Founded by Hans Thamm in 1946, the Windsbacher Knabenchor is widely regarded as one of the leading vocal ensembles in the world. The ensemble’s unique sound quality, its choice of works in a cappella concerts and, above all, its affinity to the spiritual music of all eras have helped this choir gain an outstanding reputation as a distinguished representative of Protestant church music throughout the world over the past decades.

Among the high points in the history of the Windsbacher Knabenchor are extensive concert tours to South America in 1983, 1985 and 1992, and throughout most of Western Europe as well. The choir accompanied Richard von Weizs�cker, then President of the Federal Republic of Germany, on his state visits to Norway and Malta in 1986 and 1990. The choir also accepted invitations to the United States and gave concerts in Washington, Philadelphia and New York. It went to the opera festival in Savonlinna in Finland, and to what was then the Soviet Union, where it scored a tremendous success in its joint performance with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Leningrad (St Petersburg), Moscow and Vilna.

The Windsbacher Knabenchor realized its greatest media project to date in July 1991 by recording all six cantatas forming Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in the Heilsbronn Münster for television (German Television, ARD) and the radio (Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation), as well as for CD video and audio CD. The choir began its collaboration with the German Brass and EMI Classics in 1993 with the recording ‘Christmas in Europe’.

The Windsbacher Knabenchor has performed at noted festivals such as the Ansbacher Bachwoche, the Berliner Bachtage, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, and the Germany Festival of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

In 1993, during the Passion week and Easter, the Windsbacher Knabenchor performed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion for the first time in Israel with the Israel Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra. It drew raves from both the press and the public. The two ensembles concertized once again in February 1995, performing Bach’s B minor Mass in Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium, at Jerusalem’s Sherover Theater and at other venues in Israel. Over the past months, the choir has undertaken tours to Japan and South America, and visits to Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland are scheduled for the near future.

The outstanding quality and unique sound of the Windsbacher Knabenchor has been documented by numerous recordings featuring a great variety of works (EMI, Teldec, Hänssler), as well as by radio and television productions.