In October 2025, the concert choir of the Akademie für Gesang NRW e.V., Dortmund, traveled to South Korea for eleven days to participate as Germany’s musical ambassador in an international choir gathering. The trip, supported by the Wilo-Foundation, was part of a program by the German Choir Youth aimed at promoting intercultural understanding through music.

The youth concert choir, consisting of 28 young singers aged 13 to 17, presented itself in South Korea under the artistic direction of Željo Davutović as a musically excellent ensemble of high artistic quality. For the third time, the concert choir of the Akademie für Gesang NRW is embarking on a concert tour to South Korea, which, as in previous years, is supported by the Wilo-Foundation.

At the beginning of the tour, the young singers impressed their audience at the reception concert organized by the German Embassy at the Goethe-Institut in Seoul, performing both German and Korean songs. The highlight of the trip was the joint concert of the Dortmund Youth Concert Choir and the Korean MBC Children’s Choir at the renowned Daejeon Arts Center on October 17. As part of its concert tour, the youth concert choir also performed at the newly opened Busan Concert Hall before the tour culminated with the final concert in the city of Jinju on October 22.

A key focus of the concert tour is the interaction between the choir members themselves. To build and maintain international friendships, the singers of the youth concert choir visited the partner choirs’ schools in Jinju this year. On site, the young people take part in joint activities with peers and families and experience Korean culture, for example during a visit to this year’s Lantern Festival in Jinju.

It is important that these encounters involve exchange in both directions. In addition to joint artistic performances, a better understanding of each other’s country and culture can develop. Just last year, the Dortmund choir welcomed a Korean youth choir to Dortmund.