Chorify: This is what community sounds like!

Chorify performing at the Savoy Theatre on 11 October 2025 (Photo: Kevin Mifsud)

When 35 voices come together, the result is more than just music: it's community. Chorify from Düsseldorf is the best proof of this: a committed choir that impresses with its fresh sound and great team spirit. Last year, the choir won a rehearsal holiday at the NRW performance singing competition in the Nettetal-Hinsbeck Youth Hostel. The stay is now planned for next spring.

In the coming weeks and months, we will introduce you to Chorify here in the blog, on Facebook and Instagram and tell you when and where you can experience Chorify live.

From youth choir to modern ensemble

The roots of Chorify Having grown out of the Ratingen children's and youth choir, some members decided to form their own choir. In 2014, choirmaster David Blum joined the choir, who has shaped the choir musically ever since and writes many arrangements especially for the four-part ensemble.

What counts today Chorify around 35 members. The repertoire ranges from soulful pop ballads to rock and jazz to energetic a cappella pieces. „We are a colourful mix of people who have one thing in common: a love of singing,“ says Nadine Vostatek, who is part of the choir's PR team. „For us, it's not just the musical quality that counts, but also the togetherness.“

Music is created together

The choir decides which songs to include in the programme as a team. „It's organised in such a way that choir members can also make suggestions if they have ideas for something new,“ explains Nadine Vostatek. „We have a music council to which everyone can submit suggestions. The music council then discusses this with our choirmaster and together we decide whether a piece is suitable for us or not. So it's usually a joint decision.“

As choirmaster David Blum wrote some of the arrangements especially for Chorify the pieces are tailor-made for the typical SATB instrumentation - soprano, alto, tenor and bass. „Over the years, we have increasingly switched to singing only a cappella pieces, so that we now have virtually no arrangements with piano accompaniment in our programme,“ says Nadine Vostatek.

Why youth hostels are the perfect place to rehearse

After winning the rehearsal stay at the Nettetal-Hinsbeck youth hostel, the singers can now look forward to a weekend characterised by music, exchange and new impulses. However, this is not the choir's first time in a youth hostel - on the contrary: Chorify regularly uses music youth hostels for its rehearsal weekends. „They simply offer everything we need,“ says Nadine Vostatek. „There are large rooms, space to sing and laugh and at the same time places to retreat and take a deep breath.“

Good accessibility and sufficiently large rehearsal rooms are particularly important for the choir. „The youth hostels we've stayed in so far have always been ideal,“ says Nadine Vostatek. „And the atmosphere is just right: you really live together for a weekend, rehearse, eat, play and laugh together. This creates a community that you can't really experience in normal rehearsals.“

Rehearse, grow, perform

The rehearsal weekends are firm highlights of the choir's year. „After my first rehearsal weekend, I felt like I really belonged for the first time,“ remembers Nadine Vostatek, who has been with the choir for eight years now. Chorify sings. „This intense time simply welds us together.“

Musically is Chorify ambitious: In recent years there have been numerous double concerts with other ensembles from the region - including the Essences which are spread all over Germany, Right Here from Bonn or popCHORköln. „Some of these collaborations simply come about because people find us online and write to us, but some also come about through choir festivals or other events,“ says Nadine Vostatek. „At the choir festival in Leipzig, for example, we got to know Right Here and the Essences through our choirmaster, who is well connected in the choir scene.“

Another highlight was on the agenda last weekend: Chorify was invited to the Savoy Theatre in Düsseldorf to support the well-known a cappella band different perform. „The project is being organised by the Kulturbeutel e.V. association, which is looking for a choir that would like to take part in some of the cities where the band is playing,“ explains Nadine Vostatek. „On the day of the concert, we even get a workshop with the band - on topics such as stage presence. In the evening, we perform together on stage. That's something very special, of course.“

This is followed by further performances, including the Sing & Swing Festival in Dortmund, which will again be attended by new members. New members quickly become part of the community. „Anyone who can already sing a piece can join in straight away,“ says Nadine Vostatek. „That way, the choir continues to grow organically.“

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