History
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism State Polyphonic Choir, established in 1988, has been one of Turkey's leading professional ensembles. Founded through the efforts of Hikmet Şimşek, the State Polyphonic Choir has collaborated with prominent conductors such as Walter Strauss, Ahter Destan, İbrahim Yazıcı, and Cemi'i Can Deliorman, and has performed concerts with many esteemed orchestral conductors. Since 2017, the choir has continued its work under the direction of Burak Onur Erdem. The State Polyphonic Choir, which held its first concert in 1989 under the direction of Ahmed Adnan Saygun, has given over a thousand concerts in many cities across Turkey and has received acclaim in various countries abroad, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Israel, Bulgaria, and South Korea. Among its notable performances are the world premiere of Harbison's work dedicated to Pope John Paul II in Vatican, Mahler's 2nd Symphony in Berlin, Britten's War Requiem, and Verdi's Requiem.In 2010, the State Polyphonic Choir was awarded the "Choir of the Year" prize within the scope of the Donizetti Awards. Over the years, the choir has contributed to a wide range of albums, including Orff's Carmina Burana, Mozart's Requiem, Saygun's Yunus Emre Oratorio, Say's Nazım Oratorio, and Sun's Kurtuluş Film Music, all of which form the core of its repertoire. The choir has also released two albums featuring folk songs by Saygun and Sun.The State Polyphonic Choir has made a significant contribution to carrying Turkish culture to various parts of the world by commissioning compositions from internationally recognized composers like Eurico Carrapatoso, Giovanni Bonato, and Henning Sommerro, who set the works of Turkish poets to music. Since 2016, the choir has been organizing the Walter Strauss Choral Conducting Masterclass, inviting distinguished international figures such as Paulo Lourenço, Lorenzo Donati, Ragnar Rasmussen, Josep Vila i Casanas, and Jan Schumacher, which has attracted conductors and conductor candidates from all over Turkey and abroad.
With Respect to Walter Strauss
Walter Strauss was born on July 28, 1928, in the city of Magdeburg, Germany. He grew up in Schönebeck during the political conflicts between the Communists and the Nazis in the 1930s. He began studying piano with his schoolteacher, Erich Reise. At the age of twelve, he passed elimination exams among over 10,000 children receiving music education throughout the country and was admitted to the Musisches Gymnasium, where he would receive special education. This school provided comprehensive music education, including mandatory vocal training. Kurt Thomas, who taught choral and vocal classes in the style of Hugo Distler, was the Music Director of the school. Wolfgang Brugger was his piano teacher, and Fritz Kauschke taught harmony. Later, he also took choir conducting lessons from Kurt Thomas.
During the war years, the school was relocated to a village named Untermarchtal in southern Germany. When the village fell into the hands of the French, the school was closed on the grounds that it was a Nazi institution. The students were dispersed, and Walter and a few of his friends worked on farms they reached by walking for days, often hungry and penniless. After a while, he secretly returned to Schönebeck, which was under Russian occupation. There, he received organ lessons from Gerhard Bremsteller, the former organist of Magdeburg Church, on the condition that he sang in the choir. He also began taking piano lessons from Erich Böhlke, the General Music Director of Magdeburg Opera, who had previously served as the General Music Director of the Berlin Opera. He eventually started studying composition, counterpoint, and orchestra conducting with Böhlke as well. Meanwhile, he founded and conducted a large a cappella men's choir.
When Böhlke fled to the West, he became the General Music Director of Oldenburg Opera and offered Walter Strauss a job as a répétiteur. Due to his father's insistence on completing his music education, he enrolled in the Detmold Conservatory in the West, where he reunited with his former choir teacher Kurt Thomas. Hugo Balzer taught orchestration, and Werner Haas was his piano teacher. He completed the orchestra conducting program at this school by skipping some grades. Because of the crisis, many professors, artists, and répétiteurs were laid off, and opera performances were halted. Finally, he reached Oldenburg Opera, where he started working as a répétiteur for more than eight hours a day without pay.
In addition to all this work, he played entertainment music at night to earn money. After working under these conditions for a year, he had the opportunity to conduct the opera "Tiefland" when the conductor suddenly fell ill one night. Later, he arranged for Hanna Heinzsch, whom he would marry in 1957, to audition for the chorus at Oldenburg Opera. Young Hanna then went on to become a soloist at Hamburg Opera. Walter Strauss left Oldenburg after working there for ten years and took a better position at Osnabrück Opera, where he had the opportunity to conduct many operas. He later moved to Hagen due to differences with the director but did not find enough opportunities to conduct there. He encountered his old friend, baritone Eduard Heindrichs, who was working at Ankara State Conservatory. Heindrichs invited Walter to come to Ankara for a short period. When Saadet İkesus Altan also made the same offer after coming to Germany, he decided to come to Ankara. The information he obtained through his research on the capital of Atatürk's Turkey had excited Strauss. He started working at Ankara Opera in December 1964. He also worked as a répétiteur and choir teacher at the conservatory. Afterward, he began teaching stage and diction lessons. During this time, his wife Hanna and their son Ludwig came to Ankara in 1967.
He gave Music History lessons at TRT Polyphonic Choir, which was established in 1970, and started working as a producer at the radio. In 1974, he was appointed as the conductor of TRT Polyphonic Choir. He achieved successful tape recordings, concerts, domestic and international tours with this choir. Necdet Aydın offered him the position of Music Director at the newly established Izmir Opera. Due to his wife's illness and the German government's insurance policy, he accepted this position and started in 1982. Here, he took on the roles of répétiteur, choir conductor, and opera conductor, leading a busy working life. He lost his wife after some time, and the pain of Hanna's absence brought him back to the intense working pace at the opera. In Izmir, he married Irmtraud for the second time. In 1988, a polyphonic choir was established under the Ministry of Culture in Ankara. Hikmet Şimşek, who played a significant role in its establishment, recommended Walter Strauss as the conductor. Strauss accepted the offer and became the conductor of the Ministry of Culture State Polyphonic Choir in 1989. With this choir, he participated in numerous successful radio and television programs, concerts, and domestic tours. He returned to his homeland, spending the rest of his life in the land where he was born and raised.
He visited Turkey a few times through the organization of TRT and the Ministry of Culture's polyphonic choirs, performing concerts and making tape recordings with these choirs. On January 11, 2013, in Germany, he passed away in a traffic accident along with his wife Irmtraud.