. The choir is certainly a unique phenomenon in Europe, since none of its singers is Jewish. The choir is often called upon to present its music in Germany and abroad. It has been accompanied by excellent choral pianists and by excellent orchestras such as the members the Gwandhaus Orchestra, and the Radio Orchestra of Middle-Germany (MDR). It has appeared in prominent concert halls such as the Berlin Schauspielhaus, the Gasteig in Munich, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Alte-Oper in Frankfurt. It has been in concert tours to Israel, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Brazil, Slovakia, Poland and the U.S.A. In its hometown Leipzig the choir performs twice a year in the series “Leipziger Ware". For over 25 years it has taken Conductor: KS Helmut Klotz Soloists: Ulrike Helzel alto KS Helmut Klotz tenor Egbert Junghans baritone Clemens Posselt piano & organ part in the annual ecumenical Service in the Leipzig Church of St. Thomas in memory of the Jewish victims of the “Reichspogromnacht" of November 9, 1938. The Leipziger Synagogalchor has received the golden award Stern der Völkerfreundschaft and the Kunstpreis of the City of Leipzig. The choir is supported by the City of Leipzig and the State of Saxony.