Wuerzburg. The 36-year-old Konstanz Minster Music Director Alexander Rüth will succeed Professor Christian Schmid at the Würzburg Kiliansdom on September 1st.
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The Würzburg cathedral chapter decided in favor of Rüth and thus followed the vote of the appointment committee. bishop dr Franz Jung confirmed the decision of the cathedral chapter. “It is a stroke of luck for cathedral music that we were able to win an extraordinarily competent and highly motivated new cathedral conductor in Alexander Rüth, who is also a native of the Würzburg diocese,” said cathedral dean Dr. Jurgen Vorndran. Rüth succeeds Professor Christian Schmid (44), who has been Domkapellmeister in Würzburg since September 1, 2013 and will become full-time professor for choral conducting at the University of Church Music of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart in the winter semester 2022/23.
Rüth has been Music Director of the Minster in Constance (Archdiocese of Freiburg) since autumn 2021. There he is entrusted with the overall artistic responsibility for the minster music and all musical activities at the former cathedral church in Konstanz.
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This includes the direction of all choral formations at Konstanz Minster, including the Minster Singing School with children’s and youth choirs, the Minster Choir, the Schola Gregoriana and the Konstanz Vocal Ensemble.
Before that, Rüth was cathedral cantor in Würzburg for ten years. Here he led the girls’ choir at the Würzburg Cathedral. This is one of the oldest girls’ choirs in German cathedral churches and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021.
As cathedral cantor, he was also responsible for directing the women’s school “Vox anima”, supervising the cantor’s services at St. Kilian’s Cathedral and managing the choir class cooperation at the Würzburg Wirsberg-Gymnasium. In addition, Rüth was involved in the work with the cathedral choir, the Domsingknaben and the chamber choir at the Würzburg Cathedral.
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According to Domdean Vorndran, the Würzburg Cathedral Chapter had received numerous applications for the position of Domkapellmeister.
Three applicants were invited to a practical day and assessed by a jury. The appointment commission appointed by the cathedral chapter included cathedral dean Vorndran, cathedral canon Dr. Helmut Gabel, cathedral organist Professor Stefan Schmidt, diocesan music director Gregor Frede, the Fulda cathedral music director Franz-Peter Huber as an external advisor, liturgy consultant Dr. Stephan Steger, Dorothea Weitz, chairwoman of the employee representation (MAV), Anja Schuler from the human resources department, Nikolaus Peter Hasch from the cathedral music association, Katja Woitsch, singing teacher for the cathedral music, and Caroline Bauernfeind, administration manager for the cathedral music. In addition, representatives of the individual choir groups of the Würzburg Cathedral Music were included in the selection process.
Alexander Rüth was born in Woerth am Main in 1985. He studied conducting, church music and school music at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. In 2011 he was appointed cathedral cantor in Würzburg. During this time he expanded the girls’ choir into a highly qualified choir.
The outstanding projects under Rüth’s direction include intercontinental concert tours to Venezuela, the USA and Canada, various CD productions and large choral symphonic concert performances, also in combination with semi-staged elements and in educational formats for children and young people.
In 2016 he founded the Junge Domkantorei, which as a project-related young vocal ensemble dedicated itself to special concert formats for the Kiliani pilgrimage. Rüth has been teaching choral conducting at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim since 2017. From 2017 to 2021 he also had a teaching position for children’s choir conducting/choral pedagogy at the University of Music in Würzburg. pow
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