50 Years of Carus–500 Years of Choral Music: Carus-Verlag Celebrates Landmark Anniversary; January 13, 2022—Carus-Verlag will be 50 years old! In 1972 choral director Günter Graulich and his wife Waltraud Graulich founded Carus-Verlag and published Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria in D RV 589 for choir and orchestra as their first edition – the first scholarly-critical music edition of this masterpiece. Today the catalog of this medium-sized publisher contains around 45,000 works – largely vocal – from five centuries of the European choral tradition, and in addition, books, CDs, and apps. The edition of the Gloria has remained a bestseller in the Carus program.
The anniversary will be celebrated throughout 2022 in a range of different ways. High points will be the gala concert on 3 June in Stuttgart with the Kammerchor Stuttgart conducted by Frieder Bernius, and a workshop week for choral directors in the autumn. Besides that, commissioned works by John Høybye (Denmark) and Martín Palmeri (Argentina) will be premiered in the anniversary year.
Publisher and Managing Shareholder Dr. Johannes Graulich on the Carus formula for success: “Right from the beginnings of Carus, we have sought to establish a dialog with choral conductors from all over the world and have oriented our program closely to the needs of choirs. This is now to our advantage, for closeness to customers, quality, and service are key success factors. Getting people to sing, making singing in every form easier and improving it – that is at the heart of what Carus does, it’s our mission. The fact that Carus has been able to become the publisher of choice for ambitious choirs over the last 50 years fills me with pride.”
About Carus
Carus-Verlag Stuttgart is the top address for vocal and choral music. Over the last 50 years Carus has built up a catalog of sheet music which is unique world-wide. The program of around 45,000 works, mainly vocal, reflects the development of five centuries of choral music, ranging from Gregorian chant, madrigals and motets of the Renaissance, to contemporary choral music, and works for jazz and pop choir. The most important oratorios, Masses and cantatas in the history of music are available in modern Urtext editions, oriented toward historically informed performance practice.
Most of the vocal works of Bach, the Latin church music of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert, the choral-orchestral works of Beethoven, and the choral music of Monteverdi, Buxtehude, Mendelssohn, Telemann, Handel, Vivaldi, Rossini, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Brahms, and Bruckner are available from Carus. Through its highly acclaimed editions and recordings, the company has spear-headed the long-overdue rediscovery of choral music works by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Gottfried August Homilius, Jan Dismas Zelenka, and Louis Spohr.
Since its founding in 1972, Carus editions have set high standards for practical music-making. Carus always offers full scores and performance material for all works. The Carus range is unrivaled, with more than 750 vocal scores for sacred and secular choral works with orchestra. As well as Urtext editions, the Carus choral collections have also been extremely successful. This series opens up the world of choral music thematically in a superb way, and has proved itself as a basic repertoire resource for church choirs of both major confessions and for chamber choirs. With the “chorissimo!” series, Carus’ music education publications encompass vocal work from kindergarten to secondary school.
Carus also produces selected works from its catalog on its own recording label. Leading artists including Frieder Bernius, Hans-Christoph Rademann, and the Calmus Ensemble record on the Carus label. And Carus keeps abreast of current developments. The company had a huge success in 2015 with “carus music”, an app for choral singers. The app is used worldwide by choral singers to prepare for rehearsals. In 2020 Carus launched the digital distribution of its extensive music program in response to requests from conductors and choral singers to be able to use music flexibly either in digital or analog form.
Excellence in choral music! – this is the principle the company has lived by since its founding.
