Brahe Djäknar
Studentkören Brahe Djäknar is a Fenno-Swedish male voice student choir based in Turku, Finland. It was founded in 1937 and was led by John Rosas until 1955, when Gottfrid Gräsbeck took over. Gräsbeck led the choir for 35 years, and retired from his job as university teacher in musicology as well as his job as conductor at the end of the year 1990. Ulf Långbacka was appointed new conductor as well as teacher and has led the choir since 1991. From the autumn of 2000 to the spring of 2001, Heikki Seppänen led the choir as Långbacka was taking a year off. In 2010, Långbacka will write a new opera to be performed during Turku's European Capital of Culture year 2011, and the choir will be led by former vice-conductor Martin Segerstråle.
The choir is well-known for its every-year Christmas concerts around the first Sunday of Advent. The concerts are held in the Turku Cathedral together with the sister choir, Florakören, and the Åbo Akademi University symphony orchestra, Akademiska Orkestern. The choir also performs on April 30th every year to celebrate spring's coming. These concerts have been broadcast live on radio and TV for many years.
BD has toured foreign countries frequently, both on their own and together with Florakören. The last major trips have headed to the USA and Canada in 2005, Norway in 2006, Italy in 2007 to celebrate the choir's 70th anniversary, Poland in 2008 and also France and Spain in the spring of 2009.
In France, the choir set up a rehearsal camp and spent almost a week putting the finishing touch on their repertoire. The result was good, and in the Tampere Vocal Competitions held in June, the choir was one of only two male choirs to receive golden honours, when the choir was granted two gold stamps and 800€ worth of price money.
In the autumn of 2010, the choir will join forces with their sisters in Florakören when the two choirs visit Austria and Slovenia.
External links
| Previous conductors | ||
|---|---|---|
| Years | Name | |
| 1937 - 1955 | John Rosas | |
| 1955 - 1990 | Gottfrid Gräsbeck | |
| 1991 - 2000 | Ulf Långbacka | |
| 2000 - 2001 | Heikki Seppänen | |
| 2001 - 2009 | Ulf Långbacka | |