Our Mission

    Gathering to experience excellence in the performing arts.

Our Vision

    To enrich community and inspire collaboration.

Our Tradition of Excellence

Abendmusik: Lincoln was created in 1972 by founder and longtime artistic director John Levick. Abendmusik has brought a host of world-renowned composers and conductors to Lincoln over the years, including Robert Shaw, Aaron Copland, Randall Thompson, Sir David Willcocks, Jonathan Willcocks, John Rutter, Alice Parker, and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. Audiences have also experienced some of the world's finest musical ensembles, including The Vienna Boys Choir, Paul Winter Consort, The Estonia Male Choir, Chanticleer, the St. Olaf Choir and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble. 

In 1988, the Abendmusik: Lincoln Fine Arts Series won the Governor's Arts Award, and, in 2003, Abendmusik was awarded the Lincoln Arts Council Mayor's Arts Award for Arts Organization Excellence. The organization has enjoyed a growing national reputation and has been honored for its nationally distributed recordings, Cathedral Pageantry and Horatio Parker's Hora Novissima. Abendmusik complements other musical offerings in the Lincoln community, offering unique opportunities in our region to experience excellence in the performing arts. 

In 2010, four exciting initiatives were launched to help Abendmusik grow into its       vision of enriching community and   inspiring collaboration: an annual     series of free Summer Sings which   enables hundreds of singers from     choirs all over the community to     gather around great choral             masterworks; an annual music         workshop which brings                   nationally-known clinicians to           share with singers and conductors   from schools and churches around the midwest; a community-wide Children's Choir Festival bringing together young singers from all over the city to sing together with an inspiring guest conductor; and a new professional chamber choir, ABENDCHOR, a collaboration of choral artists from across the state, region, and country.

Our Dreams for the Future

Abendmusik will enrich Lincoln by sharing communicative experiences with the world’s finest music. While Abendmusik will be committed to reaching out to people of all ages audiences with innovative programming, special emphasis will continue to be placed on the Abendmusik Chorus’ preparation and presentation of great choral/orchestral masterworks and inspired new additions to the choral literature. Abendmusik will enable talented local performers of all ages to collaborate with well-known ensembles, composers, conductors and soloists to create transcendent musical experiences that can uplift and inspire. Abendmusik will celebrate and share the magnificent Lied organ, given as a gift to the Lincoln arts community. Abendmusik will share its music and mission with communities around Nebraska with growing outreach through performances and educational events throughout the state.