The Audi Jugendchorakademie (Audi Youth Choir Academy) was founded in 2007 by AUDI AG to offer enthusiastic young singers the opportunity to sing in a choir at a high artistic level. Since the end of December 2016, the non-profit association Jugendchorakademie e. V. has been the organiser of the Audi Jugendchorakademie project.

The choir made its debut as early as July 2008 with Joseph Haydn’s The Creation as part of the Audi Summer Concerts and has performed annually in Ingolstadt ever since. Under the artistic direction of Martin Steidler, Professor of Choral Conducting at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts, the Audi Jugendchorakademie has quickly made a name for itself in the field of youth choirs and collaborates with renowned artists on an international level.

On the occasion of a performance in 2019 with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, featuring Handel’s Messiah and C. P. E. Bach’s Magnificat, the press praised the choir for its »absolute precision of articulation« and »immense perfection of intonation, an enthusiastic and fiery freshness, a seemingly effortless lightness of phrasing, and an enormous dynamic finesse« (Donaukurier).

In the past two years alone, the singers have shared the stage with, amongst others, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Prégardien, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, François-Xavier Roth’s period instrument orchestra Les Siécles, and numerous renowned soloists such as Sophie Harmsen, Okka von der Damerau and Benedikt Kristjánsson.

The choir’s first international performance for Pope Benedict XVI in Rome in 2011 was followed by a tour of Asia to Singapore and Taiwan, and a highly successful tour of Italy to Emilia Romagna and the Ravello Festival in 2013. At the invitation of Kent Nagano, the Audi Youth Choir Academy performed with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra in Montréal in 2017. In spring 2019, the singers performed at Musiikkitalo Helsinki alongside the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Aapo Häkkinen.

In 2012, the choir recorded its first a cappella CD featuring Romantic choral music, released by Farao Classics. In 2015, the ensemble’s third CD was released, featuring works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Stravinsky. Under the theme »Time and Eternity«, the choir recorded a CD in 2017 featuring a programme of contemporary works, together with the exceptional percussionist Simone Rubino.

The Audi Youth Choir Academy offers around 80 singers aged between 16 and 27 not only choral work but also intensive one-to-one tuition and voice training. During rehearsal periods, the young people are prepared for their respective concerts under professional guidance. Those interested in joining the choir can qualify annually by attending an audition, which takes place at various locations across Germany. Currently, the choir’s members come from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland.