Forum Thomanum

It was conceived in 2002 by Georg Christoph Biller, then Thomaskantor, and others, to provide an internationally oriented innovative campus for a future of the traditional choir which was defined until then by Thomaskirche and Thomasschule.

The campus was inaugurated in 2012, where up to 1,200 boys and young men are given cultural education based on a religious foundation, social competence and democratic standing.

[1][2] In 2002, Georg Christoph Biller, then Thomaskantor, and others conceived the plan to broaden the education of the Thomanerchor which was founded in 1212 and conducted by Johann Sebastian Bach from 1723.

Besides Biller, Stefan Altner,[4] Roland Weise and Christian Wolff [de][5] were instrumental in planning Forum Thomanum as a campus for music education (musischer Bildungscampus), an internationally oriented institution[3][6][7] to care for the future of the traditional choir investing in education.

[11] Up to 1,200 boys and young men are taught with the goal to raise culturally educated young people with a religious foundation, social competence and democratic standing ("mehr kulturell gebildete, religiös gebundene, sozial kompetente, demokratisch gesinnte Menschen") for a better society.

Biller (right) as conductor of the Thomanerchor with Robert Schneider at a reading at the Thomaskirche in 2008