Neuss Chamber Orchestra Concert

On Saturday, May 18, at 5:00 pm, the Neuss Chamber Orchestra from Neuss, Germany, presents a concert at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Hills. The concert features symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, Gerald Finzi’s “Romance,” and organist James Biery playing a concerto by C.P.E. Bach. There is no admission charge for the concert.

The Neuss Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1957 by Wilhelm Schepping to encourage and support talented local musicians. The ensemble pursues this aim by participating in the Young Neuss Artists Concert Series. Since its inception, more than 240 soloists have been presented to the public. In 1999 Joachim Neugart, choirmaster and organist of Quirinusmünster Neuss, became conductor of the orchestra. Since then, he has directed the orchestra in various large oratorio performances as well as in several CD recordings, including the first performance of an award-winning composition on the “Stations of the Cross” by Thomas Daniel Schlee. In October 1992 the orchestra went on its first tour to the US, giving concerts in St. Paul and New Ulm (Minnesota). This was followed by a successful tour to Japan in the autumn of 2005 and further tours to the US in 2007 and 2010. In 2013 the orchestra travelled to Australia and New Zealand, 2005 and 2017 to Japan.

The orchestra’s director, Joachim Neugart, was appointed Director of Music and organist at the Quirinusmünster in Neuss in 1988. He studied church music at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken, and was an award winner at music competitions in Bruges and Munich. Since 1999 he has been conductor of the Neuss Chamber Orchestra and since 2002 conductor of the Schönhausen Choir Krefeld. In addition, he worked for many years as a professor of choral conducting at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf. The cities of Neuss and St. Paul, Minnesota, have a sister city relationship. It was this connection that led to the friendship between Herr Neugart and James Biery, who served as music director at the Cathedral of St. Paul before becoming minister of music at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church.

The Basilica of St. Quirinus in the city of Neuss, Germany (across the Rhine River from Düsseldorf) was built in the 13th century and is considered one of the finest examples of Romanesque church architecture in all of Germany. The church is dedicated to St. Quirinus of Neuss, a third-century Roman martyr whose relics were moved to Neuss in the year 1050.