"We’ve got the most beautiful problem in the world: Too many kids who want to sing," says Braunschweig cathedral cantor Gerd-Peter Muenden. With 550 child singers and 300 adults, the school Muenden heads has become Germany’s largest evangelical church choir.

In 2007, Muenden will bring over 100,000 young singers to Braunschweig for a "Singfest" - hoping to share his "problem" with singers throughout the land.

But people in the northern German city are not alone in the joy they experience while singing. According to the Working Group for Music and Youth, Germany is home to 200 children’s choirs - groups that function independent of the school system. The Wolfsbuettel-based working group plans a yearly international choir festival, "Eurotreff," to forge bonds between singers of different nations and promote choral exchange.

Part of the choir’s rise in popularity has to do with children’s growing eagerness to achieve, says Rolf Pasdizerny, a member of the group. "They want to be inspired and supported… when audiences clap, children are motivated to do even better."

Self-conscious adults, on the other hand, are sometimes reluctant to take up singing. Yet starting with songs that one would more likely sing at a karaoke night can help them take their first steps towards more traditional choral compositions, says Rainer Allewelt, choir director at the Braunschweig Cultural Center "Brunsviga."