The Universitätschor Dresden e.V. is one of the oldest cultural ensembles at TU Dresden. With over 100 active singers (as of 2024), it is one of the largest artistic groups. Founded with the reconstruction of the university after the Second World War, the choir has been shaping cultural life at the university and in the state capital of Dresden for 75 years with its varied program and has an impact far beyond its borders. As a member of the Association of German Concert Choirs, it contributes to the cultivation of valuable choral music of all eras, genres and styles in performances of a high artistic standard. In addition to the large symphony choir, the good musical background of many of the students singing in the choir allows the existence of a highly motivated chamber choir with around 40 singers, representing stylistic openness at a high musical level.
Conductor Christiane Büttig succeeded in further sharpening the choir's musical profile when she took over the ensemble in summer 2012. She founded the concert series "Regel|Freiheit", which skillfully brings classical and contemporary music into dialogue. For example, works by Cage, Hindemith, Krenek, Nystedt, Rautavaara, Stockhausen, Tormis and Vasks are performed alongside compositions by Bach, Brahms, Dowland, Mendelssohn, Reger and Schubert.
The large choir is primarily dedicated to works of choral symphonic music and cultivates a wide-ranging a cappella repertoire. The commissioned composition "Statements" by Alexander Keuk was a great success in 2015. In 2017, the choir performed the chamber opera "Katharina von Bora" together with the Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie. Great highlights in 2019 were the opulent Handel oratorio "Saul" in the Kreuzkirche together with the Batzdorfer Hofkapelle, the participation in the education choir project "Life" in the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as the performance of Hindemith's "Apparebit repentina dies" together with wind players from the Saxon State Orchestra. In 2020, the choir performed "Elijah" by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy together with members of the Sächsische Staatskapelle and renowned soloists. Cooperation projects with the Mozarteum took the choir to Salzburg in 2021 and 2023. Under the direction of Jörn Andresen, the choir performed Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's oratorio "Paulus" and Ralph Vaughan Williams' "A Sea Symphony" in Salzburg Cathedral together with the Mozarteum University Choir, the Mozarteum University Symphony Orchestra and soloists.
In addition to the major semester concerts, it is the numerous other projects in particular that make choral life so diverse. For example, the university choir took part in the 20th German Choir Festival in Lübeck, performed the participatory opera "Ludwig im Walde" together with Dresden schools and combines singing with vacation on the biennial "Choir Bike Tour", which took the choir on bike paths through Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lusatia and across central Germany.
Other concert tours have taken the choir to Copenhagen, St. Gallen, Wroclaw and numerous German cities.
The Dresden University Choir was awarded the Dresden Amateur Choir Award for the seventh time in 2023.