PopCHORn - about us

Welcome to the website of the choir PopCHORn Dachau
which is a Rock-, Pop-, Musical- Choir of about 30 singers, male and female, between 20 and 200 years.


PopCHORN in 2016

Founding

PopCHORn Dachau looks backward to a long history. Founded in 1910 as the Arbeiter Gesangverein Dachau (which means Dachau Workers‘ Singing Association) it first was a men’s choir. In1922 the choir was opened for women, and from then on formed a mixed choir. In 1931 the choir was renamed Volkschor Dachau, i.e. Folk Choir of Dachau. In the mid-1930s, the choir was banned by the Nazi regime, but in 1945 the former members rejoined, and Volkschor Dachau was newly founded.

The coir experienced a boom in the 1950s: Lots of members presented lots of gorgeous concerts and the choir was an important player in Dachau’s cultural life. In the 1960s and 70s, under the direction of the composer and choirmaster Peter August WALDENMAIER, the focus of the musical work was transferred from folk and local songs to the great classical works, such as the performances of "Die Schöpfung" by Joseph Haydn, the “Requiem” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or “The Fairy Queen” by Henry Purcell.

The latest past

In the 1990s and 2000s, director Jürgen ROTHAUG more and more extended the choir’s repertoire to operetta melodies, musical hits, and pop songs. Thus, the basis was set for the current wide range of the choir’s musical orientation. Over the last years our current conductor Michael Clemens FREY even more focused on modern popular music from the 1920s up to today, including German and international classics, evergreens and hits, musical and film melodies, pop and rock songs.

Presence and future

So, during the last 100 years VolksChor Dachau developed to a choir for Rock, Pop, Swing and Anything but no more a folk choir. This is why, in 2014, we renamed the choir again: to PopCHORn Dachau. This, in German language, is a gentle play on words, which flips from a pop choir (which in German would be written as only one word: Popchor) to popcorn which relates to cinema entertainment in the 20th and 21st century. And this, in fact, is what we do: we entertain our audience in bright, funny, amusing shows but no more in conventional concerts …

In our latest production in April 2016 we played a 1970s TV disco show. We had a professional show host who interviewed the stars on stage such as Cher, Baccara, Chris Norman & Suzi Quatro, Olivia Newton-John and many more. And they sang their greatest hits: The shoop shoop song, I can boogeie, Stumblin' In, Xanadou and others. The choir performed further 70s and 80s top hits, such as Dancing Queen (ABBA), Girls, Girls, Girls (Sailor) Top of the World (Carpenters) etc. In addition to the music we presented a perfect 70s/80s look on stage: everybody was dressed in colourful shirts and flare-leg trousers and oversize blazers with shoulder pads and carrot leg trousers – you know: this kind of things …