The solistenensemble stimmkunst, founded in 2003 for the widely-acclaimed concert cycle “Bach:vokal” at the Stiftskirche Stuttgart, presents vocal music composed by Kay Johannsen. Johannsen – Kantor of the Stiftskirche, an organist with a busy international career, passionate improviser, enquiring choral and orchestral conductor, and composer with a fine feeling for sound and rhythm – wrote the pieces between 2001 and 2018. The varied program includes compositions for different unaccompanied choral scorings, plus works for solo, choir and instrumental accompaniment. Kay Johannsen studied in Freiburg and Boston as a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation (New York). Since 1994 he has been kantor at the Stiftskirche in Stuttgart, director of the weekly Stunde der Kirchenmusik, of the Stuttgarter Kantorei, the solistenensemble stimmkunst, the Stiftsphilharmonie, the ensemble Stiftsbarock Stuttgart and of the concert series Bach:vokal 2011-2021.