Thomas Noll has conducted the choir since 2005. For a short biography look here.

canta:re has been a registered society since 2004. Its constitution stipulates that the society shall foster choral singing, communication between lesbian and gay people, the emancipation of homosexuals in Germany and the elimination of discrimination. The most important means to achieve this, of course, is singing and maintaining a public profile.

2010

*In April, canta:re repeated its successful English madrigals concert at a different location in Berlin. Excerpts from the programme were performed in Neuruppin, north of Berlin, after a weekend rehearsal in May.

2009

* Under the motto "What is our life?", taken from one of Orlando Gibbons's finest works, canta:re took its November concert audience on a musical journey to the era of Elizabethan madrigals.

* canta:re provided the spice to a festive anniversary dinner held by a major law firm in November.

* In June, canta:re invited fellow L&G choirs and bands to perform in an open-air fund-raising concert for a memorial to Magnus Hirschfeld, the founding father of Germany's gay movement in the 1920s. The audience eventually donated a total of €1,000 for the memorial.

* canta:re performed at a commemorative event to mark the first anniversary of the Monument dedicated to homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis.

* A major highlight eagerly awaited by many choristers for four years was canta:re's participation in the international LGBT choral festival Various Voices in London in May. Our performance at the Royal Festival Hall was a great success and we set up contact with potential partner choirs.

* The most demanding project that canta:re has ever embarked on: 12 weeks of intensive musical and theatre rehearsals led up to the choir's successful participation in a choral theatre project entitled K.O.9 Chöre, co-produced by Komische Oper, Universität der Künste and Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler", from 3 to 5 April.

* First shared charity concert between canta:re and concentus alius, Berlin's homophilharmonic chamber orchestra, in January.

2008

* Shared Christmas concert between Berlin's gay & lesbian musical ensembles in December.

* Voices Charity concert for the benefit of Aids orphans in Namibia, together with other choirs and a brass band.

* June-July-August: canta:re gave three more concerts at the ancestral Berlin home of the Mendelssohn family. The concerts took the shape of a ‘Romantic choral salon’ with guest performers and they explored the many facets of Romantic music and romanticism.

* April: canta:re performed at an event to commemorate homosexuals killed by the Nazis at the former concentration camp of Sachsenhausen.

* March: Shared concert with the Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus (MLGC) under the heading of 'Somebody Loves Me', at the Lindenkirche in Berlin.

2007

* December: Shared Christmas concert between Berlin's gay & lesbian musical ensembles.

* October: Five-year anniversary concert and party, with guest choirs Classical Lesbians from Berlin and Schwubs from Bern, Switzerland.

* October: Choral accompaniment to a history lecture at the ancestral home of the Mendelssohn family, co-organised by the Berlin Catholic Academy (!).

* August: Short performance during the 10th anniversary service of the ecomenical 'Church positHIVe' project, at the Kirche am Lietzensee, Berlin. The service was covered by a local TV station.

* May to September: A total of five concerts at the ancestral Berlin home of the Mendelssohn family. The concerts took the shape of a ‘Romantic choral salon’ with guest performers and they explored the many facets of Romantic music and romanticism. Great success with the audiences.

2006

* December: canta:re performed a set as part of a charity gala evening in support of the Aids relief fund, at the newly built Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam.

* November: Voices Charity concert for the benefit of Aids orphans in Namibia, together with other choirs and a brass band.

* October: Charity performance at an historic former indoor swimming pool in Berlin's popular borough of Prenzlauer Berg.

* June: Summer concert and party for family and friends.

* May Day: First performance conducted by new musical director Thomas Noll, at one of the two Berlin zoos, the Tierpark.

2005

* October: Thomas Noll assumed musical direction, taking over from Nives Brzic who had conducted the choir form October 2002 to June 2005.

* May: A trip to Paris where canta:re participated in the gay and lesbian choral festival, Various Voices.

2004

* December: First self-organised concert at Stadtbad Steglitz, an out-of-use indoor swimming pool. Guest performance by Kleine Berliner Chorversuchung.

* November: Charity concert in support of an Aids relief project in Namibia, together wir other choirs from Berlin.

* June: Second concert and party for some 200 friends in Berlin's borough of Wedding.

2003

* July: Big summer party for friends of the choir. First appearance in public since the choir was founded in 2002.