We are 25 lesbian and straight women singing a cappella songs for three to four voices from a great variety of musical genres from the Middle Ages to classical music and Pop. The choir ‘Schrillerlocken’ (literally ‘shrill curls’ – a play on words that sounds very much like a North German fish speciality) was founded in 1987 at the ‘Hamburger Frauenmusikzentrum’ (Hamburg Women’s Music Centre) by a group of women under the lead of Lavenda Schaff. Since 1992 Ulrike Lachmann directs the choir.
In the early days, we used to perform for a female audience only, while nowadays our concerts are open to everyone. Over the years, we developed several topic-centred programs, such as ‘Seasick with the Schrillerlocken’ – love-songs sounding the deep and shallow waters of lesbian and female love; or ‘Unbeschreiblich weiblich’ (indescribably female) – a musical journey through women’s history of the 20th century from suffragettes’songs to Tic Tac Toe. Besides many other programs, we participated in theatre productions of the Hamburger Schauspielhaus, performing a choir in Euripides’ epic ‘The Trojan Women’.
A feminist perspective is inherent in all our programs, which we like to present in a humorous and subtle way.
We love working with actress Mignon Reme, who is adding the finishing touches to our stage presence.
Our choir regularly participates in the biannual festival of Dutch and German lesbian/women-choirs, i. e. the Lesben-Frauen-Chöretreffen (LFCT). In 2027, we will organize this event in Hamburg together with ‘Miss Klang’ and the ‘Regenbogenchor’.
We performed at Various Voices in Berlin, Paris, Dublin, and Munich, where we enjoyed the hearty and open-minded atmosphere and had great fun singing together, partying, and meeting others. To Bologna, we take our current program ‘Lieblingslieder’ (favourite songs), that combines songs that accompany us through our choir life with songs that individual women have always wanted to sing.
