１０００年の歴史持つ少年合唱団、女子受け入れを発表　ドイツ

【ベルリンＡＦＰ＝時事】世界的に有名な少年聖歌隊を擁するドイツの学校が１５日、創立１０００年以上の歴史の中で初めて女子を受け入れる方針を発表した。（写真はレーゲンスブルク大聖堂聖歌隊のロゴ。ドイツ南部レーゲンスブルクにある同聖歌隊の学校施設で）
　西暦９７５年にドイツ南部バイエルン州レーゲンスブルクで設立されたレーゲンスブルク大聖堂聖歌隊（Ｒｅｇｅｎｓｂｕｒｇｅｒ　Ｄｏｍｓｐａｔｚｅｎ、「大聖堂のスズメたち」の意）は、現存する世界最古の合唱団の一つで、併設されたカトリックの寄宿学校と中等学校では音楽に重点を置いたカリキュラムが組まれている。
　これまで、聖歌隊および学校に入れるのは男子のみとなっていたが、２０２２～２３年度からは女子にも門戸を開き、女子聖歌隊も別個に立ち上げることが発表された。
　首席指揮者のクリスチャン・ハイス氏は、女子も男子と全く同じ待遇を受けるとしながら、男子とは別の合唱団で「独自の合唱をつくり上げていく」ことになると説明している。
　現在、同校には４３１人の生徒が在籍し、このうち約３分の２は、規律の厳しさで知られる全寮制の学校で生活している。
　「今後、女子を当校に迎え入れ、素晴らしい機会を提供できることをうれしく思っている」とハイス氏は述べた。
　英国でも、ケンブリッジ大学キングス・カレッジ合唱団などに対して、女性の受け入れを求める声が上がっている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/17-11:38）

The cathedral school behind Germany's renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys' choir said Tuesday it will open its ranks to girls for the first time in its history spanning more than a millennium.
Founded in 975 and one of the oldest choirs in continuous existence in the world, the Regensburger Domspatzen is attached to a Catholic boarding school and a secondary school where the curriculum is heavily focussed on music.
The pupils admitted to the school and the choir -- whose name literally means Cathedral Sparrows -- have until now been only boys and young men.
But the institution said it will open to girls from the 2022-23 school year, founding a separate girls' choir whose name has yet to be decided.
The school is forging a path that we believe will lead us to the best possible position in the future, said chief conductor Christian Heiss.
Girls at the school will benefit from exactly the same offer as the boys, but will develop their own sound in a separate choir, with the renowned boys' choir retaining its own identity, he said.
We are pleased that in the future we will also be able to welcome girls to our school and offer them our great opportunities, he said.
Headteacher Christine Lohse called the move a step towards normality and said the girls would make (the school) more colourful, of course.
The Regensburger Domspatzen boys' choir was founded when Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg set up a school in the Bavarian town whose pupils were charged with singing the liturgy.
The school complex has a current enrolment of 431, around two-thirds of whom live in the boarding school, which has a reputation for tough discipline.
- Abuse scandal -
In the 20th century, the choir gained worldwide renown, making foreign tours and staging concerts in St. Peter's basilica in Rome.
But the choir fell under the shadow of the Catholic Church's child abuse scandal after a 2017 report found that more than 500 choir boys suffered sexual or physical abuse at the institute from 1945 to the early 1990s.
The report criticised senior Church figures for failing to do enough to prevent the abuse, including Georg Ratzinger, the brother of the former Pope Benedict, who led the choir from 1964 to 1994.
Georg Ratzinger, who died in 2020, said he knew nothing about the abuse at the school.
Boys' choirs have a long and venerable tradition in Germany, with girls' choirs only beginning to catch up over the past 50 years.
Berlin and Cologne cathedrals launched their own girls' choirs in the 1980s, but they have so far not attracted the prestige of their male counterparts.
In 2019, a court ruled that a nine-year-old girl had not been unfairly treated after her application to join Berlin cathedral's 500-year-old boys' choir was rejected.
The choir's artistic freedom was more important than gender parity in the case, the court said.
Britain, which has a similar choral tradition dating back centuries, has also faced calls for renowned ensembles such as the Choir of King's College, Cambridge to admit girls.
The famous Wiener Saengerknaben boys' choir based in Vienna launched a separate choir for girls in 2004.